Time Poor vs Time Rich

[MichaelB]

Here’s a paper that looks at levels of happiness and life satisfaction and assesses the impact of discretionary time, both not enough and too much. The conclusion of this study is both extremes are not good. Makes sense.

I do like the concept and termonology of “Time Rich” and “Time Poor” and think it fits well here at E-R Forum. The paper is here The abstract

Many people living in modern society feel like they don’t have enough time and are constantly searching for more. But, is having limited discretionary time actually detrimental? And, can there be downsides of having too much free time? In two largescale datasets spanning 35,375 Americans, we test the relationship between the amount of discretionary time individuals have and their life satisfaction. We find and internally replicate a negative quadratic relationship between discretionary time and life satisfaction. These results show that while having too little time is indeed linked to lower levels of life satisfaction, having more time does not continually translate to greater life satisfaction, and can even reduce it.

 

[Hamlet]

Here’s a paper that looks at levels of happiness and life satisfaction and assesses the impact of discretionary time, both not enough and too much. The conclusion of this study is both extremes are not good. Makes sense.

I do like the concept and termonology of “Time Rich” and “Time Poor” and think it fits well here at E-R Forum. The paper is here The abstract

Yeah, that makes sense. One thing that I've found interesting about life is that I've always seemed to have either plenty of free time or plenty of money, but never both at the same time.

Of course, once I had kids the free time and money both went down dramatically

 

[W2R]

From the abstract of this article, I gather that he is looking at the relationship between how much discretionary time a person has currently, and current life satisfaction.

If that is correct, then my own life experience does not confirm what he is saying.

1) I have never even approached being as happy as I am now, in previous years. Yet right now I have a maximum of discretionary "me time" since I am retired and have no job, classes, dependents, pets, or other responsibilities. I am free as a cloud. Maximum happiness, maximum discretionary time.

2) My most miserable years were my childhood, when I probably had the least discretionary time of my life (due to unusual circumstances).

So I guess my response to him would be, "huh? What exactly do you MEAN (you effing doofus!)"

 

[Sojourner]

For me, the more interesting thing to study would be the relationship between the amount of "idle" discretionary time vs. "personally engaging/productive" discretionary time. I think we all know that someone with 16 years per day of discretionary time could be highly fulfilled or highly bored, depending on what they do during that time. If they spend the time watching crappy daytime TV or scrolling through endless Facebook or Instagram posts, etc., then they're probably going to feel pretty unfulfilled. If they spend that time doing things that are personally rewarding and fulfilling—like honing their amateur photography skills, or building a bird house to put up in the backyard—then they are likely to feel fairly happy and report greater life satisfaction. So, IMHO, it's not simply the raw amount of discretionary time, it's what someone does with it.

 

[Dtail]

From the abstract of this article, I gather that he is looking at the relationship between how much discretionary time a person has currently, and current life satisfaction.

If that is correct, then my own life experience does not confirm what he is saying.

1) I have never even approached being as happy as I am now, in previous years. Yet right now I have a maximum of discretionary "me time" since I am retired and have no job, classes, dependents, pets, or other responsibilities. I am free as a cloud. Maximum happiness, maximum discretionary time.

2) My most miserable years were my childhood, when I probably had the least discretionary time of my life (due to unusual circumstances).

So I guess my response to him would be, "huh? What exactly do you MEAN (you effing doofus!)"

+1 on point #1.
Free time makes the retirement. We can go all day with doing nothing and not be bored.