Doing Nothing By Anna Quindlen Analysis

In the piece Doing Nothing is Something written by Anna Quindlen, she explains how doing nothing is beneficial to children in many ways. Children should be able to do nothing for as long as they want, it should not have to be penned into their schedule. Children having down time is where they can become themselves. Through doing nothing or having down time can light a spark in children's creativity, have time to reflect and just relax and it also fosters independence.
First of all, doing nothing sparks creativity. While parents create schedules for their children to attend multiple activities or summer camps they tend to forget what they did as a child. When I was growing up we played in the field, went exploring and rode our bikes through

the streets. When summer hit it was a time for relaxation, a time when we could do nothing. A study preformed on people doing nothing has shown “having the choice to sit back and do nothing during your day-to-day grind actually increases your commitment to a certain goal.” In todays society most children stay far too busy for downtime, mostly because their parents over-schedule them.
Second of all, relaxation and reflection is very important.

When a person is simply doing nothing for a while it sparks a sense of creativity. Try sitting for 20 undisturbed minutes preferably in the morning is the best time because your mind is just full of thoughts from your subconscious. With your setting being quiet and calm you can reach deep into your conscious, hear your own thoughts. While thinking I can never focus or be creative I make time for me to sit in solitude, during this time it is always filled with good thinking, recharges my mind so I can focus on what is important and organize things. Relaxing is an activity that most people do not participate in. Children with busy booked schedules most the time do not have the time penned in to have time to simply relax. Relaxing has many beneficial rewards, like lowering your stress, improving on sleep and refreshing and rejuvenating your mind. A child may not know what relaxing means, so it is up to the adult to explain the benefits and a method that has helped them.
Lastly, when allowing your child down time it fosters independence. Fostering independence is important because it helps build their self esteem, allowing children to make mistakes, and analyze

themselves.
In conclusion doing nothing even if the downtime has to be scheduled or not is beneficial to to people at every stage of their life, study after study researchers found that doing nothing is beneficial to yourself. Those 20 minutes of down time will be the important time of your day. Adults and children alike need time to sit in solitude and relax, with or with out the time being scheduled in. It may be hard for a child or an adult to do nothing and create some time for down time but its worth the try.