Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.

The line challenges the moralizing idea that time must always be “productive” to be valuable. It reframes leisure, play, rest, and simple pleasure as legitimate ends in themselves rather than guilty distractions. In that sense, “wasted” time is only wasted when it is experienced as empty, coerced, or regretted; time that brings joy, recovery, or meaning has already served a purpose. The aphorism has become a modern defense of idleness and a critique of hustle culture, suggesting that a life well lived includes unstructured time and that subjective experience—not external metrics—determines value.

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”