Where’s My Free Time?
AKA How modern work culture has pretty much destroyed the concept of leisure time
To be fair, I’ll be the first person to admit that I lack the necessary experience the be making blanket statements like the one above. I’m only three years into the professional workspace, but given the fact that I’ve spent these last three years working with my eyes and mind open, along with the sad reality of university life slowly becoming a mirror-image of the corporate workforce, I have to ask:
What the heck is it with people’s attitudes towards leisure these days!?
Seriously, I can’t remember a single time in the last 5–6 years when telling someone about your plans to relax on the weekends doing absolutely nothing wasn’t met with: a) a blank stare, b) an eye-roll or c) a condescending sigh and a mumble about how “easy” I’ve got it.
Now, I’m not talking about folks with financial constraints who can’t afford to sit on their ass if they have to feed themselves (hell, I’ve been there myself). But the majority of people I interact with seem to regard leisure activity as some sort of crime; as though not spending my free time “efficiently” and towards the accomplishment of some lofty goal somehow makes me less than human.
I guess that sentiment isn’t almost entirely without reason. In this day and age, where our Facebook feeds are clogged with motivational messages incessantly reminding us how “limited” our time is and pictures of friends and acquaintances who seemingly have it all, it’s small wonder that everyone’s so obsessed with making the best possible use of their time. Phrases like “maximize your daily productivity” and “effective time-management” jump out at every random Google search that contains the word “work” anywhere.
There was a time when the term “workaholic” was used to describe those worker bees with a near-compulsive need to slog at the office. Now, it’s a badge of honor. Being busy is equated with being important, or at the very least doing several important things. Folks like to brag about how they get up at 5 AM everyday, jog/do yoga, work a 100 hours a week, and still find time for their kids’ Sunday music classes.
I’ve got zero problems with any of that. But I’d really like to know, at what point did the concept of leisure time become such an anathema to our way of life?
Working 10 hours a day isn’t enough anymore, you’ve gotta be on the clock 24 hours a day. What’s that, you’re not available on the weekends? What do you do: learn a new language, go skydiving, hit the gym, take Tae-bo classes . . . ?
If your answer is along the lines of “I just like to take some time off and relax”, I can guarantee that you’ll be in the minority. This is because we’re currently living in a society that has demonized idleness and the concept of leisure to the point that, unless you’re spending your free time pursuing your #lifegoals, you’re in for a very sad, miserable, “unproductive” life.
Contrary to popular belief, however, lack of proper leisure time causes more harm than good in the long-run. Some of the biggest scientific discoveries and business ideas spawned in their creators’ minds during a period of leisure. A well-known example of this is the story of an apple falling on the head of Issac Newton. After classes at Cambridge were suspended due to a plague, Newton, who was relaxing in a garden in Woolsthorpe, casually observed the falling of the fruit from a tree. The insights he gleaned from a few hours of idle musing on this gave him a fresh perspective at his ongoing research on the Law of gravitation, which ultimately transformed the field of physics itself.
It might even come as a surprise to many that the early meaning of the word “leisure” was quite different from what we have today. The Greek word for “leisure,” σχoλη, produced the Latin word scola, which is the root word for the the English word school — our institutions of learning which were once intended as a place of “leisure” and contemplative activity. The early Greeks recognized this connection between the importance of leisure time and its contribution to meaningful work, until the philosopher Antisthenes became the first to equate effort with goodness and virtue, thus laying the foundation of the modern workaholic.
Things have gotten a lot worse since then. Contemporary work culture practically revolves around the concept of workaholism. One’s job, which was at one point considered as only a facet of their self, has now become a defining trait of their identity. Corporate work culture exhorts complete and utter dedication to work and the team to the point of sacrificing important personal commitments for the sake of one’s career. The media constantly bombards us with “inspirational” stories of “leaders” who work 20 hours a day, start companies out of their parents’ basement, make billions of dollars, and encourage their employees to miss personal milestones because they’re too busy changing the world. Taking too many vacations are frowned upon, and in many cultures even leaving the office ahead of your peers or your boss is considered poor manners and automatically puts you in the bracket of the “lazy” folks, even if none of your deliverables have ever missed their target.
Faced with such circumstances, what is someone who enjoys, nay treasures, their leisure time to do?
To start off, we can reconsider the way we think about leisure. Instead of just treating it as a break from the monotony of the daily grind, we should look at leisure as an extremely important part of our lives, just as much, if not more important, than the work we do.
In his work, “Leisure — the Basis of Culture”, German philosopher Josef Pieper has this to say:
Against the exclusiveness of the paradigm of work as activity … there is leisure as “non-activity” — an inner absence of preoccupation, a calm, an ability to let things go, to be quiet.
Leisure is not the attitude of the one who intervenes but of the one who opens himself; not of someone who seizes but of one who lets go, who lets himself go, and “go under,” almost as someone who falls asleep must let himself go… The surge of new life that flows out to us when we give ourselves to the contemplation of a blossoming rose, a sleeping child, or of a divine mystery — is this not like the surge of life that comes from deep, dreamless sleep?
In short, leisure is just as important to our physical and mental well-being as sleep. It’s not just a matter of relaxation, it’s about maintaining one’s well-being by letting oneself go and living in the moment, to rejuvenate oneself and heal from the damage we inflict upon ourselves with each passing day.
And speaking of relaxation:
The simple “break” from work — the kind that lasts an hour, or the kind that lasts a week or longer — is part and parcel of daily working life. It is something that has been built into the whole working process, a part of the schedule. The “break” is there for the sake of work. It is supposed to provide “new strength” for “new work,” as the word “refreshment” indicates: one is refreshed for work through being refreshed from work.
This part is far more relevant to our present circumstances. Scientific studies have also proven that taking a simple 10-minute break between every two hours of solid, uninterrupted work actually improves one’s concentration on the task at hand. So there’s no real shame in having to take a break from work (as so many of us are erroneously led to believe), but taking said break actually boosts productivity in the long run.
Perhaps it’s about time we come to take to take our leisure more seriously. Already most tech companies are waking up to the benefits of giving their employees more down-time, such as Amazon’s 30-hour workweek initiative, offering flexible schedules, more vacation time, or just encouraging more employees to work from home.
But there’s a limit to how much these companies can, or will, do for the sake of our leisure. When all is said and done, the only ones who can take charge and make the best possible use of our time is ourselves.
So, I guess what I’m trying to say is: do whatever you enjoy doing to relax. Hit the gym, go on a hike, play video games, or just plain laze around on the couch with your cat while watching Netflix re-runs.
But don’t do it to accomplish some imaginary milestone for your Facebook page. Do it because it helps you relax, do it because it’s what you genuinely like doing, do it because it’s a part of who you are.
It’s your leisure time, folks. Make it count.
