Written by Krishay Rastogi when was the last time you did something just for fun?
really for fun. Not to post. Not to make “productive use” of your time. Not to turn into an app or a side hustle.
Just because it made your soul feel light?
Our culture loves the hustle. If you’re not grinding, you’re “wasting time.” If you like something, you better monetize it. But when everything becomes a task or a brand, you forget how to play. You lose the spark.
The best parts of you, which is your creativity, your intuition, your joy, don’t live in the hustle. They live in the spaces between.
How to make space for joy again:
Create something that’s allowed to be “bad.”
Sketch. Sing. Write. Code. No goals. No perfection. No expectations.
Call it a “low-pressure project.” Make a Notion page or a folder called “just for fun.” See what flows.
Build blank space into your week.
If your calendar is a wall-to-wall productivity contest, your brain never rests.
Block out 1–2 hours a week where you literally do whatever you want. No guilt. That space is sacred.
Hang out with your inner child.
Ask: what did 10-year-old me love doing? Running? Drawing? Baking? Legos? Do more of that.
That version of you wasn’t hustling. And you were still fully alive.
Joy isn’t a reward for finishing your tasks. It’s fuel to keep going. Give yourself permission to be a person before a performer.