“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
There is a quiet kind of wisdom in this line that I did not fully understand until much later in my life. For years, I treated time like a ledger. Every hour had to justify itself. Every moment had to be useful. If I was not moving something forward, I felt like I was falling behind. It took me a long time to see how much that mindset was costing me.
Because there is a different kind of productivity, one we rarely talk about, that comes from simply enjoying yourself without a goal attached. The walk with no destination. The morning coffee that lingers longer than it “should.” The music you play for no reason other than the way it makes you feel. These moments are not distractions from life. They are moments that soften you, ground you, and return you to yourself.
What I have learned is that enjoyment also compounds. Not in dramatic or obvious ways, but in how it steadies your nervous system, opens your perspective, and gives you back the energy that discipline often requires. The time you “waste” with genuine pleasure is often the very thing that makes your focused hours deeper, clearer, and more intentional. It is not an escape from growth. It is part of the architecture that supports it.
When I look at my own rhythms, the habits that keep me aligned and present, they are not built only on effort or structure. They are built on flow. On knowing when to push and when to ease. On giving my mind enough room to breathe so it does not collapse under the weight of constant striving.
That is why I come back to Russell’s phrase again and again. You are allowed to enjoy your life without guilt. You are allowed to rest without justifying it. You are allowed to be “unproductive” in ways that make you more fully alive. The time you enjoy is not wasted because it nourishes the part of you that makes everything else possible.
At the end of the day, the goal is not to manage every minute perfectly. It is to live in a way that feels true, sustainable, and quietly joyful. That is the kind of life that compounds.
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I’m Gregorio Sanchez, founder of The Compound Life and father of four daughters. I write about how small daily choices in health, mindset, and productivity compound into clarity and purpose.
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