This sense of needing a purpose, a direction, a reason for doing something is certainly not unique to taking a walk. In a diner I frequent I was recently asked

This sense of needing a purpose, a direction, a reason for doing something is certainly not unique to taking a walk. In a diner I frequent I was recently asked if I were a student by one of the servers who has often waited on me while I was reading. I'm not. And his reaction to my answer conveyed a sort of disbelief or at least a hint that I am wasting something, that I am throwing away a chance to convert this time into something tangible, beneficial.