As most Americans go about their daily lives, leisure time falls by the wayside as work and computer-based activity take over. Gabriela Tonietto, an associate professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School, emphasizes the significance of making leisure time enjoyable and beneficial. Her work exposes how seeing leisure as frivolous, or even immoral, robs it of its promise to becoming a site of deep satisfaction. This is an outlook that resonates with so many Americans, including NPR’s Rachel Martin. Come winter 2024, she was accidentally on screens for more than 12 hours a day—even though her chronic migraines made this kind of screen time intolerable.
Much like Martin’s experience, many people are choosing digital connection over activities that bring them greater satisfaction. To counter this, specialists urge people to be extra purposeful about their leisure time. Matthew Zawadzki, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Merced, believes in the power of hobbies. He does point out that although these things won’t significantly change your life, they can improve your mood in the next hour.
Sarah Pressman, a professor of psychological science at the University of California, Irvine, advocates for integrating small activities into daily life. “Try some of them for 30 minutes at a time and pay attention to how each one makes you feel,” she says. This trial-and-error approach allows people to try different activities at their own pace without the high stakes.
Tonietto suggests considering where to start small with activities that are rewarding to complete in short intervals – even just five to ten minutes can be fulfilling. She recommends having clear objectives and making space for both types of activities to create some accountability. According to Pressman, it’s a combination of many regular, manageable, and pleasurable activities that can lift your spirits and improve your well-being. Maybe that’s an hour of pickleball, making a new recipe, catching up with a friend over lunch, or getting your hands dirty caring for your garden.
Zawadzki sounds this note, too, saying, “We definitely need to lean into these shorter interactions with our recreation.” He wants the burden of needing to choose the ultimate hobby to be lifted off people. Rather than developing long-term extracurricular activities, people ought to reflect on what makes them happy today.
For people like Martin who are feeling the adverse effects of too much screen time, filling our daily schedules with non-screen activities is especially helpful. She has documented the ways that her unhealthy level of screen time has harmed her mental health. As a clinical psychologist, Zawadzki doesn’t think all screen time is bad. Rather, the key is to make every minute count. “It’s just being more deliberate with your time, I guess,” he adds.
To make the change from work or dinner to relaxing go as smoothly as possible, Pressman recommends having fun stuff on hand and easily accessible. Having a sketchpad or crossword puzzle in view can help make this transition. Pressman likens it to dating—you may have to sift through a few first-date candidates before you find your ideal partner. He argues that discovering things you’ll love usually involves exploration—sometimes messy and difficult personal exploration.
