Looking back, the “wasted” summer might be the one where you figured out who you were.

Unstructured time gets judged by what it produced, which is the wrong instrument. A stretch with nothing scheduled is where you find out what you do when nobody is directing you. It looks like nothing from outside. From inside, later, it often turns out to be where the shape started.

If you have empty time coming, resist filling all of it to look productive. Leave a week unplanned and see what you reach for. Write down what you did with it.