Living in a culture of non-stop productivity, we refuse to take real breaks. We put off sleeping in or reading by the window. Even if we do manage to take time away, it comes with the feeling that we should be doing things. We feel guilty about any wasted time.

But “wasted” time is highly fulfilling and necessary. Wasting time is about recharging your battery and de-cluttering.

When we refuse to take real breaks, we tend to turn to the least fulling tendency: We sit in front of our computer and start zoning out. We browse websites and tell ourselves we're "multitasking," but are really spending much longer on the most basic tasks.

This neither contributes to happ...