Quotes About Leisure

Leisure that uses up external resources, however, often requires less attention, and as a consequence it generally provides less memorable rewards.

In the roughly one-third of the day that is free of obligations, in their precious "leisure" time, most people in fact seem to use their minds as little as possible. The largest part of free time—almost half of it for American adults—is spent in front of the television set. The

One of the most ironic paradoxes of our time is this great availability of leisure that somehow fails to be translated into enjoyment. Compared

creative," "concentrated," and "motivated." What was unexpected, however, is how frequently people reported flow situations at work, and how rarely in leisure.

many leisure activities—especially those involving the passive consumption of mass media—are not designed to make us happy and strong. Their purpose is to make money for someone else.

Free time, on the other hand, is unstructured, and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed.

People who learn to enjoy their work, who do not waste their free time, end up feeling that their lives as a whole have become much more worthwhile. "The future," wrote C. K. Brightbill, "will belong not only to the educated man, but to the man who is educated to use his leisure wisely.

Although, as we have seen, people generally long to leave their places of work and get home, ready to put their hard-earned free time to good use, all too often they have no idea what to do there.

Although average Americans have plenty of free time, and ample access to leisure activities, they do not, as a result, experience flow often. Potentiality does not imply actuality, and quantity does not translate into quality.

But even when there is nothing else pressing occupying their minds, most people fall far below the peak capacity for processing information. In the roughly one-third of the day that is free of obligations, in their precious "leisure" time, most people in fact seem to use their minds as little as possible.

There are no strict formulas, however, for how much time people actually have to work. It seems, for instance, that the early hunter-gatherers, like their present-day descendants living in the inhospitable deserts of Africa and Australia, spent only three to five hours each day on what we would call working—providing for food, shelter, clothing, and tools. They spent the rest of the day in conversation, resting, or dancing.

How to avoid the danger of polarizing life into work that is meaningless because it is unfree, and leisure that is meaningless because it has no purpose?

It sounds somewhat ridiculous to say that one of the problems we face at this point in history is that we haven't learned how to spend free time in a sensible way.

The popular assumption is that no skills are involved in enjoying free time, and that anybody can do it. Yet the evidence suggests the opposite: free time is more difficult to enjoy than work.

Passive leisure becomes a problem when a person uses it as the principal-or the only-strategy to fill up free time.

then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch more fish. The Mexican replied that he had enough to meet his family's needs. The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your day?" The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, I fish a little, I play with my children, I take a siesta with my wife, I stroll into the village each evening where I sip some wine and play guitar with my amigos—so I have a full and busy life, Señor.

I try to treat each evening and weekend as little slices of retirement because no one is guaranteed a lengthy one at the end of their career.

For those of you who are inevitably asking themselves, Okay, but how much time should I be seeking to spend on fun? Here's a starting place: two bours a day. This recommendation is grounded from two empirical sources: first, research from Dr. Marissa Sharif, Dr. Cassie Mogilner Holmes, and Dr. Hal Hershfield that suggests the "Goldilocks" sweet spot for leisure time is between two to five hours a day (more than five hours and the weight of being non productive has a negative effect.)

Retiring is one thing. Being retired is something else altogether.

I knew that the best way to get out of chores, or sports, or talking to elderly relatives on the phone was by holding up a book and saying, "But I'm just enjoying Little House on the Prairie so much!

time-wasting dominoes

Anyone with any sense welcomes retirement,

Nous avons été jusqu'ici dans un jeûne effroyable de divertissements.

In the winter months he was shooting or hunting, and in the spring there was salmon fishing – all undertaken and excelled in more as a career and a duty than as the pleasures of a leisured life. In the summer months there was a horse, sometimes horses, to be got ready for the Dublin Show, often evening fishing, and always the supervision of haymaking and harvest with their attendant ghastly weather to worry him. So luncheon