Why You Should Keep Your Free Time to a Minimum
Do you find yourself craving more free time? Do you feel like you have way too many things to do and not enough time to get all your work done and live your life too? You’re not alone. A lot of people struggle with all their responsibilities and managing their time well.
Life can be hectic and it often feels nearly impossible to do everything you have to do (like your work), everything you should do (like exercise), and everything you want to do (watch a whole season of your favorite series on Netflix in one night). What I think you should do, is to keep your free time to a minimum. Sounds crazy? Let me explain.
You don’t need as much free time as you think
Everyone needs some free time and a chance to unwind every now and then. However, this doesn’t mean that it makes much sense to come home from work and simply slouch on the couch for the rest of the day doing nothing but staring at the screen. Mindlessly watching Netflix for hours doesn’t give you energy and it could cause you a number of problems. If anything, it just makes you lazy.
People often think that we need a lot of free time to recover from work and to stay sane. But in reality, it’s not so much free time we need as it is different time. By this I mean anything that is different from your work or other responsibilities you have.
This can mean hobbies, movies, and hanging out with friends, sure. But it also means things that challenge and stimulate your brain in different ways. Anything that is different from your work and keeps you from being bored and miserable is a good choice and keeps your life in balance.
If you’re serious about your goals, you have to keep busy
You of course have big goals that you want to achieve. Now, they don’t become true on their own. If you want to make your dreams a reality, you have to take them seriously. That means working on them every day and being smart about how you spend your time.
Big goals require a lot of work and that means you simply can’t spend every evening watching Netflix or procrastinating. If you want to do well in your career, start your own business, or for example learn a new language, you have a lot of things to do. You have to keep busy and get things done. That’s why you don’t have time for excess free time.
You don’t even need much free time
As said, everyone does need some free time from time to time. The amount needed can differ depending on your job, what responsibilities you have at home, and who you are as a person. If you have a new job or a mentally demanding job, you might need some extra time off after work. But even then you might be surprised by how little free time you actually need if you spend your time wisely, not to mention how much more you can get out of your life if you keep your free time to a minimum.
You might notice how your focus and energy start depleting after a few hours at the office and when you can finally leave work, you feel like you don’t have any energy left to do the things you were planning to do. Being extremely bored can lead to mental exhaustion. And you often don’t have time to eat enough when you’re at work. In other words, what you need to do after work is to find a way to get energy, not just wait for it to come.
If you eat well, don’t do the same thing for hours on end, and try to make sure that not every day is the same, you’ll notice that you have more energy than before, and getting things done and being productive isn’t that hard anymore. It’s all about finding the right balance.
How to make the most of your free time
There are many different ways to relax and gain energy. Let’s say you’re an office worker and you spend most of your day sitting at a desk and staring at a screen. In that case, what you want to do in the evening, is anything that differs from that.
Taking short, calculated breaks can be the answer, if you need to rewind a little, but you also want to be productive in the evening. A 15-minute break after coming back home from work can be enough to give you some energy to work on your own projects for an hour or two.
One way to get things done without feeling overwhelmed is to mix difficult or boring tasks with something fun. This of course only works if you aren’t working on something that requires 100% concentration. Some things you can try to mix are:
- Going for walks or runs and listening to educational podcasts at the same time
- Doing basic chores like laundry or meal prepping while listening to music to make it easier and more fun
- You can mix simple tasks like reading emails or planning and watching Netflix
- Writing and playing a TV show you’ve already seen many times in the background. This won’t steal your attention, but it’s more fun than writing in silence.
Remember to mix things up every once in a while, so that things stay fun. You will naturally have more energy if you don’t have to live the same day over and over again. That’s not to say that you couldn’t have routines, but it’s important to make sure you don’t get bored just because your schedule looks the same every day.
Start to slowly implement more
As with all changes in life, you want to take things slowly. You want to decrease your free time, but you don’t necessarily want to change too much too fast. If you’ve got used to coming home from work and spending the rest of the day watching Youtube videos, it’s hard to become a super productive person right away. Instead, you should make small changes and monitor your progress.
At first, you can try adding only half an hour of work to your evenings or decide to listen to a French podcast while you make food. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to be consistent.
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When the first change you made feels easy and a natural part of your day, it’s time to make another small change. Possibly you could increase the time you work or maybe you could add some productive habits, like doing some cleaning and decluttering after dinner or replying to a few emails.
If you want, you can reward yourself for every day or every week you’ve managed to spend your time a bit better. This can help you stick to your new habits and it makes you feel like you’ve really done something.
Conclusion
As you can see, it makes sense to keep your free time to a minimum. How do you usually spend your free time? Do you feel like you would need more free time or do you want to start being more productive? Let me know in the comments and remember to pin this post!
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this post really motivated me to keep pushing! thanks!
Great to hear! 🙂
Great content! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
I like the idea of mixing up my chores with something fun. Sometimes I forget to turn on the music or t.v. while doing tedious chores. I love listening to Jordan Petersons talks while cooking. I got that fun habit down. 🙂
It does make everything a bit more fun! 🙂 And sometimes when you don’t feel like doing anything, listening to something at the same time makes it doable.
Fantastic tips!! Habit formation takes varying amounts of time for everyone, so I love what you said about adding in small tasks until they feel easy and then increasing from there. That tactic has def worked for me in the past!
Thank you! ❤ That’s right, it’s best to take small steps, otherwise you’re more likely to fail. Of course even then youjust have to try again 🙂
This was a really interesting post! There’s so many posts out there telling people to take more free time and self care time, but this post says the opposite and it makes some sense. I feel like I never have free time, but when I do get it then I want to be productive. It’s hard to find the balance between being busy and relaxing.
Glad to hear that this was an interesting post! I know people usually say the opposite, but I do believe it’s all about the balance. You shouldn’t overwork yourself, but if you have big goals, you do have to make your days count. And of course, if you enjoy what you do, it feels less like work.
Great tips. I like the implement the advice about mixing things up once in a while so that things stay fun.
Thank you! It really does help making things more fun and also making sure that you have the energy to keep going.