Seize the day. Make the most of your time, don’t squander your existence. Create a life worth living and Live each day to the absolute fullest.

This is how the concept of carpe deim is often promoted. It’s a slogan suggesting that you do more.

But I’ll argue a different perspective.

I think it’s more about being aware, grateful for your time, and present. It’s about avoiding distractions and noticing the world as you move through it.

Of course, it’s all of those other things too — making the most of your life is the point of living. But in hustle culture, Carpe Deim is used to promote more action. I’m suggesting that you give yourself more time for inaction.

I need this lesson as much as the next person. I have a full-time job and several side projects. Justification for “busyness” comes easy. I take every free moment I have to make some progress.

But all too often I get lost in emails or doomscrolling. Or I overthink some design project and waste hours on details that only I will notice.

I’m really bad at doing nothing. I feel guilty if I sit on the couch or the balcony, just relaxing. It’s as if when I’m not doing, I’m not living.

And that’s the catch. Simply being in the moment, going for a walk, breathing the air, taking in the views — noticing. This is living.

Carpe Diem isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing what matters.

Seize the day, even if that means doing absolutely nothing.