Joy is one of the main pillars for life satisfaction yet is elusive to many, especially busy people. What research indicates is that busy people have less free-time hours during the day and week – not that we needed research to know this! But we do need to realize this: the study noted that it is NOT how many free time hours a person has, but HOW they use those hours that matters!
It is easy to understand having less hours. An HBR survey found that their busiest employees worked 50-hour weeks and spent another 12-hours a week on nonwork responsibilities. Factor in sleeping, eating, hygiene, and commuting, leaves just over three hours a day for discretionary activities.
We have several blogs on the importance of cultivating joy! Finding joy for even the briefest period has a tremendous impact to improve health, well-being, and life satisfaction. It is how we spend our limited discretionary time that is key. Here is the ‘how’ to add more joy:
- Engage with Others, including shared experiences. Of course it adds effort and hassles, and having solitude is beneficial, but connecting with others matters!
- Avoid Passive Pursuits. Passive pursuits such as watching TV, or scrolling through social media are habits that provide less joy than active pursuits. It is important to not let passive pursuits become our default.
- Follow Your Passion. Aligning our activities with our values enhances well-being. Finding activities you truly enjoy and that align with your purpose bring more joy.
- Diversify Your Activities. Past research found a negative link between intense dedication to one hobby and success in other domains of life, such as work and relationships. In addition, the recent HBR findings indicate less joy is derived when we have only one leisure activity.
- Protect Your Time. Work may be your passion and bring satisfaction, but it can bleed over, robbing us of our free time. Plus, there are several well-documented research findings that being a work acholic and not unplugging, increase health problems, health risk factors, and reduce well-being. (The Detachment Paradox). The recent HBR survey found that for every additional hour people devoted to work each week, their sense of joy in life decreased. Whereas, they experienced greater happiness and life satisfaction when they used that hour for leisure activities such as hobbies, exercise, catching up with others, or socializing with friends and family.
The bottom line is, we shouldn’t wait for a long weekend or special vacation to find joy. Or only expect to find joy when involved in some amazing activity. Instead, create amazing discretionary activities during your typical day and week! Joy should be cultivated daily, even for short periods of time to enhance our health, well-being, and life satisfaction. Joy can be found in the briefest activities and interactions.
If you are a cup half empty kind of person, you might think “I only have 3 hours left of my day.” But, there are at least 3 whole hours a day for those with a cup half full attitude! What can you do to fill that time with more joy? Remember, it’s the ‘how’ that matters, which implicitly includes the attitude we bring to our leisure pursuits and to our life.
Image by Omar Medina from Pixabay