Excessive free time makes people unhappy.

With the increase in the amount of free time, a person begins to feel happier - but only up to a certain point. This is evidenced by a new studyToo much free time may be almost as bad as too little / American Psychological Associationpublished by the American Psychological Association.

Scientists analyzed data from 21,736 Americans who participated in a large-scale survey, which was conducted in 2012-2013. Volunteers provided detailed reports on what they did in the last 24 hours - noting the time days and duration of each session - and also told how satisfied they felt. The analysis showed that the more free time the participants had, the happier they were, however, growth slowed down at the level of 2 hours and began to decline at around 5 hours a day.

A similar result was shown by the analysis of a survey conducted among 13,639 working Americans from 1992 to 2008. From an extensive list of questions, the researchers were interested in two: "How much free time do you have on average on weekdays" and "How satisfied do you feel with life these days?" The situation was similar: the level of subjective satisfaction was maximum between 2 and 5 hours a day. At the same time, those who were free for more than 11.5 hours a day were significantly more unhappy than those who managed to allocate an hour a day for themselves (6.8 and 7.2 points out of 10, respectively).

Also, scientists have conducted a number of theoretical tests with the participation of more than 6 thousand volunteers. In the first of them, people were asked to imagine and describe their feelings if they received a given amount of free time per day (15 minutes, 3.5 hours or 7 hours) daily for 6 months or more. They were then asked how satisfied, happy and content they would feel.

Participants who considered options with too little and too much free time rated their potential satisfaction lower than those who "received" 3.5 hours of free time in day. At the same time, those who represented 7 hours noted that they would feel less productive in such an environment, which also reduced their well-being.

In the next experiment, particular attention was paid to productivity. The participants again imagined the situation - but this time they were "given" either 3.5 or 7 hours of free time per day, but at the same time they made an additional division in both cases. Half of the participants in each group were asked to imagine spending this time productively (for example, doing workouts or hobbies), in while the other half considered spending this time unproductively (watching TV or entertainment content).

As a result, those who provided more free time reported lower levels of satisfaction than those who “spent” it productively. The latter, in turn, reported the same level of well-being as people with a moderate amount of free time.

In other words, just having enough time for yourself is not enough - you need to figure out how to spend it with benefit, otherwise you will not be able to feel happy. The researchers note that this is especially clearly felt by those who quit their jobs or retire.