lack of free time essay

Americans work less than ever before but still feel like there's no free time — and there's a simple explanation

• S creen-based devices eat up what precious free time we have left.
• For a lot of people time not spent working feels like a waste.

The number of hours Americans work has  gone down over the last several decades, according to data from the OECD, while leisure time has gone up. But that's hardly the perception for many working people.

The psychologist Adam Alter offered one reason in his 2017 TED talk "Why our screens make us less happy."  He says that screen-based devices eat up what precious free time we have left.

But that may only be part of the story when it comes to the lack of leisure time. Here's why it feels like you have no free time anymore.

Our view of free time has changed.

Now that Americans have left the Industrial Age for the Information Age, the way people think about the value of time has changed.

Psychologists have found people do actually equate time with its monetary value (i.e. "Time is money."). At the same time, people have more opportunities than ever for multi-tasking. The result is time not spent working feels like a waste.

"Multi-tasking is what makes us feel pressed for time," Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, told the Economist .

People are working from home more often.

A 2017 Gallup survey of 15,000 American workers found that 43% of people spent at least some of their time working remotely — an increase of four percentage points since 2012.

They're also doing it more often: While the share of people who said they work remotely one day a week or less has fallen since 2012, the share of people who do it four or five times a week has risen, from 24% to 31%.

On the one hand, more flexibility in where to work has made it easier for parents and people who travel a lot to get their work done. But it's also had the side effect of getting people comfortable with working at home, at times they'd normally be relaxing.

We are spending longer hours in the office.

A 2011 survey of more than 300 companies in the US and Canada found nearly two-thirds of employers were demanding longer hours of their employees than they did three years prior.

Roughly half said they expected the longer hours to get even longer over the next three years.

According to additional survey results, the attitude may be due to the fact employers weren't aware that workers felt their mental health had suffered due to the longer hours.

People are spending their weekends working.

Another consequence of having constant access to mobile technology is that industries can work round-the-clock, which includes Saturday and Sunday. Americans, more than any residents of any other country, spend their weekends working,  according to OECD data, 

The 2014 data show 29% of American employees had worked over the weekend at some point during the past year. Fewer than 25% of people in Germany and 10% of people in Spain reported the same.

Flexibility to work remotely has also contributed to the ease of working weekends.

What free time people do have, they spend it on their devices.

Finally, once people do get free time, they tend to squander the opportunity by retreating to their phones or tablets.

NYU psychologist Adam Alter has found in his research that screen time has increased dramatically over the last decade. In 2007, people spent only a fraction of their free time on devices. By 2017, the ratio had flipped: People now spend a fraction of their time  not  on devices.

"That's where your humanity lives," Alter told the TED audience, referring to the portion of time where you are undistracted by technology. "And right now it's in a very small box."

• Main content

Why is free time still so elusive?

Distinguished Professor of Modern History, Penn State

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Gary Cross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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There have been massive gains in productivity over the past century.

So why are people still working so hard for so long?

Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the U.S. The standard American workweek, meanwhile, has remained unchanged, at about 40 hours.

This paradox is especially notable in the U.S., where the average work year is 1,767 hours compared with 1,354 in Germany , a difference largely due to Americans’ lack of vacation time .

Some might argue that Americans are just more hardworking. But shouldn’t more productive work be rewarded with more time free from work?

This is the central theme of my new book, “ Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal .”

Keynes misses the mark

Many economists see the status quo mostly as a choice : People would simply rather have more money. So they prioritize work over free time.

However, in the past, many economists assumed that people’s need for more stuff would eventually be met. At that point, they would choose more free time.

In fact, one of the most famous economists of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, confidently predicted in 1930 that within a century, the normal workweek would decrease to 15 hours. Yet Americans in their prime working age are still on the job 41.7 hours per week.

Why was Keynes wrong?

Obviously, people’s needs or wants were not fully met. In the first half of the 20th century, advertising shifted in ways that emphasized emotions over utility, making consumers feel like they needed to buy more stuff; planned obsolescence shortened how long products remained functional or fashionable, spurring more frequent purchases; and new, exciting – but costly – goods and services kept consumerism churning.

So workers continued to labor for long hours to earn enough money to spend.

Furthermore, as wages rose, the opportunity cost of time spent away from work also grew. This made more free time less economically appealing. In a consumption-saturated society, time spent neither producing nor consuming goods increasingly appeared as wasted time.

Interest in slower, cheaper activities – reading a book, meeting a friend to catch up over coffee – started to seem less important than buying a pickup truck or spending an hour at the casino, pursuits that demand disposable income.

Forced labor

It’s still important to consider whether there’s even any choice to be made.

Almost everyone who works 40 hours a week or more does so because they have to. There are bills to pay, health insurance coverage to maintain and retirement to squirrel away money for. Some jobs are more precarious than others, and many workers even forego earned vacation time for fear of losing promotions .

This hardly makes for a free choice.

But the 40-hour week isn’t the result of a personal calculation of costs and benefits. Rather, it’s the result of a hard-fought political battle that culminated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 , which established the standard 40-hour workweek, along with a minimum wage.

Pressed by a labor movement that was far more powerful than today’s , the government implemented a range of progressive economic policies during the 1930s to help the nation emerge from the Great Depression.

Many government officials viewed setting a standard workweek as a way to curtail exploitation and unfair competition among employers, who would otherwise be motivated to push their employees to work for as long as possible. It was an emergency measure, not a choice of more time over more personal income. Nor was it a step toward the progressive reduction of hours worked, as Keynes had envisioned.

In fact, it was hardly a radical measure.

Labor leaders had initially proposed a 30-hour week, which government officials resoundingly rejected. Even New Deal liberals saw a shortening of working hours as a potential threat to economic growth .

So the 40-hour week ended up as the compromise, and the standard hasn’t been updated since.

For most Americans, this was an acceptable trade-off. They might be working long hours, but they could afford television sets, cars and homes in the suburbs. Many families could live on the wages of the full-time work of the father, making the 40-hour week seem reasonable, since the mother had time to care for the family and home.

But this consensus has long since been undermined. Since the 1970s, inflation-adjusted wages haven’t risen with economic growth . In many households that include married or partnered couples, a single wage earner has been replaced by two earners, both of whom find themselves working at least 40 hours per week.

It’s almost as if the 40-hour week has been replaced by an 80-hour week – at least in terms of hours worked per household .

Who has time to raise kids? Who can afford them? It’s no wonder the birth rate has declined .

Separating economic growth from well-being

For decades, the amount of work we do has been talked about as “just the way things are” – an inevitability, almost. It doesn’t seem possible for society to take a different tack and, like flipping a switch, work less.

To me, this resignation points to a need to reconsider the social contracts of the past. Most Americans will not abandon their work ethic and their insistence that most people work. Fair enough.

Many people prefer working over having vast stores of free time, and that’s OK. And there’s still immense value in work that doesn’t produce a paycheck – caregiving and volunteering, for example.

But reducing the standard workweek, perhaps by transitioning to a four-day week, could ease stress for overworked families.

These changes require political action, not just individuals making the personal choice to arrive at a better work-life balance. And yet a national reduction in the standard workweek seems almost impossible. Congress can’t even pass legislation for paid family leave or guaranteed vacation time.

It doesn’t help that elected leaders continue to insist that well-being be measured mostly by economic growth, and when the U.S. media breathlessly reports quarterly economic growth data, with increases deemed “good” and decreases deemed “bad.”

Why shouldn’t free time and its benefits be included in the equation? Why aren’t figures on the social costs of unlimited growth publicized? Does it even matter that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has doubled in less than a decade when economic security is so fragile and so many people are overstressed ?

The idea that stratospheric increases in productivity can allow for more time for life is not simply a romantic or sentimental idea. Keynes viewed it as entirely reasonable.

Opportunities like the one that led to the 40-hour workweek in the 1930s rarely appear. But some sort of paradigm shift is urgently needed.

Something has to give.

• Organized Labor
• Labor rights
• 40 hour workweek
• John Maynard Keynes
• Leisure time

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Why You Never Seem to Have Enough Time

Right now, I can feel the tight squeeze of stress in my stomach. This morning, I got a call from a close friend needing support, which prevented me from starting this article. At any moment, I expect one of my coworkers to email me asking for help with a last-minute assignment. And I’m set to leave my desk early for a dentist appointment, after which I’ll rush home to cook a late dinner.

I’m under time pressure—and I know I’m not alone. If you’re a woman , or a single parent , or practically anyone living in today’s go-go-go American society, you probably are, too. When researchers surveyed Americans before 2011, about half said they almost never had time on their hands and two-thirds said they sometimes or always felt rushed (though a more recent study suggests things may be improving a bit).

As researcher Cassie Mogilner and her colleagues write in a 2012 paper, “With waking hours largely consumed by work, precious minutes remain for the daily list of to-dos, including exercise, cleaning, and socializing with friends and family.”

At first glance, the issue seems straightforward. Time pressure comes down to a lack of time, right? Well, partly. It’s the feeling that we don’t have enough time to do what we want to do—but it turns out that feelings and enough and wants are somewhat subjective.

