We say we are free, yet we organise our lives as if every minute had to justify its existence. We work to produce, learn to improve, exercise to perform better and rest to recover our strength and get back to producing. Even free time becomes another task on our to do list. There is always something to learn, a skill to develop, a goal to achieve or a better version of ourselves to build. We have turned productivity from a tool into a measure of our personal worth. Simply living is no longer enough. We seem to need to prove that we are doing something useful with our lives.

The problem is not wanting to improve or enjoying our work. The problem begins when we feel we have no right to stop without feeling guilty, as if resting were a waste of time and doing nothing were a form of failure. A life does not need to be constantly justified by its results. We can read without learning anything, go for a walk without getting anywhere and spend an entire afternoon achieving absolutely nothing. Not everything has to serve a purpose. Perhaps freedom consists precisely in regaining the ability to decide what we do with our time, even when we choose not to make the most of it.