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HEALTH AND WELLNESS
‘Too much free time won’t make you happier,’ says psychologist—how many hours you really need in a day
Published Thu, Sep 8 20229:18 AM EDTUpdated Mon, Sep 12 20224:55 PM EDT
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Cassie Holmes, Contributor
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Marco Bottigelli | Getty
I remember in 2013, sitting on the late-night train home from New York City to Philadelphia, feeling utterly overwhelmed with life. For a working mother, it felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
My research has since shown that I wasn’t the only one who was struggling. As a social psychologist and behavioral science professor at UCLA, I wanted to know: Will having more hours of free time actually make us more satisfied in life?
So I enlisted my colleagues to study how tens of thousands of Americans spent a regular day, as well as their overall happiness levels. The results were illuminating.
Too much free time won’t make you happier in life
First, we calculated how much time people had in a day to spend on discretionary activities, such as relaxing, watching TV, playing sports or hanging with friends.
Then we tested how that calculated amount of time related to their satisfaction in life.
What we found was that two to five hours of free time in a day is ideal for boosted happiness. Having less than two hours or more than five hours of free time a day, however, decreased happiness.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/08/too-much-free-time-wont-make-you-happier-says-psychologist-how-many-hours-you-really-need-in-a-day.html
