Is Downtime a Thing of the Past?

Is Downtime a Thing of the Past?

It’s been said that time is like water, in that neither can be compressed but both can evaporate. It likely seems to many of us that time, like fresh water, is in ever shortening supply. Job and family obligations fill our days. More than ever, we’re assailed by cell calls, emails and text messages from every direction and in each waking hour. So the question arises: Is ‘downtime’ a thing of the past?

Well, we should take hope. Studies suggest that North American men and women both have more leisure time than our counterparts fifty years ago. Evidently, what we lack is the knowledge, and perhaps a methodology, to use leisure time effectively.

So, what’s to know? Experts say we should understand two things:
• Productive leisure is any time used on interests or activities capable of creating a buffer between ourselves and the stressors in our daily lives
• Good health is a product, at least in part, of physical exercise, mental stimulation and the company of others. (This is why the CHMA Vancouver Burnaby Branch has established and seeks to expand activities and programs involving everything from athletics to the arts to day trips to Vancouver’s Capilano watershed.)

Apparently, the trick to using downtime well is to consciously carve periods out of our schedules for activities we find enjoyable and challenging, and then say “This is my time.” It’s immaterial whether the activity is chess, jogging, pet training, woodworking or volunteerism.

Indeed our circumstances and interests are intensely personal, and there may be as many Canadian leisure solutions as there are Canadians. And we can all think of success stories: the busy lawyer whose garden chores morphed into a passion for growing and hybridizing flowers (and a term as president of a provincial lily society), or the workaholic entrepreneur who found balance in his life through early morning tai chi classes on the waterfront.

The point is, if we volunteer to test our bodies and minds, especially in the company of others with like interests, we reap over time benefits like lower blood pressure, sharper thought processes and expanding circles of friends and acquaintances. Interestingly, leisure study participants who established a leisure regime identify a more immediate payoff: the feeling of being more in charge, and even a sense of freedom from that difficult quarterly report or looming deadline. Moreover, they say, problems seemed to assume more manageable proportions after a productive leisure session.

The experts acknowledge a kind of paradox here. The best downtime isn’t spent reclined in front of the television, which is typically spent in isolation and most often fails to fully engage us. Rather, good leisure comes from getting up, finding activities that work for us and having the self-regard to pursue them in a disciplined way.

Finally, leisure authorities say, we should if possible get “disconnected” during our downtime by turning off cell or other mobile devices. We’ll likely find the world can do without us for the sixty or ninety minutes it takes to pursue interests that fulfill us.