From 1965 to 2003, the average American workweek actually declined by three hours, while leisure time increased. And in many places in the developed world, the workweek has gotten even shorter since then. In one study of more than 7,000 working Australians, researchers declared that time pressure is an “illusion.” They estimated how much time is necessary for basic living—hours of paid work, housework, and personal care—and compared it to how much free time people had in their actual schedules. It turns out there was a big discrepancy, which was most extreme for households without children and smallest for single parents.

“Those who feel most overworked—those who have least ‘free time’—largely do it to themselves,” the researchers wrote. In other words, we could theoretically spend fewer hours making money, vacuuming and washing dishes, or cooking and eating, and we’d get by without getting overwhelmed.

Although you may not want to subsist just above the poverty line or give your kids as little attention as possible, the broader point is important: Tight-squeezy time stress has to do with the things we value and the time we devote to them. And, other research suggests, it also relates to our attitudes and mindsets about time. Rather than always blaming the clock, we can find some roots of the time crunch deep in our own psychology. Here are some scientific insights to help you make a distinction between real stopwatch pressure and the unnecessary pressure you might be putting on yourself.

1. Enjoyment and passion

In a 2004 study of nearly 800 working people in Ohio, researchers were confronted with a puzzle.

When women did more than 10 hours of housework a week, they felt more pressed for time and in turn more depressed. But when men did the same amount of housework, they didn’t. A similar pattern appeared for volunteering: Men who volunteered more were less depressed, but women got time stressed and didn’t seem to experience as much benefit.

The explanation that the researchers came up with, bolstered by people’s accounts of how they spent their time, was that men tend to do more enjoyable housework and volunteering. They cut the grass and coach soccer teams; they get into flow and feel a sense of accomplishment. Women, on the other hand, are often occupied with small, repetitive daily chores and service work: less cheering and high-fiving and more trying not to fall asleep at school meetings.

Unsurprisingly, a day packed with somewhat engaging activities feels less busy and stressful than a day of drudgery. If time flies (in a good way) when you’re having fun, it also seems to fly (in a bad way) when you’re not. This subjective element might have created more of a sense of time pressure in women who participated in the study, even if men’s activities equaled or exceeded theirs in hours.

A similar effect takes place at work. In one study , researchers surveyed more than 2,500 employees at a technology company and a financial services company. They found that people who are more passionate, who aspire to do things that matter to them at work, aren’t as rushed and harried as others.

If you feel short on time, you might simply not be enjoying the activities that fill up your schedule. Life can be like that sometimes, but if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, it might help to add one more thing to your day—something that keeps you engaged.

2. Inner conflict

Why does passion seem to free up our time? The researchers who observed this phenomenon wanted to discover what was really going on.

They found a clue when they asked employees about how conflicted or aligned their goals were. Employees lacking in passion said that their goals were competing with each other, fighting for time and attention; for example, the drive to do well at work might make it hard to get home for dinner with the family. But passionate employees were different: They saw their goals as supporting each other. After all, healthy home cooking and family bonding might give them more energy and motivation tomorrow.

Gift of Time

Spend quality time with people you care about

So, time pressure isn’t just about how enjoyable our activities are, but also how well they fit together in our heads. One study found that people who simply think about conflicting goals—like saving money vs. buying nice things, or being healthy vs. eating tasty foods—feel more stressed and anxious, and in turn shorter on time.

Knox College professor Tim Kasser , an expert on materialism who coauthored a seminal paper on time scarcity, once joked, “If every research project that I’m currently working on right now was a cat living in my house, it would be very clear that I had a problem.” If your to-do list feels like a herd of hungry felines, all in competition for your one can of food, it’s no wonder you’re overwhelmed.

While we may freely choose some tasks on our plate, others are largely the product of our society or culture, says Australian National University professor Lyndall Strazdins , who has spent the last decade trying to show how time scarcity matters for individual and public health. For example, being a good suburban mom today seems to include chauffeuring your kids around the neighborhood to countless sports and hobbies.

“If you don’t do that, then you feel you’re not living up to one set of norms, but if you don’t do [something else], you’re also not living up to another set of norms,” says Strazdins. “You’ve got 24 hours…and you get to a point where you just can’t expand your day.” If you feel a lot of inner conflict about a task, then you might consider just letting it go.

3. A sense of control

Often when we’re caught in a time conflict, it’s because of some external obligation: Daycare pickup runs up against an important meeting; your work shift starts at 9, but the bus is late. Time pressure goes hand in hand with feeling you’re not in control of your own schedule.

In one 2007 study , researchers interviewed 35 low-income working mothers who were caring for at least one child. They asked the moms to talk about how they spent the previous day, and how they manage to feed their families when it’s hectic.

The researchers were able to pinpoint different ways of managing time—some of which were more successful than others.

The least successful was the “reactive” style, where mothers didn’t feel in control of their days. All those mothers felt time-scarce, beholden to the clock, unable to accomplish everything they wanted to. In contrast, mothers who had an “active” time-style had some success at scheduling, managing, and structuring their days. They felt slightly more in control of their own time and a bit less time-stressed than the reactive group.

“People often complain of being in a time bind not only because they are objectively busy, but also because they perceive a lack of control over their time,” researcher Ashley V. Whillans and her colleagues write . That perception may be based on our life circumstances—because we have non-negotiable work hours or babies who aren’t fond of sleeping through the night—but it can also be part of our psychology. 

According to research, rather than experiencing life as masters of their own fate, some people tend to feel like they’re at the mercy of external forces (and thus less resilient to stress and more depressed ). If this describes you, it may be harder for you to seize back a sense of control over your schedule.

In that case, try to keep your eyes on the prize and do what you can to gain a sense of control over your time. Take little steps, like optimizing your to-do list or practicing saying “no” to people who ask for favors.

4. The value of your time

One last piece of the time-pressure puzzle is money, and that one is complicated. If you work multiple jobs or can’t pay for a babysitter, you’re bound to feel short on time. But some research has found that people with high incomes feel particularly short on time—and people who get richer become even more harried than they were before. Even just feeling rich—when your savings is on the higher end of the scale on a form you’re filling out— can make you feel more rushed .

“In a society like ours, the go-to answer [for happiness] is make more money, buy more stuff,” says Kasser. “What we’re trying to say is, well, no; what people actually need is more time.”

Why would an abundance of money feel like a scarcity of time ? One possibility is that rich people have so much they could do with their money but only a handful of hours outside work to do it, suggest researchers Daniel Hamermesh and Jungmin Lee. So many expensive hobbies to pursue, so little time!

“Those who feel most overworked—those who have least ‘free time’—largely do it to themselves”

But another possibility is that they simply put more value on their time. If each hour they’re not working is $100 they could have earned, they better use that hour well.

As economists would remind us, when something is scarce, its value goes up—but the opposite is also true. When something is valuable (like time), we perceive it to be scarcer. In one experiment , researchers asked 67 students to engage in some mock consulting work, for which they would “charge” $1.50 or $0.15 per minute. The students who were charging $1.50 felt more pressed for time—even though they weren’t actually going to earn that money! In another experiment, when people were asked to calculate their hourly wage, high earners felt even more time-starved.

“Feelings of time pressure are not just a function of individual differences, the quantitative amount of time spent working, or even people’s working conditions, although these factors are obviously important,” write researchers Sanford E. DeVoe and Jeffrey Pfeffer. “Time pressure is at least partly a result of psychological processes and the perception of time’s value.”

This is all good news and bad news. It means that our efforts to optimize and schedule, plan and streamline, might not be getting to the heart of the problem. But it also means that we may have more leverage than we think, even if we can’t manufacture spare hours to call a friend or get to the dentist. Time pressure is the uncomfortable gap between how we wish we spent our time—and how we think that would make us feel—and how we’re spending it and feeling now. With that in mind, we just might be able to find some room to breathe.

About the Author

Kira M. Newman

Kira M. Newman is the managing editor of Greater Good . Her work has been published in outlets including the Washington Post , Mindful magazine, Social Media Monthly , and Tech.co, and she is the co-editor of The Gratitude Project . Follow her on Twitter!

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clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Why having too much free time can be as bad for you as having too little

Have you ever had one of those days — that turned into weeks — when you had approximately 645 things to do and not a single minute for leisure time?

Like many of us, Cassie Mogilner Holmes sometimes feels as if she lives in that state. She also — and this will probably sound familiar — has entertained the idea of trading all those obligations for a desert island.

Instead, Holmes, a professor of marketing and behavioral decision-making at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, decided to research whether extra free time would actually make her happier. It turns out that reclining alone on a beach all day might not be as ideal as it sounds. “To that initial question, ‘Shall we quit everything and go live on a desert island?’ The answer is no,” Holmes says. “We would not be any happier.”

According to study results published earlier this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, an individual’s well-being increases in correlation with their free time — but only to a certain point. Although having too little free time isn’t healthy, having too much also diminishes well-being.

“What we found is that a moderate amount of free time or discretionary time is kind of the sweet spot that people are happiest with,” says lead author Marissa Sharif, an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who collaborated on the new study with Holmes and Hal E. Hershfield.

