Have you just felt sick and tired of work, and you need a break? It’s not that you don’t work, and the exact opposite could be true–you love your job, your co-workers are great, and your business is wonderful. Nevertheless, in order to really do your job, you need to take a moment and not do anything, especially not do anything that is related to what you do at work. Down time is moment during the day in which you have nothing planned, no chores, no duties, no shopping, no errands, no odd jobs. Down time is about taking off for a few minutes and letting your mind just go wherever it wants, and if that place is no where in particular, so be it. Maybe a little music, maybe a few minutes of a favorite movie or television show, perhaps a hot shower or a cold drink–tea, lemonade, whatever. Down time is not about schedules or deadlines, it’s not about accomplishing anything at all. Not all of your hours in a day have to be dedicated to accomplishing something. Often, our Puritan work ethic gives us the guilty treatment if we are not dedicated to getting something done. Just sitting and stewing for a few minutes is seen as wasteful and lazy. Yet, all work and no play make Jack (Earnest) a dull boy. Dedicating a few minutes to flushing a full brain drain is not a wasteful enterprise. You calm your nerves, take a sip of your ice coffee, think about a pleasant moment, relax your hold on the moment, and let your imagination go play off in a corner, by itself. Whose life is it anyway? Down time is curative, therapeutic, soothing, tranquilizing, and medicinal. I’ll bet a bit of down time is every bit as effective as most of chemical tranquilizers that millions of people take every day in hopes of quieting an unquiet spirit. Instead of taking a little down time to reassess the situation, a lot of people just pop another pill in hopes that that will do it. Poor things. When you give yourself the time to think about things, you’d be surprised at how easy most problems are to solve without stress, conflict or tragedy. Down time: when everything stops moving for a little while, and you let the world wash up on the beach of your mind like a lazy tide that has just gone out.