The Art of Doing Nothing—and Why It’s Everything

Think about your typical day.
If you're like most people, you wake up and check your phone before your feet even hit the floor. Then it’s coffee, maybe breakfast, then a scroll through social media, a few emails. Before you’ve even taken a deep breath, the day has begun—pre-planned, pre-loaded, already rushing ahead of you.

Then comes work, or school, or errands, or whatever else fills the calendar. And by the end of it, you’re exhausted—ready to decompress. So you go home, hit the gym, grab a drink, binge a show, something else to distract you from…what exactly? Perhaps boredom, you might say. Because without doing all these things you’d have nothing to do, right? And the kicker of it all is that nothing is what you need more than anything!

Our society worships movement. Productivity. Distraction. “Doing nothing” isn’t exactly encouraged, let alone respected. And it certainly doesn’t fit into the 24/7 rhythm of a culture obsessed with output. So we must reclaim it for ourselves.

You have to schedule stillness. Protect it like any other sacred ritual. Make time each week—several hours if you can—to be completely alone, completely present, and completely undistracted.

No phone.
No book.
No podcast.
No task.
Just you. Awake, aware, and available for whatever rises to the surface.

At first, it might feel uncomfortable. Even unbearable. You’ll want to grab your phone. Check something. Fix something. Flee.

But sit.
Breathe.
Wait.

The more you practice, the more proficient you become. Slowly, your mind quiets. Your nervous system unwinds.

This is where creativity lives.
This is where peace lives.
This is where you live.

Doing nothing is not wasting time.
It’s reclaiming it.

If this resonates, try carving out just one hour this week to do absolutely nothing—and see what rises. You might be surprised by what’s been waiting beneath the noise.

If you’d like more reflections like this, or want to support my work, you can check out my books at scottstillmanblog.com—written mostly in wild places, where nothingness turned into everything.

I'd love to hear how you practice stillness. Hit reply or leave a comment.