When you would act driven by urge to act, ask yourselves: am I acting from reason, or the irraional aversion of pain of boredom? When you would act driven by urge to fulfill, ask yourselves: am I acting from reason, or the irraional desire deliver?
And if you are acting from reason, remember then to act with the rules that you do posses: with external impressions we have the master intention (“you are an impressions”, examine, react/assent); and with a specific craft the faculty that we possess to deal with them. If you are acting from reason, you should never act on the edge of your mind, as if there’s nothing in between; in between are the impression, your examination, your conception, and your selection.
context: I had these degenerate times where I had nothing in mind, but only rubbing on my computer urging entertainment; I would open emacs but don’t really have anything in mind to do; open terminal and just cd/ls around; read hackernews, not really noting/rejecting anything.
It is a state of idle interest, I would call it, unsure if this is what Aurelius meant, but it map well in my mind.
I would analogize these urges and emotions to that of a child wrestling with a piece of wrapped candy, urging for the sweet inside; or a horny and weak-minded person masturbating virgorously and unknowingly/undeliberately in a long moment of absense of rationality. They were driven by desire of some fulfillment; quite often external fulfillment which we should rightfully discard; they weren’t set up for those kind success either, as to the lack of structured faculty.
In this context, it is a net positive to follow the advice to do less, and be idle instead of idly insterested, as an action is to be moved rationally, and not irrationally; the target has been 1. to move towards things of value and 2. to move in a manner in accordance with nature; even you lucked to meet 1, a weak, exhausted, troubled mind rubbing for the release have little gap in mind for enough rationality to meet 2.