You Should Always Find Something To Do

There was time to kill in Rome, just as there is today. A dinner started late. A meeting got cancelled. Travel delays meant being stuck in this place or that place for a couple days. Something would break and someone would need to go into town for supplies. The impulse then, as now, when faced with these kinds of situations, was to just wait. Or complain. Or mess around. We all do it, writing stuff off as dead time, as we’ve talked about before. It’s a rather presumptuous thing to do, though, if you think about it. We kill time as time is literally killing us. Who says you’ll get more moments? Can you really afford to let any be wasted? Cato the Elder was built of that sturdy, original Roman stock. He didn’t put up with laziness or poor productivity. He didn’t tolerate it from his workers or his family or himself. As he wrote in On Agriculture, there is no excuse for just sitting around. =“In rainy weather,” Cato advised, “try to find something to do indoors. Clean up, rather than be idle. Remember that even though work stops, expenses run on nonetheless.” We can always find something to do, even when our original intention or plan is thwarted (that’s what the obstacle is the way means). We can read. We can think. We can clean up and prepare. We can squeeze in a few minutes of work while we sit in the waiting room. We can turn a rainy day into a family day. There is always something to do. You can’t afford for there not to be. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com. You should always find something to do. There was time to kill in Rome, just as there is today. A dinner started late, a meeting got canceled, travel delays meant being stuck in this place or that place for a couple of days. Something would break and someone would need to go into town for supplies. The impulse then, as now, when faced with these kinds of situations, was just to wait,

• 0:51Ryan Holiday?

  or complain, or mess around. We all do it, writing stuff off as "dead time," as we've talked about before. It's a rather presumptuous thing to do, though, if you think about it. We kill time as time is literally killing us. Who says you'll get more moments? Can you really afford to let any be wasted? Cato the Elder was built of that sturdy, original Roman stock. He didn't put up with laziness or poor productivity. He didn't tolerate it from his workers, or his family, or himself. As he wrote in On Agriculture, "There is no excuse for just sitting around." In rainy weather, Cato advised, "Try to find something to do indoors. Clean up rather

• 1:32Ryan Holiday?

  than be idle. Remember that even though work stops, expenses run on nonetheless." We can always find something to do, even when our original intention or plan is thwarted. That's what the obstacle is the way means. We can read, we can think, we can clean up and prepare, we can squeeze in a few minutes of work while we sit in the waiting room, we can turn a rainy day into a family day. There's always something to do, you can't afford for there not to be. Hey, just wanted to remind you, if you want to take your practice of Stoicism to the next level, if you want some physical reminders of the ideas we talk about here, check out the Daily Stoic store. You can go to dailystoic.com/store. These products

• 2:15Ryan Holiday?

  are what help us keep the lights on here at Daily Stoic. They help grow the business, let us spread the message to more and more people. So if you want to support us, check that out. Go to dailystoic.com/store.