"Pointless Time..."

Could I give myself permission to "Be a disappointment"?

I can’t get what I just read out of my head. See if this paragraph - recently posted in Austin Kleon’s Substack - applies to you:

“if you belong to the category of people psychologists call ’insecure overachievers’ […] the sort who works hard, gets stuff done, and impresses others with your achievements – but that to some degree, for whatever combination of reasons to do with upbringing, culture or DNA, you do it all because you feel that otherwise you won’t quite have earned your right to exist on the planet.”

Gahhh! Busted! And I know I’m not alone.

The piece of wisdom I’ve derived from the essay titled “Be a Disappointment” boils down to, again, the Superpower of saying “No”. “No” to helping out that colleague who needs to manage her time better. “No” to another To-Do on the list that will impact my time with family. “No thanks” to an outing with friends that will impale my focused work time and put me further behind. That last one seems particularly difficult, especially since, you know, “All work and no play makes Kym a dull girl…”

I’ve recently encountered as well, another reminder from the beautifully brilliant Aransas Savas of The Uplifters Podcast. How does the notion of scheduling in “pointless time” land with you? Like literally scheduling a few breaks into your day between work sessions, say, 20-30 minutes of pointless time: unstructured, uncommitted time to just…be.

Eeek. Could I do it? And could I make it a practice? What would I have to give up? Most likely, the first thing to go would be my Charter Membership in the Hyper-Achiever Club.

How about you? Would you could you should you?

I’m going to grab my calendar right now and see if I can log in 2 daily sessions of pointless time…after I come back from my Keynote speech tomorrow!

And I’d love to know how this process works for you… worth a try?

Need to get off your own hamster wheel of over scheduled productivity? Coaching can help! Grab a FREE Discovery session with me - I promise it WON’T be pointless!

(Image by Allison Saeng via Unsplash)