Our Odd Relationship with Spending Time
American artist, educator, and, of course, author Jenny Odell asks her audience in her novel, How to Do Nothing — Resisting the Attention Economy, an intriguing question: what does it mean to truly do nothing, and how can it be accomplished? Is it really just as simple as putting the phone down and smelling the roses, or is it actually much deeper and more complex? As Odell embarks on her journey of finding the answers to these questions, she discovers new perspectives and pathways along the way. One perspective in which Odell explores, that is most intriguing to me, is the average American’s struggle to define their own version of “doing nothing” that is free from the chains of conformity. Odell asks the question, how do external factors, such as our capitalistic way of life and other societal norms, affect our perception of and relationship with time, and therefore our everyday lives?
Odell begins to discuss acts of societal rebellion in the third chapter of How to Do Nothing. She introduces Diogenes, a fourth century philosopher who sought to rebel against societal norms every chance he could in order to follow his own free will.
“Like Zhuang Zhou before him, Diogenes thought every “sane” person in the world was actually insane for heeding any of the customs upholding a world full of greed, corruption, and ignorance.” — Odell, 66.
Diogenes lived by the idea that to truly live was to go against the tide. He questioned the meaning behind why right was right and left was left. This can be tied to the struggle of conforming to capitalism. I believe Diogenes would encourage us to find ways of rebelling against the restrictions placed on us as members of the working class. Who gets to decide how we live our lives? Why is the eight how work day and five day work week the standard? In a world revolving around money, our lives are broken into segments of time that are to be auctioned off for means of survival. After exploring the ideas of Marxist theorist Franco Berardi, Odell stated,
“The removal of economic security for working people dissolves those boundaries-eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will-so that we are left with twenty-four potentially monetized hours..” — Odell, 15.
She went on to explain that spending time doing “nothing” is deemed as wasted potential, and that time, in today’s world, is most valuable when being spent as part of the capitalist system. What Odell wants us to take away from this is that there is nothing admirable about being constantly potentially productive every waking moment.
Diogenes would look down upon those who let such definitive labels be placed upon what is productive and what is not. The need to meet the expectations of those more powerful than us — whether it be a boss, professor, or even a parent — can sometimes cloud what our inner selves truly desire. If I had not spent my high school days desperately trying to get good grades simply for the point of trying to make my parents proud, where would I be today? Without these external conditions we are placed under, who knows how any of us would turn out. Would our life dreams be completely different? Seldom have I heard of ways to separate our minds from such impeding factors. At times it may feel like we are eternally trapped in the never ending cycle of giving our lives to capitalism, however, one must not forget that within all of us lies free will. Our own free will is what allows us to remove ourselves from the capitalist equation, and to put our own worth onto ourselves.
Get Kara Taylor’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Something Odell tries to fit into her nothing puzzle is self-care. In order to explain how nothing is in and of itself something, Odell described doing nothing as
“…both as a kind of deprogramming device and a sustenance for those feeling too disassembled to act meaningfully.” -Odell, 22.
The author views self-care as a tool provided by doing nothing. Rather than view self-care as a special treat, such as a child views the ice cream their parents reward them with after good behavior, Odell urges readers to see it from a new perspective. It should be seen as a protection of who one truly is. To step away from distractions that could easily swallow a person into giving them a new sense of purpose, and to see what one truly believes and wants, is the self-care tool offered to us by doing nothing. Odell wants us to know that just because something is nothing, does not mean that it is worthless. We define our own nothingness; not our capitalist society, not social media, WE have the power to deem what is worth our time and what is not.
Obviously, a person cannot simply choose to completely follow their free will (and only their free will) in order to “do nothing” at the drop of a hat. People today are bombarded with responsibilities, and many find it hard to find any spare time to catch their breath. This is something I wish Odell would have touched on in her discussion of retreats and other escapes from society. The author begins How to Do Nothing’s second chapter with the story of Levi Felix. Felix founded a summer detox camp for adults named Camp Grounded, which was based upon a Burning Man type of environment. When describing the realization Felix made through his retreat experience, Odell wrote,
“In other words, digital distraction was a bane not because it made people less productive but because it took them away from the one life they had to live.” — Odell, 34.
Odell misses the opportunity to note here the privilege of those with more flexibility. Felix and those who attended Camp Grounded had the means to be able to disconnect, take time off from work, and leave their families for days or even months at a time. Many Americans are swamped with responsibilities, whether it be a nine to five in the office or a nine year old and a five year old at home. Odell could have tied this in with the chapter one concept of how today’s capitalist society leaves people feeling overworked and forcing people to treasure their free time as if it is a rare occurrence and as if all of their time is not theirs to own. It is difficult to discuss how to do nothing and what that means without taking into consideration external factors such as these. To gain further insight on the average American’s struggle with capitalistic responsibilities and doing nothing, I asked my parents, who are both working class Americans, how they define doing nothing. They responded with examples such as laying on the sofa, watching television, sleeping, or playing with our dogs. Of course, all these things are something, yet they are deemed as acts of nothing because they do not produce any monetary benefit for my parents or anyone like them. Why is it that certain actions are only worth our time or are only deemed productive if it makes us money, or can at least push us further down the road to making money?
Before reading Odell’s work, I had never noticed how strange the way we value our time is. I am unsure if this is just my experience, but I feel as if everyday I am just looking forward to the next. Being young, life feels to be flying by incredibly fast. Meanwhile I look at my parents, who are two of the only people in my life that can truly live in the moment, and see people content with their day to day life. Why is it that youth struggle so much with this idea? Why is it not more socially acceptable for kids to slow down and smell the roses every once in a while? If Diogenes was around today, he may have gone against the American capitalist society by saving education for his nursing home days and spending his retirement in his teens. I crave a society that welcomes trying new things without the need to succeed in them. If I wanted to get a degree in dance (even though I have two left feet) it is up to me to decide if that would be a waste of time or not. I crave a society that has less rules, less standards, and more free will.
Odell notes that in today’s world we are uncomfortable with wasting our time, but who gets to decide what is a waste of time and what is not? If I was to dropout of college right now, many would say “you wasted so much money” or “what was the point of going if you were just going to give up so easily?” I counter with, why does there have to be a “point” to everything I do? To live by ways of Diogenes, work and education would be deemed as doing nothing, and my lazy days spent on the couch would be my top priority. Perhaps if I had never lived in a capitalist world, laying on the couch all day would no longer be so desirable. Perhaps by living like Diogenes and completely adhering to my own free will, I would discover my true self and my true desires without the influence of daily responsibilities that I might be so used to today that I no longer view them as “responsibilities” but instead just things that come with being alive. Maybe only then would I be able to define my own version of doing nothing.
Works Cited
Odell, Jenny. How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Brooklyn: Melville, 2019
