How to kill time right now
Don’t.
Don’t “kill time.” Invest it.
Boredom plants you at a fork in the road: one path leads to killing time, to mindless consumption, to repeating old habits that, if you’re honest, you wish you didn’t have anymore. This path ends with us feeling like we ate way too much candy. Ugh, why did I do that? Never again! I’ll be better tomorrow.
That’s one option.
The other path you can choose when you’re bored is to NOT stuff the moments full of knee-jerk, quick-hit, attention-grabbing mental candy and, instead, invest your time into something that will benefit you over the long haul. It doesn’t mean eating your vegetables. It means finding what brings you joy, what provides intrinsic motivation in your work or life, and tinkering on that. Lean into that.
Write a daily blog. Publish a weekly podcast. Complete a new chapter of that book concept each month. Learn to cook, try to whittle, play an instrument, or build your business in tiny pockets of time, all the time.
Do something that, today, seems small, but done enough, you know it’ll compound. If the usual workweek causes you to act like a day trader, frantically reacting to everything, sprinting between meetings, then what would it look like if you thought longer term? If you are fortunate enough to feel bored right now, that’s a luxury. That’s an opportunity.
Capitalize on it.
Don’t kill time. Invest it.
— — —
PS: Four things on offer during this tough time:
1) The 1-Star Club — free for makers and marketers facing adversity. This is a weekly Instagram Live I’m hosting, with a set format and special guests, to help push and inspire us to move forward and keep making, together.
>> Follow @jacunzo and watch for the live call every Tuesday at 1:30pm Eastern. More details here.
2) Break the Wheel is temporarily on sale on Amazon. For orders of 10+, I’ll do a live call with you and your team. Share receipts to secure a spot. The book is unexpectedly relevant for this time: a framework for making decisions when the proven playbook doesn’t work and the general advice is both too generalized and overwhelming.
>> Find the book here.
3) Marketing strategy advisory, which I’m able to offer since my travel has stopped. If you can use a confidant and some ideas and frameworks, I’d like to help you in a bespoke way. The focus will be helping you evolve from brand awareness to brand affinity as a focus, from reach-based marketing to resonance-based initiatives, both to weather this storm and to thrive once the sky clears.
>> Email jay@unthinkablemedia.com. Limited availability.
4) For speakers and event organizers, I’ve repackaged my experience developing narrative-style podcasts and docuseries into a repeatable formula for enhancing keynote speeches for the virtual event environment. You can read about my philosophy here. This service is a combination of brief consulting and post-production to turn your talk into an experience virtual audiences love.
>> Email my business partner Josh White, speaking@unthinkablemedia.com, to discuss our packages.