Diego Garcia recently shared something that caught my attention: "Have you ever felt guilty for not producing?" He described the weird pressure of our era, where even rest becomes a product. If you paint watercolor to relax, someone asks, "Have you thought about opening an Etsy shop?" If you run in the morning, you feel pushed to post your pace on Strava to prove performance.

I have felt that pressure too. And what I appreciate about Diego's post is that it names a quiet cultural rule many of us live under: it is "forbidden" to be an amateur, and it is suspicious to do something just because it feels good.

In this article, I want to expand on Diego's point, connect it to what we know about burnout and creativity, and offer practical ways to reclaim the right to do "useless" things without turning them into a side hustle.

The hidden rule: everything must have a KPI

Diego pointed out a pattern that shows up everywhere: leisure gets measured, optimized, and monetized.

"Rest is not a reward for work done. Rest is part of the work."

Once you see it, you cannot unsee it:

A hobby becomes a brand: your guitar practice turns into "content."
A workout becomes a report: steps, heart rate, pace, streaks.
A quiet evening becomes "self-improvement": replace a series with a leadership audiobook.

None of those things are bad by themselves. The issue is the underlying story: if an activity does not produce something visible, measurable, or profitable, it is treated as wasted time.

This story creates a constant sense of being behind. Even when you are technically resting, your mind is still working. You are not recovering, you are auditing yourself.

Why productivity guilt is exhausting (and common)

Diego described the voice many of us recognize:

"Why are you watching a series? You could be listening to a management audiobook."

That voice is not just personal perfectionism. It is amplified by incentives around us:

Platforms reward visible outputs. It is easy to feel that if you are not posting, tracking, sharing, or shipping, you are falling behind people who are.

The "always-on" work model

Remote and hybrid work can blur boundaries. When you can answer messages anytime, you can feel like you should answer messages anytime.

Identity tied to output

Many high performers learned early that praise follows achievement. Over time, doing less can feel like being less.

The result is exactly what Diego said: it is exhausting. And that exhaustion is not just tiredness. It is the stress of never being psychologically "off duty."

The fast lane to burnout

Diego called out a hard truth: obsessing over productivity 24/7 is one of the quickest paths to burnout.

Burnout is often described as a mix of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced sense of efficacy. What pushes people there is not only workload, but also the absence of real recovery.

When rest becomes another task to optimize, it stops doing its job. If your "relaxing" walk must hit a distance goal, your "fun" hobby must generate revenue, and your weekend must be "strategic," you never fully downshift.

One way to think about it is physiological: your nervous system needs time in a calmer state. If you keep it revved up with constant evaluation and urgency, the system does what systems do under chronic strain: it degrades.

As Diego put it in plain language, if you treat your brain like a machine that never shuts down, the engine eventually blows.

Why "doing nothing" feeds creativity

Another point from Diego that deserves a longer spotlight is this:

"It is in silence, in boredom, in the off moment, that good ideas connect."

Many people have experienced the shower insight. You stop pushing, your attention loosens, and suddenly your mind connects dots you did not even realize were related.

Creativity needs two modes:

Focus mode: problem solving, drafting, editing, executing.
Diffuse mode: wandering, daydreaming, idle reflection.

If you only allow focus mode, you may produce a lot, but you often produce the obvious. Diffuse mode is where unexpected associations form. It is where your brain files experiences, integrates emotions, and reorganizes information.

This is why "wasting time" can be a hidden part of high-quality work. Not because you are lazy, but because your mind is doing background processing that cannot be forced on command.

The freedom of being bad at something

Diego wrote something that feels almost rebellious today: there is a huge freedom in being bad at something.

"Pick up an instrument and play everything wrong, just to feel the music."

Being a beginner restores play. And play is not childish. It is a mental state where you explore without needing a result.

When you allow yourself to be bad:

You reduce performance anxiety.
You stop over-identifying with outcomes.
You practice curiosity instead of control.
You remember that joy can be an end, not a means.

Ironically, this often makes you better at your actual job. People who regularly experience low-stakes learning tend to become more resilient, more experimental, and less afraid of feedback.

Practical ways to reclaim a "hobby that loses money"

Diego's provocation was simple and powerful: reclaim the right to have a hobby that costs time, costs money, and produces no KPI.

Here are a few concrete ways to do that without needing a dramatic life overhaul.

1) Name your "KPI-free" zones

Choose at least one activity that is explicitly not optimized. Write the rule down: "No tracking, no posting, no monetizing."

Examples:

Cooking without photographing it.
Walking without counting steps.
Reading fiction without highlighting "takeaways."

2) Set a boundary that protects your brain

Diego mentioned the weekend email that feels urgent but is not.

Try a small boundary first:

No work email after a set hour one day per week.
One notification-free morning.
A Saturday evening that is intentionally offline.

The goal is not rigidity. The goal is to teach your mind that it is allowed to stand down.

3) Practice "deliberate amateurism"

Pick something you are not good at and keep it private for a while. Resist the urge to turn it into content.

A good litmus test: if you imagine sharing it and feel pressure, you have found the exact place where freedom lives.

4) Redefine rest as maintenance, not indulgence

If you only rest when you "deserve" it, you are building a system that guarantees depletion.

Instead, treat rest like:

sleep
hydration
movement
connection

Non-negotiable maintenance for a human being doing meaningful work.

A healthier definition of ambition

I do not read Diego's post as anti-ambition. I read it as pro-human.

Ambition without recovery is fragile. It looks strong until it collapses.

Ambition with recovery is sustainable. It creates room for creativity, relationships, and the kind of energy that does not disappear the moment life gets hard.

So yes, be excellent. Build your career. Learn new skills. But also protect the parts of your life that are not for sale.

A question worth answering

Diego ended by asking: what is your favorite "useless" activity to recharge?

Mine is doing something with my hands that has no audience: simple sketching, messy and unshareable, just to let my mind breathe.

What is yours?

This blog post expands on a viral LinkedIn post by Diego Garcia. View the original LinkedIn post →