As a life-long procrastinator, I love this piece! I used to spend so much time justifying my procrastination: “well, I know I should have been working on XYZ but at least I was at the gym” or “cleaning my room could have waited until AFTER the deadline on the assignment but it’s not like I was doing nothing, the room had to be cleaned.”
It’s only been this past 6 months as a content creator and infographic designer that I’ve learned to let myself be okay with “wasting time.” Sometimes it’s a social media rabbit-hole. Sometimes it’s staring at my first plant-child for forty-five minutes, admiring her leaves and appreciating that I kept something alive for five months. Other times it’s listening to music and trying on new outfit-combinations for the next time I leave the house. I mean, I find truly silly ways to spend my time.
At some point I realized in that “wasted” space of time, some of my best ideas make themselves apparent. A lot of times I still come up with nothing, but my headspace feels less cluttered so when I do sit down to be productive, I’m more relaxed and ready to focus.
So I’d have to 110% agree with you, that a “waste” of time is absolutely subjective, and the only objective waste of time is beating yourself up over time that has already past.