Give Yourself Permission to Be Impractical
August 18, 2026
“The surprising value of wasting a little time.”
——-
Business owners spend much of their lives thinking about productivity. We measure results, manage time and instinctively ask whether something is worth doing. But not everything needs an ROI. Sometimes being completely frivolous with our time may be exactly the reset we need. Binge-watch the Hallmark Channel. Read the latest Jack Carr novel while sipping a glass of wine. Spend an afternoon watching baseball. None of it needs to make us smarter, healthier or more successful. Research supports the broader value of simply getting away from work: according to organizational psychologist Sabine Sonnentag and her colleagues, psychologically detaching from work during leisure time is associated with better recovery and well-being.
That can be particularly difficult for entrepreneurs because there’s almost always something productive we could be doing. But perhaps that’s precisely why occasionally doing something wonderfully unproductive matters. A large meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin found a meaningful association between leisure engagement and subjective well-being, with satisfaction from leisure playing an important role. After spending decades building businesses, raising families and being responsible, we shouldn’t feel guilty about occasionally wasting a few hours doing something simply because we enjoy it. Sometimes the best use of our free time is having absolutely nothing to show for it.
The Takeaway: Not every hour needs to accomplish something. Sometimes the accomplishment is simply enjoying the hour.