“Having a moderate amount of discretionary time leads people to be happier than having a small amount, because it relieves that time stress,” Sharif says. “But perhaps the more interesting part is that a moderate amount of discretionary time leads people to be better off or happier compared to having a large amount of free time. And that’s because with a large amount of free time, people feel this lacking sense of productivity and purpose.”

As Holmes puts it: “We, as humans, don’t like to be idle.”

The researchers did not assign exact numbers to the optimal amount of free time per day. In general, though, it hovered around two to five hours, Sharif says. Those who had less than two hours of discretionary time per day experienced stress around their tight schedules. But once someone’s daily free time exceeded five hours, their well-being began to decline.

There were, however, some exceptions: When people with large amounts of free time spent that time with others or felt as if they were passing the hours in a meaningful way, they didn’t experience that same drop in well-being.

The new research is based on several data sets, including from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey and the Society for Human Resource Management’s National Study of the Changing Workforce. The researchers also conducted experiments in which they asked more than 6,000 Americans to imagine having a certain amount of free time every day for at least six months, and to estimate how much they would enjoy that time.

Selin Malkoc, an associate professor of marketing at Ohio State University, noted that the findings might vary in other countries “where leisure is valued differently.” Americans tend to be more obsessed with work than people in other nations, she says.

But she was intrigued that the researchers compared having too little and too much discretionary time in the same study. “There’s really been no study to date that put everything together and examined this curvilinear relationship.”

Charlotte Fritz, an associate professor in industrial and organizational psychology at Portland State University, also appreciated that the researchers “not only said too much or too little time is bad for your life satisfaction — but that they said, well, let’s look at how this time is being used and experienced.”

Based on the results of the study, here are a few tips from experts on how to optimize your free time to increase your sense of well-being.

If you feel like you have too much leisure time

Choose your optional activities wisely. According to the new study, people who spent their free time in “productive” ways, such as developing new hobbies, lifting weights, bowling or biking, experienced optimal well-being. So, if you’re newly retired or unemployed, and unsure what to do with your suddenly empty days, consider hitting the trails or, say, mastering a new language.

Fritz emphasizes that, in this context, “productive” means worthwhile or fulfilling, rather than contributing to the greater good. “For some people, it might be sitting on the beach watching the waves, and for others, it’s volunteering or renovating the house.”

Seek out other people. You’re more likely to be happy if you spend some of your free time engaged in social activities, the new research suggests. Some of the activities that participants enjoyed sharing with others included sports or playing billiards. When people spend their free time together socially, the study authors wrote, “more [free time] is better.” As Sharif puts it: “If you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend that time with other people, that’s a great way to not experience the drop off” in happiness that typically accompanies copious amounts of leisure time.

Flip your perspective. Recent research co-authored by Malkoc found that viewing leisure time as wasteful undermines how much you enjoy it. These people who believed that free time was fundamentally a waste were also more likely to be stressed and anxious, she says. To shake that attitude, she suggests focusing on the higher end goal of enjoying discretionary time: It will improve your life. That might mean telling yourself, “It will actually make me a better person, a better parent, a better friend,” she says. “Remind yourself that everything serves a purpose, including putting your feet up and reading a book or doing nothing.”

If you feel like you have too little leisure time

Evaluate what’s most important to you and what you can cut from your schedule. Most of us could benefit from pruning our schedules — but cramming them full is often a reflex. Building in leisure time requires establishing good boundaries and a strong sense of priorities, experts say. Make a list of everything that demands your time on the average day and note which tasks could be outsourced or scrapped. Malkoc suggests asking yourself: “What is the busy work that we can eliminate and replace with better things?”

Malkoc’s biggest piece of advice is to be mindful and introspective about how you use your time. “We need to know what makes us happy and take a moment to take stock of our activities, what we choose to do and what really does contribute to happiness in our lives.”

Put your calendar away. Scheduling takes the fun out of free time, says Gabriela Tonietto, an assistant professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School. According to her previous research , penciling in a date and time for leisure can make it feel like a chore. It also decreases anticipation of that free time. “Scheduled leisure is less enjoyable than more spontaneous or impromptu leisure,” Tonietto says. “It makes it feel more like work once it’s on your calendar. People start saying, ‘Well, this is an obligation,’ as opposed to something that you want to do.” Although some scheduling is inevitable, “rough scheduling” is often best: Make loose plans to meet someone for lunch or for a jog on a Friday, for example, but don’t assign a time until shortly beforehand. That’s one way to leave room for spontaneity.

Haupt is a freelance writer and editor. Follow her on Twitter: @angelahaupt .

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Making Better Use of Your Free Time

What are time affluence, time famine, and time confetti.

Posted December 16, 2021 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• Flexible work schedules may create a promise of time affluence, but, in reality, work may take over, leaving us with time famine.
• We sometimes feel guilty for outsourcing domestic tasks; when it’s affecting our mental health, there’s nothing wrong with buying back some time.
• Make a “time confetti to-do list,” so that when you find yourself with a spare moment, you know what to do.

Since the start of the pandemic, our perception of time has shifted. For many of us, working, schooling, and spending much more time at home have made it harder to create good containers for our time.

The great promise of flexible work schedules is that they create a feeling of time affluence, and, yet, in reality, flexible work often means that work takes over, leaving us with a feeling of time famine. This lack of balance puts us into a vicious cycle of overworking, burning out, and then giving into our exhaustion and feeling guilty about not overworking.

On a recent episode of the Happiness Lab podcast , Dr. Laurie Santos and Dan Harris talk about science-backed strategies for breaking this cycle. If this topic resonates with you, I recommend listening to the full episode. In what follows, I share some key insights about the psychology of time.

Time Affluence vs. Time Famine

Before we get into some tips to boost your feelings of abundance around your time, we need to better understand what social scientists mean when they talk about time affluence and time famine.

Time affluence is your subjective sense that you have free time. It’s having a state of mind that you’re “wealthy” in terms of your time. Since this is a subjective measure, it can be decoupled from the hours, minutes, and seconds you objectively have, which means that, at least in theory, even people with extreme demands on their time can experience time affluence.

Time famine is just the opposite of time affluence. It’s the feeling you get when you are starved for time. And what’s particularly interesting here is that, from a psychological perspective, time famine works similarly to hunger famine. For example, scientists see evidence of stress on the body in time-famished people.

One survey published by the Harvard Business Review even found that experiencing time famine had more of a negative impact on well-being than being unemployed. You can get a sense of this when you imagine having a full day of back-to-back meetings, a looming project deadline, and a commitment to attend your son's or daughter's soccer game after school, and your supervisor asks to schedule one-on-one time with you.

In the above situation, your nervous system will be activated—you may even be feeling on edge just reading this description.

Strategies for Gaining Time Affluence

So what can we do to gain a sense of time affluence? According to Dr. Laurie Santos, professor of psychology at Yale University, director of Yale's Comparative Cognition Lab, and host of the Happiness Lab podcast, it’s all about intentionality.

Here are three strategies Santos suggests for gaining time affluence:

1. Invest in time-saving. If you’re fortunate enough to have some disposable income, you could be directing more of those funds toward saving yourself time. Think of all the ways you could invest in time-saving:

• You could hire the teen next door to help out.
• You could get a meal service subscription or hire someone to do meal prep for you once a week.
• You could hop on a Web site like Taskrabbit and hire someone to put up your holiday decorations.
• You could use an errand service to buy holiday gifts you’ve chosen or to wrap those gifts.

Although we sometimes feel guilty for outsourcing domestic tasks, when it’s affecting our mental health, there’s nothing wrong with buying back some time.

2. Reframe the subtler time-saving things you’re already doing. In addition to the larger investments in time-saving, we often naturally spend money in subtler ways to gain back time. For example, you might order takeout once a week. But are you acknowledging that you’re saving time by doing so?

The next time you order takeout, instead of simply consuming the food while checking your email, savor the time savings. Remind yourself that you’re putting time back into your schedule by not having to spend an hour or two cooking and cleaning up.

3. Make sure you’re making good use of the free time you have. Here’s a surprising statistic: We actually have objectively more free time now than we did 15 to 20 years ago. If your schedule is anything like mine, you likely find that pretty hard to believe. But it’s true. The difference is that we feel busier now than we did in the early 2000s.

So why all the stress around our time? Time budgets look different today than they did 15 years ago. Whereas we used to have more big blocks of time off, now we have what Santos calls “time confetti.” We get five minutes between meetings or 10 minutes waiting in the carpool line to pick up the kids from school.

What do we do with these little moments of free time? We take out the devices we have glued to our sides 24/7 and check our email or scroll through the same feed we just checked 30 minutes ago. Of course we’re time-starved.

If you want to feel less time-strapped, make sure you’re making good use of the free time you have. Make a “time confetti to-do list,” so that when you find yourself with a spare moment, you know what to do.

Here are strategies Santos suggests for gaining time affluence:

• Focus on controlling your breath. Breathe in for a slow count of five, then breathe out for a slow count of five.
• Write in a gratitude journal.
• Get up and stretch.
• Go for a quick walk.

These little moments can really add up throughout the day if we use them well.

