Why you should skip your brunch date, and waste time with your friends instead

Have you ever noticed how most of us schedule time to catch up with friends in short, rushed blocks?

“I have about an hour free for coffee Sunday morning between other things, let’s catch up then?” we text a mate we haven’t seen in way too long.

“Dinner at mine Thursday night? Come at 7pm, but I have a busy day at work tomorrow, so you’ll need to leave at 9pm, okay?” we joke (but not really).

We tend to combine our socialising with other life must-dos, like eating a meal, or supervising a playdate together if you have kids – all in the name of saving time.

But here’s a radical thought: what if we swapped saving time for wasting time with friends?

We recently stumbled across a book called Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time by Sheila Liming, and it got us reminiscing about the golden days of spending time with friends:

Hanging out at the local park, gossiping and laughing about the silliest of things until we got stitches, riding our bikes through the streets, eating sweet oranges and making secret handshakes with our sticky fingers.

There were no set plans by the hour; no lunch dates with just enough time to hear our friends’ life headlines. Instead, we wasted time together, and we were happier for it.

Wasting time is defined as the act of spending time doing something unnecessary and not producing any benefit.

Modern life is chaotic, structured, and endlessly busy, and maybe, just maybe, we need to spend more time doing things that don’t necessarily produce a benefit – at least, not in the way modern society defines the word “benefit”.

We reckon forging deeper, more joy-filled connections with our friends is a pretty beneficial use of time, don’t you?

Good – we’re glad you agree. Here are some ideas to get you started: