Is Doing Nothing the Most Important Thing You Can Do?

Guard your free time as fiercely as you guard your passwords.

Question: What is a random piece of advice you would like to share with the world?

Protect your solitude like it’s sacred.

We live in a time that rewards availability, applauds busyness, and praises those who are always “down for something.” But here’s an underrated truth: doing nothing, deliberately and quietly, is one of the healthiest things you can do for your mind and soul.

If someone asks what you’re doing on your day off, and the answer is “nothing,” guard that with your life. Don’t offer it up like it’s an empty invitation. Because the moment you say “nothing,” the world will try to fill that space for you—with errands, favors, social obligations, and guilt.

We’ve been conditioned to think that unless our time is filled with tasks or company, it’s being wasted. But solitude is not a lack of plans—it is a plan. A beautiful, necessary one.

Solitude gives you room to return to yourself. In it, you remember who you are outside of the expectations. You reconnect with the quiet voice that isn’t trying to impress anyone. You can think, breathe, rest, reset. That space—of no performance, no productivity, no response to a ping—is sacred.

You don’t need to explain that to anyone. You don’t need to apologize for needing a break from being needed.

So, next time someone asks if you’re busy and you aren’t, try responding with, “Depends what’s up?” Let them tell you what they want first. Then you decide whether your peace is worth trading that day. More often than not, it isn’t.

And when you do choose solitude, treat it like a meeting with someone important. Because you are.