How Much Free Time Is Too Much Free Time?
When it comes to free time, it turns out that too much free time can actually be just as stressful as too little – at least according to new research that suggests there is a sweet spot for how much free time you should have a day. Research shows that people begin to feel unproductive and even stressed when they have more than about five hours of daily free time.
Too Much Good?
The American Psychological Association has examined the effects of leisure time on human well-being using data from several related studies. The first was the 2013 Time Use Survey, in which 21,736 Americans were surveyed about their activities in the previous 24 hours and reported their feelings of well-being. The results showed that people felt better as their free time increased, but that feeling stabilized after about two hours and then actually diminished after five hours. Another study of 13,639 American workers confirmed these findings.
Based on these results, two additional online studies were conducted that examined people’s sense of well-being based on how they perceived different amounts of free time, performing either productive tasks (hobbies, housework, socializing) or unproductive tasks (nothing doing). For unproductive tasks, the results showed a U-shaped data structure in which people would experience stress with too short a break (15 minutes), feel good with a moderate break (3.5 hours), and experience stress with a lot of interruptions. time off (seven hours).
The authors note that “while an abundance of discretionary time spent on solitary and unproductive activities did have a negative impact on subjective well-being, discretionary time spent on activities that were social or productive did not.”
In other words, true time seems to be a source of stress – there is a big difference between sitting in your underwear all day and using that time to hang out with friends or even clean the apartment.
However, the study simply reflects the perceived stress of its participants, discusses overall averages, and should not be confused with an absolute measure of how people feel.
What can you learn from this study?
As many retirees or long-term unemployed people can tell you, excessive, aimless amounts of free time can be stressful and even depressed. In fact, without commitments such as work, filling the day with activity can be a separate form of stress, especially when social norms dictate that you should enjoy your free time. However, research shows that this is not always the case. For this reason, even if you have time allotted to work to “do nothing,” you may still want to divide your days into planned activities, such as exercise or hanging out with friends, to get the most out of the free time.