It’s not how much free time you have; it’s what you do with it that determines your happiness
Here’s what to do and what not to do
A minimum of two free hours per day away from work, chores, and childcare is necessary to have any chance of relieving the stress. But once you are past that threshold, how do you ensure you experience happiness and not slip into boredom or a lack of fulfilment?
According to Dr Cassie Holmes, our happiness generally tends to be higher when we have between two and five hours per day of leisure time and lower if we have less or more than this.
But even more important than how much time we have is what we do with it — the decline in happiness with more than five hours only happens with too much passive leisure.
Passive leisure
Passive leisure activities are those that we typically associate with relaxing and switching off. Three perfect examples are:
- watching TV
- listening to music
- watching cat videos on YouTube
How many hours per day do you spend watching things on the TV/phone/tablet?
Although passive leisure activities can be great for relieving stress and providing relaxation, spending too much time on them can lead to:
- feeling less productive
- a sense of lacking purpose (which can, in some instances, lead to feelings of depression)
This holds regardless of how many hours of free time we have. Therefore, finding the right balance and having more personally enriching activities than passive ones is advantageous.
Personally enriching activities
Engaging in personally enriching activities is much more fulfilling than sitting in passive leisure time. Examples of these include:
- hobbies
- exercising
- socially connecting with others
These can dramatically increase our happiness:
When we engage with our hobbies, we do things we genuinely enjoy and derive pleasure from. We might also increase our skills and abilities, providing a sense of accomplishment.
Exercising is not always the most pleasurable activity, but we can gain satisfaction that we are doing something good for ourselves, giving us some sense of purpose. The health benefits are usually rewarding. And if you are doing enough to get the endorphin rush, that can feel amazing!
Socially connecting with others has been shown in many studies to increase happiness. Who doesn’t enjoy hanging out with their friends? It can get us out of our heads and help us forget our stresses and worries. Having a social support network that you can rely on — people you can talk to or call on for help — can help relieve stress and anxiety. And returning the favour and helping others, in big ways or in small, often results in a “helper’s high”.
So, how do we increase happiness with leisure time?
Figure out the right balance for you.
First, prioritise the personally enriching activities. Schedule them into your calendar like you would a meeting if it helps. After deriving pleasure and satisfaction from those, happily snuggle into some passive downtime.
The bottom line:
Find at least 2 hours a day to disengage from work, chores, and childcare and try to spend:
❎ less time on passive leisure activities and
✅ more time on personally enriching activities
