Having too much free time is linked to less happiness

We would all like to have a little more free time in the day, but it turns out Having too much may not be a good thing. According to a new study by American Psychological Association, people feel less happy and satisfied if they have over seven hours of free time each day.

The researchers found that As free time increases, so does that person’s sense of well-being, but only up to a point. The study showed that After two hours of free time, the increase in well-being stabilized and, at five, began to decline.

“People often complain about being too busy and express that they want more free time. Corn, Is more really linked to greater happiness? We have found that the lack of discretionary hours in the day leads to increased stress and decreased subjective well-being. However, Although very little time is bad, having more time is not always better ”, warned Marissa Sharif, assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study.

In the study published in the journal Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the researchers analyzed data from 21,736 Americans who participated in the US survey of time use between 2012 and 2013 They gave a detailed account of what they did over a 24 hour period, including the time of day and duration of each activity, and reported on their sense of well-being.

To deepen the phenomenon, the researchers also conducted two online experiments with over 6,000 participants. In the first these participants were invited to Imagine having some discretionary time every day for at least six months. These were randomly assigned to different daily amounts of discretionary time: low, about fifteen minutes per day; moderate, three and a half hours a day; and high, seven hours a day.

After The participants were asked to state according to their assumptions to what extent they would feel pleasure, happiness and satisfaction. The results indicated that participants in groups that had both low and high discretionary time reported lower well-being than those who had moderate hobbies. The researchers found that those who had little free time felt more stressed than those who had it moderately, which has contributed to lower well-being. However, those with very high levels of free time felt less productive than those in the moderate group, which led to them, as much or more, to a lower degree of satisfaction.

In the second experience, the researchers focused on analyzing the potential role of productivity. So, they were asked to imagine having moderate or high free time per day, but they were also asked to imagine spending this time in productive activities (for example, exercise, hobbies, or run) O unproductive (for example, watching television or using the computer).

The researchers found that those with more free time reported lower levels of well-being when engaging in unproductive activities. However, when participating in productive activities, those with more free time felt similar to those with a moderate amount of free time. “Although our research has focused on the relationship between the amount of discretionary time and subjective well-being, our further exploration of how people spend their discretionary time has been revealing ”, affirmed Cherif.

And he concluded: “Our results suggest that being left with entire days off to fill at will can leave a person just as unhappy. In exchange, people should strive to have a moderate amount of free time to spend as they please. In cases where people find themselves with an excessive amount of discretionary time, such as retirement or leaving a job, our results suggest that these people would benefit from devoting their new time to a goal. “

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