Free time in this day and age is often hard to come by. With everything from work to appointments constantly demanding your time, it can often feel like it’s been months since you were able to stop and take a breather.
Then if you do get the chance to stop and take a deep breath, it’s not long before your phone starts ringing or emails start pouring in.
Being busy has become the norm, and if you do have any free time it doesn’t last long and gets filled up before you know it.
With a world full of people that think having any amount of free time is a bad thing and that every moment needs to be filled with something, we find ourselves getting busier and busier, but losing productivity as we go along.
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Hold on, if I’m busy, doesn’t that mean I’m being productive and getting stuff done, too?
Not necessarily.
You can be busy without being productive. Jamming every moment of your day full of stuff just because you have time, doesn’t mean that’s necessarily the right thing to do. It is possible to spend an entire day being busy, yet getting nothing significant or important done.
That’s why I believe that free time is so important. I believe we should take a step back, maybe that means not volunteering this weekend or turning down that shift at work. That may mean bumping your coffee date to next week and taking a day this week to spend some time doing nothing.
Sudden changes in your life can open up periods of free time that you didn't have previously. Filling in your free time with useful pursuits is a way to increase your creativity, energy, enthusiasm, and sense of fulfillment from life.
Try spending your free time developing a new hobby, learning a new language, volunteering with a local group, or joining a religious organization!
ake an adult-education or community college class. Use your free time as an opportunity to pick up knowledge that has no direct bearing on your job or career advancement. Immerse yourself into learning these things for the sake of learning them, without having the pressure to achieve beyond the goals you've set for yourself.
For example, maybe you've always fancied yourself getting involved in archaeology, ballroom dancing, jewelry making, wilderness first aid, or hang-gliding.
Look for local clubs using the Meetup app or website to connect with other people.
Learn a new language.
Picking up a new language is a great way to engage your mind during your free time. It can help you understand foreign cultures and learn about different parts of the world. Pick up a copy of a language-acquisition book online or at your local library.
You can also read magazines and books, or watch movies and TV in the language you’re learning to make learning the language more fun.
Learning a new language will also enable you to communicate with people in your community who may not speak English.
Join a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple. This is a safe way to meet interesting people and get involved in your community, in addition to developing your spiritual beliefs. Look online to find a variety of local churches in your area.
You don't necessarily have to subscribe to a set of religious beliefs in order to spend free time in a religious organization.
For instance, Unitarian Universalists, while coming from Christian roots, is known for welcoming and including people of other beliefs, including agnostics, atheists, pagans, free-thinkers, secular humanists, and liberals of all types.
Work on Your Family Tree
Clémence Scouten, the Philadelphia-based owner of Memoirs & More, helps people publish books about their family history.
Even if you don't go as far as writing a memoir, Scouten says there are a lot of fun things you can do alone or with your kids. "Work on a family tree together," Scouten suggests. "Draw it. Do it in PowerPoint. Include photos of people. Draw countries of origin."
She also suggests holding a storytelling hour where you tell family stories. You could interview the grandparents on the phone. "Record them if you can," Scouten says. "There are free genealogy websites. A big one is FamilySearch.org."
If you don't have kids or they're out of the house, Scouten says this is a good time to consider how you store and display family photos and documents. "You could create an e-collection to share with the whole family," she says.
Pull Out the Board Games
This is one of those obvious ideas, but have you done it lately? Surely you have a Monopoly board somewhere. Chess? Risk? It only sounds cheesy until you start playing and remember why board games became so popular in the first place.
Work a Jigsaw Puzzle
Trade puzzles with friends, which could lead to hours of fun. And if it's your puzzle, consider gluing and framing it after you're finished to hang it in your home.
Take a Bath
Take one of those long, luxurious baths that you never have time for. Hopefully, you have a bubble bath and candles on hand. Turn on some music, an audiobook, or a favorite podcast and drift away.
Set Up a Craft Corner
That's an idea from Amy Maliga, a financial educator with Phoenix-based Take Charge America, a nonprofit financial counseling agency. She envisions it for families with young children, although adults might enjoy a craft corner too.
Maliga suggests:
"Set up a small table in the corner of the family room – or, if the weather allows, on the patio with paper, glue, stickers, paints, crayons, glitter if you dare! and other craft supplies."
She suggests keeping the table stocked at all times, so it's ready to go whenever anybody's creative juices are flowing and covering the table with a sheet or tablecloth when it's not being used to minimize visual clutter.
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