Leisure time during Covid-19
Not only has Covid-19 changed how people work, but also how they spend free time. It’s hard to safely travel or go outside, so many people stay home to read, play board games, and study online courses during their leisure time. Others watch series on Netflix, sleep, and exercise. No one way of leisure is right for everyone. What’s an important thing is spending free time on a balance of activities to achieve the main goal of leisure: to replenish the mental and physical energy that we exert at work.
While work activities vary among the population, one approach to gain the most from one’s free time works for everyone: plan for it, mentally switch into leisure mode, do your resting activities, and then prepare for your return to work. This schema was described by Gleb Arkhangelsky in “Time to rest. For those who work hard.”
A good plan for your leisure accomplishes two things: addresses your absence from work and helps you enjoy your time off as much as possible. An effective plan includes writing notes to your colleagues, finding someone who can do your job if an emergency arises, and providing an emergency way to contact you (while not making it too easy to get hold of you to reduce the chances of being interrupted). It will also let you focus on doing leisurely activities instead of spending your time wondering what to do after you arrive at your destination.
The leisure mode is a state of mind when you forget about your work and business completely. To switch into leisure mode, your mind and body must do something completely different from what it does at work. Office workers should plan activities with a lot of movement, family games, or fulfilling physical work such as gardening. If you have stressful work with client communication, you can read a novel or watch a film. During these activities, your brain will change its patterns and move the work-related information back to long-term memory.
The main part of your free time could be whatever helps to restore your energy. Such activities include good sleep, talking with people who invigorate you or completing a challenge. A challenge can be to explore something new like a new book, new language, documentary film, online course, or video game. Whatever you decide, I recommend avoiding anything related to your work patterns like management, planning, and following processes.
Preparing for the end of one’s leisure period will help mitigate the stress typically on the first days back at work. To prevent these side effects and make the transition mild, spend the last day or half-day of your holiday on work-like activities: check work-related news, review your calendar for the next week, and plan your first day.
I believe leisure time must restore one’s energy and not be exhausting like a job. You should spend your free time effectively on activities that charge your batteries without regretting your time away from work as wasted time.
