Wasted Time Well Spent: Leisure, Contemplation, and the Pursuit of the Intellectual Life

Reflective Commentary (2025)

Looking back at this essay more than a decade after I first wrote it in 2014, I see how my thinking about "wasted time" has changed. When I wrote this as a doctoral student, leisure, contemplation, and intellectual growth were seen as important. Now, the pressure for productivity and measurable results in higher education makes these topics even more urgent.

Building on this, and recalling the arguments of Schall, Sertillanges, and the classical tradition, I now see even more clearly the challenge of preserving space for unhurried, reflective inquiry in an era dominated by metrics and schedules. The notion that “wasted time” may be the most fertile ground for genuine self-knowledge and humane learning feels not only true, but more contested and more vital than ever.

Looking back, I see my central thesis more clearly: true intellectual flourishing depends on resisting constant task orientation and intentionally cultivating leisure. This resistance is not merely a preference; it is fundamental to deep learning and self-knowledge. My subsequent engagement with critical theory and literary analysis (especially through Foucault and Derrida) has only deepened my appreciation for how structures of power and discourse shape our perceptions of usefulness and waste. Reclaiming leisure, then, can be a subtle but vital act of intellectual resistance.

Essay on Wasted Time (2014)

The central thesis of this discussion is that what may seem like “wasted time,” such as time spent in leisure and contemplation, is often the most valuable time for true learning and the cultivation of the intellectual life. James V. Schall ends his chapter “On the Joys and Travails of Thinking” by saying, “I would put The Intellectual Life on the desk of every student” (The Life of the Mind 6). Schall supports lifelong learning and the pursuit of enlightenment. Xenophon warned that untrained and untaught youth “become utterly evil and mischievous” (The Great Tradition 31). He also quotes Socrates, who taught that true learning means to “know thyself” (35).

Building on Schall’s perspective, the contrast between wasted time and authentic humane learning is illuminated by Aristotle’s constant questioning. He sought to understand how we ought to approach learning (The Life of the Mind 1). This inquiry becomes practical in his reflections on how to take notes, write, publish, and organize one’s thoughts (2). Ultimately, the question is how one should lead a “proper intellectual life” (3). A.G. Sertillanges, in The Intellectual Life, and James V. Schall, in Another Sort of Learning, engage in a similar conversation about the study of the humane letters as a journey toward truth. Both authors argue that time spent in learning, often dismissed as leisure or wasted time, is essential to intellectual cultivation.

Expanding upon these views, the concept of “wasting time” stands in contrast to task-based work. Such time, often considered unproductive, is in fact leisure. It is time to know oneself. It is time to seek the truth. This so-called wasted time is an opportunity to engage deeply with the humane letters in an environment conducive to genuine learning. When one is free of schedules, agendas, and stress, the mind is liberated to truly encounter the humane letters (On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs 99).

In this context, Isocrates eloquently addressed the relationship between wasted time and humane learning when he encouraged men to pursue “the discipline of the soul” in order to “hold their ground steadfastly as intelligent men” (The Great Tradition 44). Wasted time may very well be the best time for learning the humane letters.

In the haunting lyrics of the Eagles’ “Wasted Time,” the band reflects, “And I know what’s on your mind. You’re afraid it’s all been wasted time.” That, in fact, could be the best time ever spent.

Bibliography

Eagles. Wasted Time. Track 2 on Hotel California. Asylum Records, 1976.

Gamble, Richard M., ed. The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be an Educated Human Being. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2007.

Schall, James V. Another Sort of Learning: Selected Contrary Essays on the Completion of Our Knowing or How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still in College or Anywhere Else. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988.

———. The Life of the Mind: On the Joys and Travails of Thinking. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006.

———. On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs: Teaching, Writing, Playing, Believing, Lecturing, Philosophizing, Singing, Dancing. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2012.

Sertillanges, A.G. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. Translated by Mary Ryan. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1998.