How much leisure time

And the results suggest that the optimum amount of free time is actually pretty doable. After crunching the numbers a straightforward pattern emerged. They "found that employed people's ratings of their satisfaction with life peaked when they had in the neighborhood of two and a half hours of free time a day," reports The Atlantic 's Joe Pinsker. If you have more free time on your hands, your happiness is likely to go down.

The study wasn't designed to figure out exactly why this might be so, though a handful of experts offer speculations in Pinsker's piece, from one theory that if you have more free time than everyone else you're going to be pretty lonely spending it to the idea that more than the magic number starts to make you feel like a lazy layabout.

Whatever the reason for this number, a singular fact remains: most Americans already exceed it. The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics annual Time Use Survey , which asks a sample of Americans to keep a detailed diary of how they use their time, show on average we spend 2. Mix in other leisure activities and the average American has a whopping five hours a day of free time. Let me guess, you're shocked and highly skeptical of these numbers.

After all, the media including here on Inc. News World Opinion Business. Share this —. Follow NBC News. By Linda Carroll. The more free time, the better, right? Not necessarily, researchers say. Accessibility Links Skip to content. Menu Close. Log in Subscribe. Too much leisure time is as bad as having too little. Rhys Blakely , Science Correspondent. The point of all of this is self-care, not shame. And even more traditionally productive or purposeful activities can be easy and fun.

Engaging in a bit of low-key cardio, like walking, can help burn stress , as can stretching. Free-time activities like knitting, reading, cooking or gaming are also known to put people in a state of flow. News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism.