Non-Activity is as Non-Activity Does

~ John W. Howell

Activity diagram

I received a comment on a post celebrating looking forward to the end of the week. The comment was basically about non-activity. Non-activity being defined as something you do that could be considered nothing. This is not to be confused with wasting time since wasting time is an actual activity. Have I lost you yet? Well, in case I have, let me give you an example. Sleeping is a non-activity. It is something you do, but can’t really point to the event as if it were an accomplishment. The exception is, of course all the insomniacs who finally drop off to sleep.

So with that example, here is a list of some non-activities. You may have some you can add. If so go ahead and drop a comment below.

Non-activities:

  1. Remaining on hold while the service technician solves the problems of other customers. You have all been there. You dial customer service and then are told by a recording that other customers are more important than you. The excuse is that all calls are handled in the order that they are received. You really believe this? Somewhere a non-activity director believes you need some non-activity and so *plunk* there you are.
  2. Waiting in line to order a high-priced coffee drink from some stuck up, snot nosed barista who actually think they are a professional. I can’t think of a better non-activity than to take an already fragile and low self-esteem profile and squeeze it through the key hole of rudeness that is the hallmark of so many places today. If your self-esteem profile was high; you would tell the place and the snot nosed barista to shove it, rather than wait ten minutes for a legal beverage.
  3. Sitting in the waiting room of a car dealer waiting for them to finish fixing something on your car that should not have broken in the first place. You get the picture. All those magazines on auto mechanics, tires and cars lying around with no covers and the coffee machine with the out-of-order sign. You were told the repair would take just a few minutes by a big ol boy named Roy, but it has been over an hour and a half. If you are really lucky you will be sharing the waiting room space with a toddler who running back and forth screaming while coughing with the sound you last heard while in the Peace Corps serving in Calcutta. The final non-activity curse is the Wi-Fi is password protected and no one knows the password.
  4. Waiting for a replacement aircraft to be put into service so your flight that has been delayed for three hours can finally take off. This is another of the conundrum type of non-activity events that cause you to wonder who is running the Earth. Yes the aircraft you were scheduled to take needed to be replaced since a critical part is malfunctioning. The key question is “why the hell does it take three hours to find another aircraft that is working?” Don’t think about the fact that maybe the same part is going out at the same time on all the aircraft of this particular airline. Just concentrate on the non-activity. Sit and try not to scream.
  5. Waiting for the results of tests to come back. This one affects us all. It doesn’t matter the test; medical, academic, drug, driving either. We all have that period of time where life is almost impossible to go on normally until the results are known. We tend to be semi-frozen in a state of non-activity since we don’t want to proceed with plans until the test results are in. Once the results are known good or bad, then we can pick up and continue our lives with the new information. The non-activity director relishes the disruptive factor of test results.

Well those are a few of the non-activities that came to my mind. Maybe you can add some more. Have a great weekend.

 

41 thoughts on “Non-Activity is as Non-Activity Does”

  1. Related to waiting for you car, doctor’s waiting rooms. I don’t know how it works in the States, but over here it’s common to show up on time for your appointment only to be ushered through to the doctor’s office anything from thirty minutes to an hour later. If you’re really lucky you get to wait in there for an additional thirty minutes (without the benefit of dated magazines you had in the waiting room) while the doctor still sees other patients in his other offices (over here doctors tend to have multiple offices/consultation rooms within the practice, making it into a type of patient assembly line). All this so the doctor can see you for five minutes, write a prescription and charge you for a one-hour appointment.

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  3. I try really hard to not get frustrated with waiting for an activity to begin and use that time to create my own activity – I might check my email, read a book, chat with a friend. Of course, there are times I WANT to have no activity and just sit and stare out the window at nothing – gives me some down time from the flurry of a busy life.

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  8. The non-activity of a whole bunch of literary agents and publishers who couldn’t even be bothered to send me a form rejection slip, to say they weren’t interested in my novel. Lazy, no-good loafers!

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    1. GOOD ONE. Can’t tell you how many agents never even responded. WTF you don’t have an e-mail account where you could just say “NO!” (Its usually the ones who don’t like multiple submissions) Thanks for the comment

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  9. Spent time in airports recently so can identify for sure. (Do airline think you are buying a block of time instead of passage from A to B? Keeping me sitting long periods does NOT make me feel like getting more for my money…)
    Popped over from Susie’s enjoyed the visit

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  11. Susie sent me! I agree-the DMV is a good addition. Love the pondering on the non-activity of our lives….pretty much a lot of waiting around.

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  12. I am the WORST at waiting! When I looked up symptoms of ADD, having a problem waiting in line was one of them! ***gulp***
    Thanks for bringing this to the party! Have fun clicking on links!

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  13. Hi John- Susie sent me over. Yes, can I identify with everything on your list except #4. Thankfully, all our flights have been on time. Don’t you wonder how much of our lives we spend in non-activity??

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    1. You are so lucky on the flights. I think I have spent a couple of years on delayed flights. Your question about how many years is a good one. Let’s call MIT and see if anyone there knows. (We will be put on hold for sure)

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  14. Susie sent me and I’m glad she did. My favorite non-activity? Waiting in one of those snaky lines at Disney with your children. Just so you can have a five-minute ride and wait in another line. How is that even a thing?

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