January: The Month Of Doing Absolutely Nothing

Monday, 19 January 2026.

If you listen closely, you might hear the collective sound of millions of people hitting the treadmill, setting their “new year new me” goals, and aggressively manifesting their best lives.

Me? It’s currently 10.01 am and I’m still in my pyjamas, coffee by my side, contemplating if doing the grocery run and cleaning up the garage later today will count as cardio.

A few years ago I decided to embrace the complete opposite of the usual January themes: the beautiful laziness of a do-nothing January. While the rest of the world is treating the first month of the year like a high-stakes sprint, I’ve come to look at it like a long, slow exhale.

The world may call it laziness, but my heart recognsies it as the long overdue and well deserved rest it actually is.

There is a strange pride we take in being “busy.” We wear our burnout like a designer scarf: it’s heavy, it’s expensive, and we think it makes us look important. We feel guilty if we aren’t being productive.

But I’ve come to understand that I don’t need to spend every waking second building a monument to my own productivity.

There’s a deep theology in the notion of rest. It’s an act of trust to just stop. It’s a way of saying, “Lord, the world will keep spinning even if I’m not the one pushing it.” It’s realising that my value isn’t tied to my output, my to-do list, or the hustle.

Before we know it it’ll be February. By mid next week I’ll be expected to put on proper shoes and go back to work. But for today? I’m a sojourner at rest.

And my only goal is to finish this cup of coffee before it gets cold.

Help me, Jesus, to carry this stillness into the noise of next month.