96. Waste Some Time

The panel discussion on daily schedules of successful people is going on. A renowned film and theater director is speaking.

“In my daily routine I always leave at least an hour long slot for wasting time.

“Yes, I am not joking. I actually schedule a period of time when I don’t do anything. No matter how much work I have, I will stop doing that and then…then I will simply not do anything for the next hour.

“This is very important for people in the creative line of work, like me. You have to be imaginative. You have to be creative. You have to have your day dreams.

“I cannot schedule a fixed period of time for coming up with the basic plot of my next film. If I write in my schedule, for example, that I am going to think about the topic of my next film from four pm to five pm, then I am going to think of anything but that during the entire time. I will think of a football match, my lunch, if I need new shoes and all the time keep looking at the watch. Time is flying.

“But if I simply leave four to five pm as time to be wasted, I have no compulsion to do anything. I am also not reading or seeing TV. I am just wasting time.

“I am just doing nothing.

“And then my mind is bored. And then it starts venturing into the land of imagination. It starts daydreaming. It creates images.

“And at five I come back to my productive schedule with quite a few of such images in my mind. Most are to be discarded. But one…just one…might be my next film.

“Which is why I believe, that to be successful as a creative person, one must learn to waste time.”