Save Leisure Time

We need to save time to have leisure time. While CraveTime.com seeks to increase your leisure time, the purpose of the ‘Leisure’ section is to help you make the most of your limited leisure time.

What exactly is leisure time? Essentially it is our obligation-free time. According to Parker (1976, p12) “Leisure is time free from work and other obligations [e.g – sleep, household work, errands, personal care], and it also encompasses activities which are characterised by a feeling of (comparative) freedom”. Leisure time typically includes activities such as socializing, game playing, resting, hobbies and being part of volunteer organisations.
The good news is that we (in general) have more leisure time than previous generations. The eight hour day, the five day week and paid holidays only became a reality in the past hundred years. The average American now has around 35 hours per week of leisure time, which according to a USA study (Aguiar and Hurst) is about 4 to 8 hours per week more than the 1960’s.
The bad news that we often waste our leisure time. Consider the following - while TV is great entertainment we all know its potential to waste time; likewise the cruising the Internet; many holidays could be so much more, the wasting of volunteer time is universal, many feel at a loss in retirement, and how much of our leisure time is spent looking at advertisements? If we could review where our leisure time has gone over the years we would probably be shocked. So often we fail to use our leisure time to do the things we really wanted.
At CraveTime we are seeking to research and find ways to help you make the most of your leisure time. That is to ‘save’ your leisure time rather than waste it. Topics that will be covered will include:

• Making the most of holiday time
• Effective Volunteer time
• Socialising time
• Entertainment time
• Retirement
• Kid leisure time

All suggestions welcome as we develop this section.
References:
Aguiar M & Hurst E, “Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time over Five Decades”, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, No. 06-2., January 2006, http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/wp/index.htm.
Friedmann, G, “Leisure and the Technological Civilization”, International Social Science Journal – Sociological Aspect of Leisure, Volume X11, No 4, 1960
Parker, Stanley, “The Sociology of Leisure”, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1976