The key to breaking the cycle of overworking and burnout is to change the way we think about time. It might take some practice, but cultivating time affluence will put you into a happier cycle this holiday season and beyond!

Deana Goldin, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, is an associate clinical professor at Florida International University and an integrative psychiatric and family nurse practitioner.

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Essays About Time: Top 5 Examples and 8 Prompts

Essays about time involve looking into human existence and other intangible concepts. Check out our top examples and prompts to write an engaging piece about this subject.

Time entails many concepts that can be hard to explain. In its simplest sense, time is the period between the past, present, and future. It also encompasses every action or progression of events within those measures. Time never stops. It consistently ticks away, making it both a cruel teacher and an apt healer. It inspires many writers to write pieces about it, discussing time as a notion or an element in emotionally-driven compositions that both describe euphoric and heart-rending episodes. 

To aid you in writing a compelling piece, below are our top picks for great essays about time:

1. Time is Precious Essay by Anonymous on AreSearchGuide.com

2. an essay on time by david pincus, 3. time is money by supriya, 4. time waster by anonymous on exampleessays.com, 5. time management: using the less time to do more by anonymous on edubirdie.com, 1. how i spend my time, 2. what is time, 3. time and technology, 4. time management and procrastination, 5. if time doesn’t exist, 6. time as a currency, 7. the value of time, 8. time and productivity.

“Make most of your time and you will be rewarded ten folds of it, waste it and the little you have will be taken away, just like in the parable of talents.”

The essay begins with a convincing statement reminding the readers of the average life expectancy of a person to assert the importance of time. Then, in the later sections, the author answers why time is precious. Some reasons include time is always in motion, is priceless, and can never be borrowed. The piece also mentions why many “wait for the right opportunity,” not realizing they must plan first to get to the “right time.” Finally, at the end of the essay, the writer reminds us that balancing and planning how to spend time in all areas of life are critical to having a meaningful existence.

“I don’t know what time is, beyond a mysterious self-similar backdrop upon which we lead our lives. It is intricately woven across the scales of observation – from the quantum level to the phenomenological time of cultural revolutions.”

Pincus begins the essay with questions about time and then proceeds to answer them. Then, he focuses on time psychologically, relating it to traumas, disorders, and lack of meaning. In the next section, he discusses how psychotherapists use the concept of time to treat patients. 

In the last part of his essay, Pincus admits that he doesn’t know what time is but notes it’s akin to a thread that stitches moments together and anchors us through a complex world.

“Knowing how precious time is, we should never waste time, but make good use of it.”

Supriya’s essay is straightforward. After claiming that someone’s success depends on how they use their time, she gives an example of a student who studied well and passed an exam quickly. She follows it with more examples, referring to office workers and the famous and wealthy.

“Time is something you can’t have back, and should not be used to simply watch a computer screen for hours upon end.”

The writer shares one of his vices that leads him to waste time – technology, specifically, instant messaging. They mention how unproductive it is to just stare at a computer screen to wait for their friends to go online. They know many others have the same problem and hope to overcome the bad habit soon.

“I should strive for good time management skills which are essential to be learned and mastered in order to have a better personal and professional life… it can also help us learn more about self-discipline which is a crucial pillar for stable success… time management is a concept of balance and moderation of the things that are important to us.”

The essay affirms people need to protect time, as it’s a non-renewable resource. A great way to do it is by tracking your time, also known as time management. The writer shared their experience when they were a college student and how challenging it was to allocate their time between deadlines and other life demands. The following parts of the piece explain what time management is in detail, even recommending a tool to help individuals label their activities based on urgency. The following paragraphs focus on what the author learned about time management throughout their life and how they missed opportunities while continuously being stressed. Then, the last part of the essay suggests tips to conquer time management problems. 

Did you know that readability is critical to readers finishing your whole essay? See our article on how to improve your readability score to learn more. 

8 Writing Prompts For Essays About Time

Go through our recommended prompts on essays about time for writing:

In this essay, share how you use your time on a typical day. Then, decide if you want to keep spending your time doing the same things in the future. If not, tell your readers the reason. For instance, if you’re devoting most of your time studying now, you can say that you intend to use your future time doing other invaluable things, such as working hard to help your family.

Because there are many definitions of time, use this essay to define your interpretation of time. You can use creative writing and personify time to make your essay easy to understand. For example, you can think of time as a personal tutor who always reminds you of the things you should be able to finish within the day. For an engaging essay, use descriptive language to emphasize your points.

List technologies that help people save time, such as smartphones, computers, and the internet. Delve into how these devices help individuals complete their tasks faster. On the other hand, you can also talk about how modernization negatively affects people’s time management. Like when they distract students and workers from completing their assignments.

Discuss reasons why people procrastinate. First, ensure to pick common causes so your readers can easily relate to your piece. Then, add tips on how individuals can battle dilly-dallying by recommending influential time management theories and models. You can even try some of these theories or models and tell your readers how they worked for you. 

Open a discussion about what can happen if there is no concept of time. Include what matters you think will be affected if time is abolished. You can also debate that time does not exist, that it’s just created by people to keep track of whatever they need to monitor. Finally, add your thoughts on the notion that “we only exist within an ever-changing now.”

Share your ideas of what can take place if we use “time” to buy food, pay rent, etc. You can also analyze that when we use our time to work, get paid for it, and then purchase our necessities, we’re technically exchanging our time to be able to buy what we need. A movie that used this theory is In Time , starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, and Cillian Murphy. You can write a review of this movie and add your opinions on it.

Everyone’s aware of the importance of time. For this prompt, delve into why time is precious. Write this essay from your perspective and probe how time, such as managing or wasting it, affects your life. You can also interpret this prompt by calculating the non-monetary or opportunity costs of spending time. 

Examine the direct relationship between time and productivity. Then, list productivity strategies schools and businesses use. You can also open a discourse about the number of hours workers are supposed to work in a week. For example, debate if you think a 40-hour full-time work week in America, results in more productive employees. Then, add other schedules from other countries and how it affects productivity, such as Denmark, Germany, and Norway, with less than 30 hours of the work week. 

Do you want to know how to convince your readers effectively? Read our guide on how to write an argumentative essay . Improve your writing skills; check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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The Importance of Free Time for Kids

Betsie Van Der Meer / Getty Images

Today's children are busy, and when a child enters middle school schedules can get even busier. In fact, your child's schedule, and yours may at times be harried and overwhelming. But free time is important for children,   especially as they enter puberty and adolescence. While too much free time can become problematic,   it's important for parents to make sure that their tween has a balance between scheduled activities and time for themself.

If your tween can't seem to keep up with their responsibilities, it might be because they have too many.   Below are a few considerations when evaluating your child's free time. 

Prioritizing Free Time

Parents often have the best of intentions, but many parents are guilty of overscheduling their children, programming their schedules with extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and other demands.   The reasons behind the trend in overscheduling children are numerous. Some parents simply want to give the child opportunities that they never had. Others hope to make their children more competitive and better prepared for a successful high school experience, and beyond.  

While it is important for a child to pursue interests, hobbies or passions, it's also important for children to learn how to enjoy downtime.

Studies show that children who are overscheduled often feel overwhelmed and pressured, and that can lead to a number of problems including behavioral issues and emotional challenges.   In other words, overscheduled children can be stressed out.

Why It's So Important

Resist the urge to sign your child up for every activity that's available. Instead, help your child prioritize their interests. By doing so you're teaching your tween the skill of decision-making and that downtime should also be a priority to consider.  

Tweens Need Time to Think

Middle school can be stressful. Just consider all the challenges and obstacles a middle school student might face: bullies ; increase in homework responsibilities; pressure to excel and to be competitive; friendship issues; dating; puberty; and more.   All of those challenges require a little time on your child's part to think it through and find ways to manage it.

Allowing your child the free time to think will help your tween put it all into perspective and move on. And allowing your child the time to think also give you an opportunity to talk with one another and work through issues together. If you're rushing from one responsibility to another, conversations can be short and condensed. Allow your child the time to open up to you, or another family member.

Tweens Need to Relax

Adults understand the need to relax after a stressful week of work. Tweens are no different. If you've had a very busy week, you probably just want to go home and watch a little television. Your child might feel the same way. Free time allows your child to relax and do nothing, or to do something they've looked forward to all week.  

Tweens Need to Daydream

Daydreaming is something children are often criticized for, but children should allow themselves to daydream—just not in class. Daydreaming allows children to consider possible futures for themselves, and to ponder all the possibilities that are in front of them.   But you can't daydream if you don't have the leisure time to do so.

While pretend play is important for toddlers and preschoolers, daydreaming is important to tweens and teens. Allow your child the time to think about their future, and you might be surprised at the results.

Free Time Makes People Happy

Studies show that people are generally happier on the weekends.   Why? On the weekends, people get to choose their own activities, spend time with the people they like and separate themselves from their weekday responsibilities. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Auhuber L, Vogel M, Grafe N, Kiess W, Poulain T. Leisure Activities of Healthy Children and Adolescents . Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2019;16(12). doi:10.3390/ijerph16122078

Meldrum RC, Barnes JC. Unstructured Socializing with Peers and Delinquent Behavior: A Genetically Informed Analysis . J Youth Adolesc . 2017;46(9):1968-1981. doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0680-x

American Academy of Pediatrics. Chores and Responsibility . November 21, 2015.

Cleveland Clinic. Is Your Child Overscheduled? Kids Need ‘Down Time’ . July 16, 2018.

Vandell DL, Larson, RW, Mahoney, JL, Watts, TW. Children's Organized Activities . In Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Ecological Settings and Orocesses . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons; 2015, pp. 305-344. doi:10.1002/9781118963418.childpsy408

Brown SL, Nobiling BD, Teufel J, Birch DA. Are kids too busy?: early adolescents' perceptions of discretionary activities, overscheduling, and stress . J Sch Health . 2011;81(9):574-80. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00629.x

Barker JE, Semenov AD, Michaelson L, Provan LS, Snyder HR, Munakata Y. Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning .  Front Psychol . 2014;5:593. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593

American Psychological Association. How to help children and teens manage their stress . October 24, 2019.

McMillan RL, Kaufman SB, Singer JL. Ode to positive constructive daydreaming .  Front Psychol . 2013;4:626. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00626

Helliwell JF, Wang S. How was the weekend? How the social context underlies weekend effects in happiness and other emotions for US workers .  PLoS One . 2015;10(12):e0145123. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145123

By Jennifer O'Donnell Jennifer O'Donnell holds a BA in English and has training in specific areas regarding tweens, covering parenting for over 8 years.

Essay on Time Management for Students and Children

500+ words essay on time management.

Essay on time management-In today’s scenario people are so busy in their lives that they are not getting time for themselves. Due to which time management has become the need of the hour. Time management is playing a vital role in mankind . Time management creates discipline or vice versa. If you want to be successful in life then you need to manage your time. As a result, various billionaires teach about time management.

The Meaning of Time Management

In our daily life, we have got only twenty-four hours in a day. Therefore we cannot do everything in one day. This creates limitations in our everyday work. In order to manage work, social life and sleep, division of time is important. In a particular way division of time is the need. This will help the person to complete all his tasks. You should write your tasks in a schedule.

Designing has to be in a way that each task gets enough time. Your work should have the highest priority. The second priority should sleep. And the last but not the least your social life. Your social life includes family and friends.

In order to live a happy and peaceful life socializing is important. Too much workload can make a person ill. So, give your mind a little rest. Spending time with family can help you with this. Moreover, the main purpose to work is to fulfill the needs of the family. Since the fulfillment of needs is important. Which makes a person happy.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Importance of Time Management for Students

Though adults are working, the students are not spared with work. The students today have many studies to do. Because of this, they are not getting time to enjoy their childhood. Time management for students has become a crucial need. Education has become vast. Therefore proper scheduling of time is important.

A good student knows the importance of studies . But he should also know time never comes back. Thus a student should take out time for personal development too. Since personal development is important for their proper growth. Moreover, personality development is also important for a student. They should at least take out one hour for sports. Sports teach student teamwork. Since it is enjoyable it lessens the stress of the day.

The daily routine is School or college, and then coaching. This leaves with no time of self-studies. Self-study is an important aspect of education. The student should not neglect this. As the day ends, they get too tired. Due to which there is no energy left. This degrades the performance of the student.

There is a difference between a topper and an average student. That difference is proper time management. A topper student schedules his time. While an average student does not do that. And because he never manages time, he gets no time for self-study. Which in turn leaves him behind.

How to Manage Time?

A person should eliminate unnecessary activities from their daily schedule. On weekends you should do it. Especially should socialize on weekends. Also, include traveling time in the schedule. This ensures accuracy.

Most Noteworthy, make a time table on paper. In which you should write your daily activities. This will create discipline in your life. Moreover, you should complete the task daily. However, there will be some changes in the schedule with time.

Finally, your schedule needs to be practical. You cannot make a schedule unless you know your daily timings. Each persons’ schedule is unique if you copy you won’t progress in life.

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Essay on Time Management

• Updated on  
• Aug 27, 2022

“Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing”- Mile Davis.

Time management is a prestigious topic for budding subconscious minds. It is one of the most crucial skills that you must inculcate from early on. This skill has vital importance when you move into a professional setting. It is extremely important to manage time efficiently as not managing time can create many problems in your day-to-day life. It is also a common essay topic in the school curriculum and various academic and competitive exams like IELTS , TOEFL , SAT , UPSC , etc. This blog brings you samples of essays on time management with tips & tricks on how to write an essay.

Essay on Time Management in 200 words

Time stops for none and is equal for all. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day but some people make better use of time than others. This is one of the most important reasons some people are experts in what they do. Therefore, time management plays a vital role in both personal as well as professional lives.

Time management is basically an effort made consciously to spend a certain amount of time performing a task efficiently. Furthermore, it is estimated that to have better results, one needs to do productive work. Thus, productivity is the key focus here. Moreover, maintaining a careful balance between professional life, social life, and any other hobbies or activities is a great example of efficient time management.

Time management is also crucial for students from an academic perspective as students require to cover many subjects. Thus, efficiently managing time is an important skill in everyone’s life.  Around the world, there are two views for time management – linear time view and multi-active time view. The linear time view is predominant in America, Germany and England, and it aims at completing one task at a time. Whereas a multi-active view aims at completing a number at once and is predominant in India and Spain. Nevertheless, time management is one of the important traits of a successful individual, students are advised to follow whichever is convenient for them.

Essay on Time Management in 300 Words

Time Management is a key skill for job opportunities as employers recruit candidates who have this efficient skill. Thus, it is advised to initiate inculcating this vital skill as soon as possible. In the academic setting, time management plays a vital role and helps in the accomplishment of tasks efficiently and effectively.

Time management is the process of planning and performing pre-scheduled activities with the aim of increasing productivity, effectiveness and efficiency. Different cultures hold different views on Time Management. However, a multi-active time view and a linear time view are the two predominant views. In a linear time view, the aim is set to complete one particular task at a time whereas, in a multi-active view, the focus is on completing a greater number of tasks at once. Emphasis is given on productivity and effectiveness, but students are free to choose their own view of time management.

Time management is crucial as it is helpful in setting a timeline for achieving a particular goal. Moreover, it also increases the efficiency of the tasks at hand. It becomes necessary for working professionals as they need to balance their personal and professional life. Thus, they do not have time to dwell on each and every detail in every task. In such cases, a multi-active view is one of the helpful methods. Time management works best when a goal or target is set. For instance, a student becomes far more effective at learning when they decide to assign 2 hours for learning a particular concept. This is effectively a method of benchmarking progress. So, every time the activity is performed, one can measure themselves and improve upon various aspects of their tasks.The clear conclusion is that time management is a crucial skill for students and working professionals. Thus, everyone must practise time management to improve productivity and efficiency of tasks.

Tips for Writing an Essay on Time Management

To write an impactful and scoring essay here are some tips on how to manage time and write a good essay:

• The initial step is to write an introduction or background information about the topic
• You are required to use the formal style of writing and avoid using slang language.
• To make an essay more impactful, write dates, quotations, and names to provide a better understanding
• You can use jargon wherever it is necessary as it sometimes makes an essay complicated
• To make an essay more creative you can also add information in bulleted points wherever possible
• Always remember to add a conclusion where you need to summarise crucial points
• Once you are done read through the lines and check spelling and grammar mistakes before submission

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Lastly, we hope this blog has helped you in structuring a terrific essay on time management. Planning to ace your IELTS, get expert tips from coaches at Leverage Live by Leverage Edu .

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Time Management — The Challenge of Time Management and Its Effects on Adult Learning

The Challenge of Time Management and Its Effects on Adult Learning

• Categories: Time Management

About this sample

Words: 1098 |

Published: Jan 15, 2019

Words: 1098 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

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Why is the issue significant, why does it occur, how does it affect learning, who shares a stake.

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How I Spend My Free Time (Essay Sample) 2023

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How Long Is A One Page Essay and Is it realistic to expect a low-cost, High-Quality Essay from a Cheap Paper Writing Service ?

What do you do in your free time? Some people produce beautiful flowers, some watch soap operas, and others play computer games.

This custom essay on how you spend your free time focuses on painting as a hobby. Read on and find out how the author discovered her love for painting and what her creative process looks like.

What do you do when you have too much leisure time and want to make it count? To produce your own essay on this topic, get An Essay Writing Service to match you with a writer who can help you out.

What Do You Do In Your Free Time Essay Example

I remember my father painting landscapes when I was a kid. We used to go out for walks with him when he needed inspiration. He once gave me a beautiful portrait that I found meaningful, and to this day I still have it. Because of my dad, I enjoy painting as a hobby.

As a student, I am always busy with my school work on weekdays. Thankfully, I have plenty of free time on weekends, so I get to paint then. I’ve tried a variety of painting formats. But right now, I love doing my friends’ portraits. Sometimes, they even ask me to go and paint their bedrooms with a design of my choosing.

I love painting indoors because sometimes the weather gets too chilly. Painting is a great way to portray my perception of reality or even showcase a figment of my imagination. I get to imagine all kinds of things and paint them. I’ve done astonishing houses in heaven, hills, clouds, and peoples’ faces. Sometimes I even visit exhibitions in our town and check out other artists’ works for inspiration and for pure pleasure. Even though I am still young, I still get a lot of compliments about my art, and this motivates me a lot.

Memorable Paintings I’ve Done in My Leisure Time

I have one particular portrait of my mother, which I painted during the last summer holiday. I think it’s the best piece I’ve ever done. It’s also meaningful as my mother has been my greatest inspiration, and she encourages me to keep honing my craft.

Another favorite piece of art that I made was when my art teacher told me to draw a landscape of our school at the end of term. This experience was so special because the end result was attractive and unique.

I have many other memorable artworks, and each one of them has a significant memory attached to it. I hope that one day I can put up my own exhibit and show people some of the paintings that I’ve done over the years.

My Creative Process

My painting work is primarily done at home. I have an art room where I keep my brushes, paintings, and other materials.

Before I start, I try to visualize in my mind the vision I have for the piece. For instance, I did an elephant portrait once. It took me an entire day just to finish the sketch as I had to spend time visualizing the outlines on its head. Getting a technical grasp of the object of my study is so important, and it should never be skipped.

After attaining clarity on my vision, I identify the specific hues that I will need to get started. Sometimes I build on this, as the vision can sometimes evolve when I start painting. I then focus all my time filling in the outline and perfecting all the details. I don’t stop until I have a piece of art that I am proud to call my own.

Room for Growth in My Free Time

To be honest, I have so much room for improvement. Thankfully, I have a lot of free windows on weekends to keep working on my weaknesses.

One thing that I have realized is that painting is different from writing, though both are creative endeavors. I love how the end result of painting is a primarily visual experience. It’s so fun and exciting. It’s a good way to cheer me up after a long week of studies. Painting is also a relatively affordable hobby and a good outlet for creative people like myself, even if it requires a lot of practice and dedication. There’s never a dull moment.

I would love to spend more time painting. Another reason why it is so important to me is because of the connection it has to my father. He was my first inspiration. While I am self-taught, I diligently apply all the things I have learned from art books. More than just getting better at my technique, I have found a good outlet for expressing myself emotionally without having to say it in words.

How Do I Spend My Free Time Essay

What activities do you pursue in your spare time? There are “academic” hobbyists who try to learn a foreign language, and other more kinaesthetic learners who engage themselves in various sports activities.

I personally like to paint portraits in my free moments, whether I’m on summer vacation or just taking a break for the weekend. It all started when I was young, when I watched my father paint and get inspiration from the most random things in nature. Since then, I’ve been trying to deepen my technical knowledge of this type of art. I’m a self-taught painter, so I rely on art books, artist interviews, and painting workshops to get better at my craft.

While I appreciate different kinds of painting, I am especially captivated by portraits. As such, this is the style of painting I prefer doing. I have done pieces for my friends over the years and I would volunteer as a portrait artist for different types of social activities.

When it comes to leisure, it’s important to know how to spend your free time wisely. Make those moments count, as you may never get them back again.

What are popular free time activities you enjoy?

You may opt to write about a variety of different hobbies or pursuits, such as collecting stamps, finding and filling little treasure chests, watching plants grow, trying physical activities, playing games, cultivating a garden, reading novels, and other exciting things. As you write about these activities, keep in mind to write about the things that get you excited.

What are the ways to spend your free time wisely?

In this very busy and fast-paced world, free time can be very hard to come by, so it’s important to maximize the free moments you have. Use your spare time investing in yourself. It doesn’t mean that you have to do something expensive or difficult, especially if it will only cause you even more stress. Do especially exciting things that personally matter to you. You know it’s worth doing if you feel refreshed and recharged at the end of the day. It may still require some physical exertion, but the satisfaction you get from doing it should weigh more heavily.

You don’t even have to stick to just one thing. If your free time comes in a regular series of time bursts, you can actually make a bucket list of the things you want to do. It could be pursuing hobbies that you’re already familiar with, or it could be finding a new interest and learning how to do it well. Whatever it is, it should be something that will enrich your life.

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Free time activities essay 13 models

Free time activities essay contains many interesting  about how to spend leisure time in useful and interesting things at the same time. All of this will be found here in free time activities essay .

Free time activities essay

Many of us are bored in our spare time and find nothing to occupy ourselves with at those times ,and here we will offer you many activities that can be exploited in leisure time. This is here in free time activities essay .

Leisure time

Leisure time is considered one of the most problems experienced by young people in our time. They spend their time playing or sitting in front of television and computer screens without doing anything useful. Therefore, we will present in this article a set of activities that can be done to get rid of this problem.

How to spend your free time:

 Reading, where reading is one of the most beautiful and wonderful activities and useful works.In addition to the pleasure and entertainment that it adds to the life of the person,it also fills the mind with knowledge , science ,stories and useful novels .

A person can follow the style of reading in his life, either by buying books, making use of a free library card, or by exchanging books with his friends.

Writing, as this means has a great role in improving the psyche of the person and the translation of ideas and feelings and emptying them on paper.

 Man can adhere to this habit until it becomes an integral part of his life, and may develop this talent to become a well-known writer later.

 A person can begin to write about a particular event or turning point in his or her life, he can also write his diary, for example.

Writing poetry in its various forms and types.

 Sewing , a nice idea to start a sewing project, fashion design, knitting art pieces.

 Walking, it has multiple benefits to the health of the body, heart and blood vessels.

Drawing, which allows the person to translate the ideas in his head through the work of simple graphics, and can develop this talent through the lessons of learning online and available free of charge.

Cooking,   cooking skill is necessary and must be learned in life, and there is nothing more beautiful than to cook with your hands and make new and unfamiliar dishes.

The manufacture of various accessories and jewelry , which require multiple raw materials, and can learn this skill through learning lessons spread across the Web.

Fishing,   this is a good way to spend enjoyable time for people who live near the sea and the water bodies.

Taking photos , using specialized cameras or using a smartphone’s camera, so that people can take beautiful pictures of scenic and natural places.

To learn the chess , it is known that this game helps to increase thinking, raise the level of intelligence, in addition to being a good way to challenge the self.

My free time activities are walking and jogging. I love to share this hobby with others, especially with friends, after a long and hard school week.

I need nothing more than to drain my energy so that I can release the pressure and tension from within me. And renew my activity to return to school with all activity and vitality.

Walking is very wonderful, especially when you wake up early and start some warm-up with friends, have some interesting conversations, and then start doing sports.

I always find my day more energetic when I can get up early and do my exercises. I already feel the effect of the activity of the blood circulation, and the softness of the nerves and muscles, and I can relax without feeling any pain in my body resulting from pressure and tension.

Therefore, I like to do some sports activities during my spare time, whether with friends or on my own.

Free time activities paragraph

The activities I do in my spare time are many because of the area in which I live. My friends and I can go mountain bike tours, visit different places by bike and experience discovery. I also tend to try out some new practices like gymnastics, horseback riding, or playing tennis.

It is nice to take advantage of the free time and acquire some new skills. I love doing all these things but I’m still interested in short trips with friends that allow us to get to know each other more, and spend evenings and trips half a day or a full day together. That makes me very happy.

What do you do in your free time essay

I like to use my free time to do useful work, or practice a hobby that I like, therefore, I spend my spare time fishing, which is my favorite hobby.

Fishing is an interesting hobby and has many benefits, including that I enjoy watching the sea and its crashing waves, and also enjoying the fresh air. Then I finally get a meal of delicious fresh fish. Also, I don’t go fishing alone, I go with my best friend, we have a good time and we make use of the fish we caught.

A free time activity you enjoy essay

The activity I like to do in my spare time is cooking of all kinds, as I make all kinds of pizzas and sweets. I learned to cook from my aunt because she was working as a chef in a big hotel. When I was young I watched her cook and I was so happy. As I got older, I became more attached to this hobby until I became unable to do anything else. At the end of the year, I go to my aunt’s house to learn a number of new recipes, so that I can implement them in my next spare time.

How do you spend your free time essay

My name is (..). I have a brother who is two years younger than me, I am in (..) class . I like to spend my spare time in ice skating, all the children of the town practice ice skating in the winter season.

Snow covers everything in winter and the lakes in my town freeze. I like to spend my spare time in riding a Ski Bike or in traditional skating.

Sometimes I go with my father to the lake to catch fish. The lake is frozen so we must first sit inside our log cabin on the lake and dig a hole in the ice. And through this hole we can fish. I love spending such time with my father or my friends.

Every year I spend my spare time doing the same things. I am excited in the coming years to travel to other countries and discover more curious and interesting things.

Paragraph about free time activities

My name is (..). I have a family consisting of (..) people. I am (..) years old.

On vacation last year, my father told us about the importance of volunteering in charitable work and participating in social activities through which we can help others.

Therefore, we have some activities that we do whenever the opportunity arises, especially on vacations and holidays. Such as volunteering in hygiene campaigns and preserving the environment. Or visits to hospitals and provide psychological support to the patient.

So there is always a new person we get to know and try to make happy, or there is an area we share and work to improve the general appearance of it.

We often work on the sides of roads and rivers where some people throw rubbish there. Therefore, we share hygiene and hang awareness banners in these areas.

Sometimes we distribute some warning leaflets to them to preserve the environment in which they live. I love doing these activities very much and I hope they will manage.

Paragraph about how to spend your free time

I like to spend my time on normal days playing video games and roaming with my friends in the streets, Sometimes we go to parties to have fun.

But in recent weeks, that seemed to change a little, as I became involved in voluntary activities after joining a non-governmental charitable organization, which is interested in visiting orphaned children, children with burns, and children with cancer.

Since I joined this association, I no longer care about games as much as before. I work on picking positive words during conversation and showing love through jokes and hiding the side of pity that I used to show when I saw them, I knew that it was bad and made them upset.

I think after joining this association and doing some volunteer work with them that something has changed in me. I feel that I have become more mature and I love the volunteer work through which we raise the morale of many children who need this support.

My Favourite Free Time Activities Essay

I love photography very much. I own a Nikon D3500 camera. Not the best of the species, but it is very good and took many great shots.

I very much like to go out on holidays like summer vacation, or holidays from school and take some pictures of birds and landscapes. I teach in class (write your class here). Therefore, I do not practice my hobby a lot except on vacations only.

I love visiting natural areas and photographing some close-up shots of birds or people. I always go around looking for a special shot or an impressive scene that I can capture without affecting its beauty to be natural and unique.

I like to post my photos to my social media accounts. It gets a lot of praise and encouragement. When I grow up I hope to be this is my job.

Essay a free time activity you enjoy

Undoubtedly, free time is one of the times that everyone needs to practice some activities to unload the activity trapped inside them, so I like to volunteer in some non-governmental charities and visit cancer patients and support them.

Such activities impress me a lot and make me learn from their experiences and suffering to appreciate life, and how to live according to a healthy diet, which helps me prevent many diseases.

In the aspect of self-confidence, such visits always help me in developing my rhetoric and developing jokes to ease the suffering of others.

One of my ambitions in the future is to become a doctor and I would very much like to specialize in treating children. I like to deal with them a lot and I am very happy to relieve their psychological burdens.

I also like to go out on some volunteers to clean up my surroundings and participate in some seminars.

Essay about a free time activity you enjoy

I very much like to participate in volunteer activities that make me get to know others and share conversations with them and benefit from their experience a lot.

I may describe myself as a social person who loves all people and is very tolerant with myself. One of my best features is that I can notice details and keep them in my memory without forgetting them.

Therefore, I very much like to participate in non-governmental associations for the treatment of alcohol, or any kind of addiction, and some encouraging seminars for the injured.

I always find what I look for when other people talk about their pain and tell how it happened. I can benefit from this, and I liked a lot some of my posts that I recommended to some, and the advice was fruitful and useful.

I expect to benefit from my talent in the future, I may study psychiatric counseling or some thing like that.

Write a paragraph about your free-time activities

It is great for a person to have a variety of different activities that he does in his spare time. Such variety does not make me bored and always makes me excited to try some new things.

I love fishing very much, so I practice more than one different way of fishing, and I can find out the most suitable among them according to the season, direction and wind speed. I also love very much to play basketball and soccer.

The diversity of activities always makes me active and happy and I do not feel depressed, especially when I am passionate about hunting. I can enjoy a lot of fishing and forget about anything that bothers me.

I also love to research and learn my lessons before I study them. Therefore, I like to go to the library and read some historical books or books that may be related to my studies. This makes me more open to the subject we are studying and familiar with many aspects of it.

How to spend your free time essay

When asked how do you spend your free time? I find myself thinking about one thing, I really feel that I love nothing more than fishing, and watching TV programs that talk about the means, methods and seasons of fishing.

I love being on the beaches, or rivers, I can catch fish in more than one way, I like a lot to strive to catch the biggest fish and challenge my brother or father, and maybe some friends who share my love for this hobby.

What can I say, I think I’m obsessed with this hobby and I really like the idea that it became more popular on TV shows. I watched some competitions here and there, I hope in the future to participate in one and show my hunting abilities and talents.

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Jane Coaston

Getting Back to Basics on Free Speech

By Jane Coaston

Ms. Coaston is a contributing writer to Opinion.

At colleges and universities across the country, from Cal Poly, Humboldt, to Columbia, students have been protesting the war in Gaza. Some of those protesters have demanded that their universities divest from companies that may directly or indirectly support Israeli military operations; others have called for a cease-fire, while others have far wider demands.

The protests have generated another round of discussion (and endless takes on the internet) about free speech on college campuses. Which forms of speech are permissible (and legal)? What about universities that purportedly champion free speech suddenly deciding that maybe there’s such a thing as too much freedom of speech? And, personally, I want to know why we pay so much attention to Ivy League schools most of us didn’t go to.

I spoke with Greg Lukianoff, the president and C.E.O. of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan group that champions and defends free speech. His most recent book , written with Rikki Schlott, is “The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All — But There Is a Solution.” We discussed what free speech is and isn’t, what conservatives are getting wrong about college campuses and how Oct. 7 changed how he views free speech.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity and is part of an Opinion Q. and A. series exploring modern conservatism today, its influence in society and politics and how and why it differs (and doesn’t) from the conservative movement that most Americans thought they knew. And, for disclosure, I spoke to FIRE’s Student Network Conference in 2021.

Jane Coaston: What do college campuses mean to you?

Greg Lukianoff: Done right, their single most important contribution is edging toward truth not by getting there directly but by chipping away at falsity. Professors getting in trouble for their opinions is much more dangerous than people understand. Because when people see that, it rightfully undermines their belief that experts are actually being objective. Even if there’s just social pressure to come to certain conclusions, that’s bad enough for the search for truth. Nearly one-third of professors report that administrators are telling them to steer clear of controversial research.

[ Mr. Lukianoff was citing FIRE’s own research .]

Coaston: Why do you think we fixate on very specific types of college campuses? Your book features lengthy discussions of both Harvard and Yale. Most people don’t go to the Ivies; most people don’t go to college, period. What is the impact of activities at Ivy League campuses on people who went to Auburn or Michigan, or Eastern Michigan or Northern Michigan?

Lukianoff: Yeah, I would love it if Harvard and Yale and Princeton and Stanford didn’t matter as much to the country as they do, but they do, unfortunately. When you look at the fact that nearly every single member of our Supreme Court at one point attended either Harvard or Yale, it’s pretty galling. When you look at a lot of the leadership of both parties, a lot of them are Yale and Harvard people.

If our society didn’t so handsomely reward the small number of schools and if those schools were not the gateway to things like Goldman Sachs and in some cases to the White House, then we’d be a healthier country. But we’re kidding ourselves if we pretend as currently structured that we don’t wildly overfavor people who attended the sample of schools.

Coaston: Why do you think that student protests that limit the speech of others get more attention than universities that limit speech? Which concerns you more?

Lukianoff: They both concern me. Last year was the worst year for deplatforming that we’ve seen, and we include in that shout-downs and physically blocking people from getting through a speech, chasing someone off campus like they did actually at Berkeley this year. Those are deplatformings. This year is set to blow that out of the water. What universities need to own is that if they have students who think it’s not just OK but it’s actually profoundly moral to chase off speakers they don’t like, rather than protest outside or ask tough questions, for example, that they’ve done a real disservice to those students. They failed to explain what higher education is supposed to be.

[ Mr. Lukianoff’s organization considers efforts, for example, to get speakers disinvited from campus or cancel screenings of films as deplatforming. ]

To be fair, some administrators are very good on free speech and academic freedom, but a lot of the administrators we battle in some cases are ideologues, and they believe that this speech needs to be shut down because it’s somehow toxic or whatever. In other cases, they’re doing what Dean Wormer would’ve done, which is simply shutting down speech because they don’t like it or because it’s inconvenient or because they want peace and quiet on their watch.

[ Dean Wormer is the administrator in the film “National Lampoon’s Animal House.” ]

Coaston: How did Oct. 7 and Israel’s war in Gaza and the activism that followed changed people’s views on the First Amendment and how people think about it?

Lukianoff: Last fall was a time where — I don’t want to say just conservatives, because I think there were a lot of people from different points in the spectrum who were kind of horrified in some cases, for example, by the students who I believe, actually, on Oct. 7, or at least on Oct. 8, were holding Israel entirely responsible for these attacks. That was something that people who would think of themselves even on the left found pretty galling, but it did lead to a lot of cancel culture. It did lead to a lot of attempts to get people out of jobs. And it led to people who normally were very critical of cancel culture in some cases, to sort of make an exception for people who were very pro-Palestine.

Cancel culture comes from both the right and the left. For some people, post-Oct. 7 made them fans of cancel culture when it worked to their advantage. It was a sort of clarifying moment for the people who support free speech even in the situations where in some cases you might consider the speech highly unsympathetic.

