Work vs. play

There is a proverb you may well have heard before: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy”. To save yourself from boredom and being boring, could you give yourself permission to have moments of pure and unadulterated leisure? Or are you worried that you’ll be seen as lazy and idle? Could there be a balance to strike here, between planning and improvisation and between spontaneity and structure, which means that at any time during work or play you can still get your needs met?

Improvisation: doing something on the spur of the moment, without preparation or rehearsal; to make the most of what you have available.

Spontaneity: something that occurs as a result of an impulse, an urge, an inclination; being uninhibited; the act of creation through voluntary participation, rather than being told to do something in a certain way; doing something that isn’t required or asked for. Spontaneous art is sometimes known as ‘the graphic instinct’.