This whole idea of filling time with 'work' like it is a race is completely antithetical to any idea of joy and fulfilment.
It feels like 'wasting' time or downtime is essential to meaningful productivity.
I did absolutely nothing and it was everything that I thought it could be. -- Peter Gibbons.
There is a tradition of meditation in Stoicism that invites us to take it easy and reflect on what we have, instead of hurrying to an arbitrary destination, given to us by our bosses, or society.
From the same essay:
Everyone hustles his life along, and is troubled by a longing for the future and weariness of the present. But the man who … organizes every day as though it were his last, neither longs for nor fears the next day… Nothing can be taken from this life, and you can only add to it as if giving to a man who is already full and satisfied food which he does not want but can hold. So you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just existed long. For suppose you should think that a man had had a long voyage who had been caught in a raging storm as he left harbor, and carried hither and thither and driven round and round in a circle by the rage of opposing winds? He did not have a long voyage, just a long tossing about.
...which uses: https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp...
The core issue remains: if you don't have a plan for your life, society will make a plan for you.
By making your own destiny, you may fill part of your time with work, but only as long as it serves your purpose.
How good is your idea of wasting time to get meaningful productivity, if you are achieving someone else's goals instead of your own?
That's a great point actually - the someone else's goals part. The whole intelligence in service of madness thing stems from the fact that sane and intelligent people sometimes do not have a goal of their own.
I definitely did not mean to imply that idling is the only thing you do with your life - on the contrary I was trying to say idling is a great way of knowing who you are and coming up with general goals for yourself that you can then fulfill in the rest of the time.
The problem with busy life is you never really dream of your goals and are constantly looking for things to do - it makes it almost eventual that you'll be in service of others' goals. That's not always a bad thing but I find no fulfillment in doing just that.
I have a suspicion that the majority only have a vague idea and they mostly end up where they are by happenstance.
You only plan to choose various plans society has for you. There is no plan that is viable out of society’s general direction, if you participate in any constructive way.
Seneca, Socrates and many others were just a tip of the iceberg, and they quickly go underwater, when that iceberg decided to flip or crack. It is okay to achieve others goals if you get paid enough and do not have to constantly fight (iow carry huge risks) through your life.
Their perspective is useful, in a way Jocko Willink motivation videos are useful, but you don’t really go to a full-blown war after watching these, nor are you ready for it.
Slight anecdote, as a health improvement I started jogging in the woods last summer. My brain is still recovering from a lot of nasty sensations and I'm very sensitive to any form of happy emotions. Whenever I run, I'm free to pick my path, and this feels like a very raw form of happiness seeking. If a part of the forest appeals to me (because it's new, or the sun shines differently through it, or if it's more challenging) I do it and it appeases something in me.
Like everything, the key is finding the right balance - between activity and rest, between production and consumption, between relationships and solitude. There is no easy answer to what the right ratios are, and they will vary by person and by the stage in life.