Last month my niece (and favorite goddaughter Kerri) graduated from high school and announced that the summer of 2012 was going to be the Summer of Doing Everything.

I asked what she meant and she said, “everything.”

And maybe I am just projecting here, so please forgive me if my thoughts do not resonate, but it seems to me that everyone everywhere is in the mode of trying to do everything all the time.  And the result is a hectic, chaotic frenzy of undirected energy, followed by fatigue and disappointment.

And it makes sense, because no one can do everything. No one.  And yet we try.  Yesterday afternoon I was in a client’s lobby waiting to be escorted to a meeting. For what seemed like an eternity I paced the lobby, as I had intentionally left my iPhone in the car so I would not be distracted by calls and texts and email alerts.  And here I was – for all of 60 seconds – with nothing to do but pace.  I was frantic.  Surely I should be filling that void with some meaningful activity, like updating my Facebook status or composing a tweet.

I guess what I am saying – to myself, my niece and the world-at-large – is that the idea of doing everything is highly overrated.  My advice:  spend an hour in a hammock doing nothing. And if it feels good, stay there another hour.