How to deal with having nothing to do at work

[luqqzr]

Hey guys,

usually I get new projects to work on from my team leader. But sometimes I have days where I literally have nothing to do. I know that the ego says it's not okay to do nothing, I have to be more productive etc.

Is it bad to not do anything or do I have to find something else to do at these times? I suck at creativity on some parts of life and finding something to do at work is one of it.

I really am not able to find myself "a new project" or something to work on. That's why I have an inner conflict going.

Most of the time I just scroll through Spotify to find new songs, I love listening to music. Last year I listened to music for over 55000 minutes.

I don't really feel too bad when doing this, it's more of a problem for me when my team leader is in the office, he sits right behind me and I don't want him to see that I'm doing nothing.

Sometimes I asked him what I could do, then he told me some stuff and I've had a look at that but in the end it didn't matter, we've never talked about it again.

So to summarize it a little bit: I don't know what to do when there's nothing to do, I feel bad when doing nothing, I don't want to be seen while doing nothing.

[Salvijus]

Haha classic stuff.

Every work that i did it's basicly 80% pretending that you do something 20% you actually do something

Sorry i don't have any tips for you, play it by ear would be my advise

Edited April 22, 2019 by Salvijus

[luqqzr]

Haha I just watched the "how to overcome addiction" video and saw this comment, it was pretty funny to see cause it's related to this "issue" now ?

Yeah probably I should play it by ear and stop caring too much about it. In the end it doesn't matter at all (at least for me, it's a big company that I'm working for). I can ask the team leader first, if he has nothing to give me then just let it be, maybe I'll find something, maybe not, both is okay for me.

I'm only thinking about this situation: If my team leader can't give me anything to do and I don't know what to do as well -> I chill on the internet -> He says it's not okay, I should be able to find something productive to do by myself.

I just can't, I don't know...

Edited April 22, 2019 by luqqzr

[Shadowraix]

Ask your team leader for more work and if he had none to give you how can he get on you for it? 

Unless it is one that f those act busy deals

[Commodent]

What does your job involve doing? Software development, accounting?

[How to be wise]

@luqqzr Exactly my problem too. In my work, 80-90% of the time I’m sitting and doing nothing. I work at an evening tuition for kids, and there are two other teachers with me in the classroom. The other two teachers manage to do all the work by themselves whilst I just sit in a chair and scratch my beard. I thought I would be fired right away when they saw they didn’t need me, but it’s been a year and they seem just fine keeping me doing nothing. I guess this is more of an emotional problem rather than a physical one.

[Leo Gura]

This could actually be a great opportunity. You could:

1) Use that time to meditate, concentrate, contemplate, or self-inquire.

2) Use that time to start your own life purpose/business. Plan it out at least.

3) Use that time to do something creative like writing a book.

I planned my first business at my 9-5 job during downtime when I had no work to do.

Ultimately you should design your life such that you don't have this kind of downtime at work, as it's highly inefficient and a waste of one's life. Make very minute of your work connect to your LP.

[luqqzr]

@Commodent I'm working as an application engineer for an automotive supplier, basically we build checking stations and we are responsible for cameras, lights, the PC and software on the stations.

So the software we have is already developed and we can just use it as it is, on some projects some extra stuff has to be added specifically and that's the only time we have to program something, or when something is broken on stations that are already used in production (it's in C# btw).

Basically I'm doing 50/50 mechanical stuff and stuff with the PC aka software.

So if we have projects to work on, I really have much to do.

But when there's no project to work on I have a digital C# book open on one monitor, because I could improve my C# programming skills.

It's just that I can't find too much pleasure in programming, that's why I don't even read one page of that book on the whole day ?.

I like that my job doesn't involve too much programming, and when it does, it's fortunately really easy stuff.

[luqqzr]

@How to be wise Yeah true, I always feel anxious at these times and try to look like I'm working on something even if I'm not.

This has to be because we're scared of getting fired, losing the job, not getting money, not being able to eat anymore etc.

But this is just stupid, I know that this company would never fire me and even if they would, I knew that every other company would welcome me.

I always try to be liked by other people, especially from my bosses. I don't care too much about my colleagues, but when my boss is in the room I feel very uncomfortable and that's only on me, he is not a bad person at all.

[luqqzr]

@Leo Gura Yes I should try to meditate more for sure, I've been pretty successful at being present in these situations.

Meditations are getting better as well, I've only meditated a few times in my life and I'm just starting with a routine now to meditate every day.

I still have to watch some more meditation technique videos because I only know two techniques for now.

But most importantly is the LP course I know, I was able to watch it frequently, made it to video nr. 50 and then I stopped about a month ago.

I think that in this case I am identified with the ego again, it was scared of me going deeper, getting more insights about me. Now I'm scared to start again, but I believe that I should start the values assessment from the beginning (video nr. 41) or what do you think?

[Leo Gura]

@luqqzr My rule of thumb is: complete the course by whatever means necessary. Don't be a perfectionist about it.

[WaterfallMachine]

A lot of the point of meditation is to be able to stop taking action, and reflect. In Orange, it's often recognized as a type of chasing after success, and the hard work as a way of getting over insecurities. In Green, you calm down somewhat, but it's still possible to overwork on helping other people then. In Yellow, you finally calm the shit down, but you end up overthinking things a little too much in that you're afraid to get new allies for Turquoise. Which one you're in is up to you to figure out.

But anyway, how are you going to be able to figure out the root cause of things when you get to Yellow? It reminds me of this Infinity Meditation I made, which involves looking back to your past from 1 second, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and so on until you somehow reach the Big Bang. The thing to realize is that to know what matters the most, is that it really matters to your past, history and the farther future. There's no use acting when you're acting on a terrible decision.