Coaston: How should we be thinking about offensive speech? In your book, you discussed the difference between free-speech laws and free-speech culture, and that ties into the idea of hate speech or offensive speech because you can say that there’s no rule against hate speech in the Constitution, but if you are a college administrator, someone screaming, “Kill all the Jews,” it’s probably something that you are going to want to curtail, even though it is technically legal. So how do you think about the difference between what is legal and what should be culturally permissible?

Lukianoff: That there’s a value to know what people really think not even if it’s horrifying or ugly or gross but especially if it is. One way of looking at it is: When there’s an environment where people are not being authentic because they’re afraid of being offensive, it can actually sometimes give greater suspicion among people.

But there’s value to knowing what people really think even when it’s wrong. I always give the example of: Lizard people who live under the Denver airport do not actually, in fact, control the world, but knowing that your girlfriend or your uncle or someone in your family or your teacher, for that matter, believes that they do is really important information to know.

An awful lot of the value of information is not knowing the objective nature of reality but rather knowing what people really think. When it comes to things like “Zionists must die,” depending on the circumstances, that absolutely can be potentially a threat, that can be intimidation, and if it’s part of a pattern of behavior, it can potentially be discriminatory harassment on campus. But when figuring out whether or not speech is or is not protected, context really does matter.

Coaston: What do you think conservatives get wrong about campuses right now?

Lukianoff: Conservatives focus a lot on the professoriate. Even though we are happy to defend their student chapters when they get in trouble for their speech, I take great issue with Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA and their professor watch list, which is something that I very much object to, particularly when they add, “Here is how you can contact this administration.” We count that as a cancellation attempt.

Now, Turning Point USA thankfully has not actually been successful in getting professors canceled, but they certainly do report that they got a lot of hate mail and nasty calls.

Coaston: What do you think conservatives get right about campuses right now?

Lukianoff: I came to FIRE in 2001, somewhat hard to convince that the problem of viewpoint diversity was all that big of a deal. Like, “So what? Professors lean somewhat more to the left.” I thought the numbers were something like two to one or maybe even three to one in terms of left-leaning professors versus conservative. As I started to learn more about the actual data, I got a lot more concerned about it because when you have an environment that doesn’t have people who really fundamentally disagree with each other and you have an environment that practically excludes from certain departments people who represent maybe half of the voting population of the United States, you shouldn’t be surprised that group polarization effects take over.

If you were to take your 12 best friends and then go off, split them in half according to politics and then go off with your six most right- or left-leaning to talk about hot-button issues, you’re probably going to come back more radicalized in the direction of the group. That’s what group polarization means. I think that I underestimated how much the lack of viewpoint diversity creates an environment that tends to go further and further to the left. I don’t know a really easy way to fix that problem. One solution — and it’s something that Dartmouth has talked about — is to have a lot more classes that are co-taught by people who actually disagree with each other. People have mentioned the model of Robert P. George and Cornel West at Princeton.

But if you have an environment with too low of viewpoint diversity, it becomes a lot easier to think in terms of there’s an us — the clever, moral, smart people — and then there’s the they, the stupid and evil. That is a problem that I underappreciated earlier in my career, and I now take a lot more seriously.

Coaston: In the book you write about the perils of common-good conservatism. What worried you about that movement on the right?

Lukianoff: Where to begin with that? In a lot of ways, it seems to be an idea based on a kind of universal understanding of morality — which right there, that kind of scares me because I’ve been an atheist since seventh grade and I’ve always sort of balked at the idea of there being any idea of universal morality. That’s one of the things that we First Amendment people always love. We love the weirdos. We love the odd ones. We love the people who are out of step and don’t fit in within their same neighborhood or group. It sounds very much like a formula for authoritarianism.

Coaston: You’ve been doing this for a while. I want to ask you how you think a few major events or inventions have changed First Amendment concerns and how people perceive the First Amendment. How do you think the Trump presidency changed First Amendment concerns and how people perceive the First Amendment?

Lukianoff: Well, Trump sped up a lot of pre-existing trends, just like social media did, that essentially a lot of the concerns on the left about the right went into overdrive. Trump has a tendency to not really care about bringing people together. He’s perfectly fine having enemies that he targets. It led to a sort of even nastier form of the already fairly nasty politics that we’ve had, and 2017 through 2021 through the end of the Trump presidency was a pretty crazy time. And I think that, partially because there are some on the right who aren’t consistent about free speech and wrap themselves in the idea of being free-speech defenders, it makes it very easy for people who want to be cynical about those of us who do it for a living to sort of throw us in with people like that.

Coaston: How did the events of Jan. 6 change First Amendment concerns and how people think about it?

Lukianoff: I would say the biggest debate over Jan. 6 was whether or not it constituted Brandenburg incitement . That may sound kind of unsexy, but it matters because Brandenburg was kind of the resolution of cases that came out of World War I that originally fell upon the idea that speech can be stopped only if it’s a clear and present danger. Brandenburg got you to a stage where it has to be imminent lawless action that is also likely to happen, that you help happen — essentially standing in front of the mayor’s office saying, “Let’s go burn down the mayor’s office,” when a lot of people have torches in their hands, that would be incitement.

When it comes to what happened on Jan. 6 in First Amendment circles, there’s a lot of disagreement about whether that’s actually counted as incitement. I definitely understand people like my friend David French, who make the argument that if this doesn’t count as incitement, then maybe our definition of incitement is wrong. I have some sympathy for that point of view, even though I am with the majority of First Amendment people who still think the Brandenburg standard is overall the right standard.

[ Mr. French said that he still agrees the Brandenburg standard is the right one but believes that Mr. Trump’s actions meet that standard .]

Coaston: And then this past year, we talked a bit about this already, but you had a book about free speech come out 10 days after Oct. 7. How did the aftermath of Oct. 7 change how people view the First Amendment? Did it change your views?

Lukianoff: I think it was a reminder to get back to basics and explain more. Because most people, when they hear certain lines, they’re like, “So you’re telling me that sincerely trying to kill an entire group of people is protected?” Usually when people say that, they add “sincerely and seriously,” then you have to take a step back and explain, “Listen, the two things at issue here more than anything else are ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine should be free,’ and ‘intifada.’” Once you get people back there, you can be like, “And don’t you think those phrases by themselves are protected?” And generally you can get people, if they’re being reasonable to any degree, to go, “Well, yeah. Well, those are protected.” Now, if you’re saying that in certain contexts, again, it can be intimidation, it can be threats, it can potentially be discriminatory harassment, but there’s got to be more than just the phrases themselves.

So it was a good reminder sometimes to get back to some of the first principles of it and to remind people of simple ideas like what we call the bedrock principles. In our society, under the First Amendment, one of our bedrock principles, according to Texas v. Johnson, a 1989 case, is that you can’t ban speech simply because it’s offensive. That is a wonderful, sensible rule for a genuinely multicultural and diverse society, because people in different economic classes, people from different regions, people from different groups, people from different states, people from different countries, all have very different ideas of what is offensive. You would necessarily have to privilege what is deemed offensive by some group or some person or some group of people or some individuals of what is offensive. And that cuts against the kind of pluralism that you’re trying to protect.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Jane Coaston was the host of Opinion’s podcast “ The Argument .” Previously, she reported on conservative politics, the G.O.P. and the rise of the right. She also co-hosted the podcast “The Weeds.” @ janecoaston

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40 million US adults lack swimming skills, contributing to rise in drownings

Drowning deaths increased in the us for the first time since 2019.

Erica Hernandez , Courthouse Reporter

Misael Gomez , Photojournalist

SAN ANTONIO – For the first time since 2019, there has been an increase in drownings in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Between 2020 to 2022, the CDC said 4,500 people drowned.

One reason why people drown is that they don’t know how to swim. In fact, 40 million adults in the US don’t know how to swim, with the majority of them being Black and Hispanic, the CDC said.

The CDC reports 63% of Black adults and 72% of Hispanic adults have never taken a swim lesson.

More communities across the country are trying to help people learn how to swim by offering affordable or free water safety classes or swim lessons.

The YMCA of Greater San Antonio is one organization pushing to break the stigma.

“What we try to do is make it as accessible as possible, to get skills and confidence around water, for everyone in San Antonio,” Shannon Gowan with YMCA said.

The YMCA is on a mission to provide the opportunity to teach the community how to swim by offering scholarships for swim lessons as well as a free water safety class.

The free classes are for people of all ages but you must register online.

The City of San Antonio also offers free group swim lessons, including the ‘Let’s Swim SA’ program that launches this summer.

There is also the U.S. National Water Safety Action Plan in place to hire diverse staff that look like the communities they serve.

Below are some basic water safety tips to help prevent drownings:

• Don’t swim alone
• Supervise all children at all times
• Build a fence that fully encloses and separates the pool from the house
• Wear a life jacket
• Don’t drink alcohol while swimming
• Learn CPR skills

Copyright 2024 by KSAT - All rights reserved.

About the Authors

Erica hernandez.

Erica Hernandez is an Emmy award-winning journalist with 15 years of experience in the broadcast news business. Erica has covered a wide array of stories all over Central and South Texas. She's currently the court reporter and cohost of the podcast Texas Crime Stories.

Misael Gomez

Misael started at KSAT-TV as a photojournalist in 1987.

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