I wonder how many people have experienced the excitement of finally getting a free day, only to spend half of it wondering what to do with it. You’ve been looking forward to the weekend since Monday, and now that it’s finally here, you’re scrolling through your phone, checking what everyone else is up to, or trying to decide on who’s dorm to crash first, or memorable things to do with your best friend. By the time you decide, most of the day’s already gone. It’s strange, really. We crave more free time, yet when we finally get it, we seem to be uncertain about what to do with it.
I think part of the problem is that we’re so used to having something to do that we don’t quite know what to do when there’s nothing. There’s always an assignment to finish, a class to attend, a friend to meet, a sports practice session to complete. Even our hobbies seem to come with expectations now. Reading becomes a ‘reading goal’, drawing becomes a skill to improve, and a walk becomes an opportunity to get our steps in. Somewhere along the way, we seem to have become very good at doing things and a little less comfortable with doing things without a validated goal.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having goals. But must everything we enjoy have to lead somewhere?
I remember when I was a kid, I used to go outside a lot. During these trips, I would pick up any random thing that I’d find and store it under my bed. Eventually all of these things would have been made into cardboard robots, anime cutouts, Barbie’s clothes and whatnot.
To be honest, I’ve done way more productive things with that mindset than using the schedules and routines deciding my life now.
I think that’s also how we discover some of the things we end up loving. Not necessarily because we set out to find them, but because we happened to stumble across them. An unexpected conversation, a book picked up on a whim, an interest that began with a random question. When every moment is accounted for in advance, there’s less room for these little ‘detours’.
Admittedly, an unplanned day isn’t automatically a wonderful one. Sometimes you’ll be bored, maybe you’ll spend three hours doomscrolling and wonder where the afternoon went. Having free time doesn’t magically make us better at using it. And that’s okay. Replacing a packed schedule with an entirely different set of expectations about how to relax properly. I mean that kind of beats the whole point.
Maybe the real pleasure lies in having the choice. In being able to follow an impulse without first having to justify it, or spend an afternoon doing something that isn’t for your resume, or your friends, or for a funny story later. Not every experience needs to be useful to be worth having.
We’re often encouraged to make the most of our time, as though time were a resource that becomes less valuable whenever we aren’t extracting something from it. But maybe there’s another way to look at it. Maybe making the most of a day doesn’t always mean filling it with a bunch of timed goals. Maybe sometimes it means leaving enough room for the day to surprise you.
The next time you find yourself with absolutely nothing planned, fight the urge to fill every empty hour immediately. See what happens when you don’t decide what the day is supposed to look like before it begins.
You might discover something new. You might have a rather unremarkable afternoon. You might even get bored enough to appreciate having something to do again. Take the word ‘might’ out of your thoughts itself, and just live.
And, honestly, to me? That sounds like a perfectly good use of a weekend.