There is a real art to doing nothing. I mean really doing nothing. Mr B is very good at it (this is not a criticism. Well, not today). I’m not.

Recently, I took a few days off work while Mushroom went to nursery, so that I could rest. Well, the intention was to have one day to spring clean the house, one day to do some writing and one day to lie around and watch movies. That’s not how it panned out. Here’s what actually happened:

Day one:
I started my spring clean. I cleaned and rearranged Mushroom’s room (that was quite a shock for him when he got home from nursery!), cleaned all of upstairs and made a start on the kitchen. Then it was time to pick Mushroom up. I did a bit of commenting on blogs that evening but didn’t post anything myself.

Day two:
I decided to clear out the junk storage cupboard in the kitchen, defrost the fridge, clean the oven etc. etc. Then I decided to rearrange the living room, moving Mushroom’s toys away from the TV (he stands far too close to it). Then the bookshelf looked a mess in comparison so I did that. By the time I had finished there was just about time to catch up on some blog comments and jot down some ideas for future posts before I had to go get Mushroom. He burst into tears when he got home and saw I’d rearranged his toys (I think he thought they had gone!) and took quite a while to calm down. By the time he went to bed I was shattered so I wasn’t far behind him. I didn’t even turn my laptop on.

Day three:
Did the shopping. Had a short nap and then got up and did some writing. Got carried away and was writing most of the day. Watched a bit of TV after Mushroom went to bed as I was too tired to watch a whole movie.

See? Where’s the nothing I had planned? Apart from the nap, I was constantly doing something. It’s getting ridiculous. I rarely have any time to myself and when I get it what do I do? Fill it with stuff. And you can bet that within a week, I’ll be moaning that I never ‘get any time to rest’ again! I know this, and yet I always see time to myself as an opportunity to do stuff. This is something I keep coming back to and would really, really like to ‘unlearn.’

Have you perfected the art of doing nothing? If not, how do you take time for yourself in other ways? If you have perfected the art of doing nothing, please do share your tips below!