Interesting read, and something I believe is applicable to a lot of my friends. This is because I don’t have free time. Poor Me.
Are you happier when you’re working, or when you have time off?
Easy answer right? We work in order to have free time. Everything from basic economics to our deepest intuitions tells us that we must be happiest during our free time.
Turns out we were wrong.
Flow, Flipped Intuitions and A Scientist’s Name You Can’t Pronounce
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi did careful research that discovered that some of our deepest intuitions about work, play and what makes us happy were completely backwards.
He discovered that most people were, in fact, happier at work than at rest. More, he found that people tended to think they were happier in their free time, and would choose to have more free time than work, even though it made them unhappier.
How did Csíkszentmihályi find this?
He did it by having study participants keep pagers (then a new technology) that would go off at random intervals of the day. During those intervals, study participants would not only record what they were doing, but also their emotional state in the current moment.
By adding up this data, he reached the surprising conclusion: people were happier at work, even though they didn’t realize it.
Why You’re Happier at Work
Csíkszentmihályi’s answer to this question was based on the concept of flow. In his research, this is the optimal state of human experience. It is attained when working towards a challenge that perfectly meets our skill level, engaging every mental faculty without overwhelming us.
This state of flow, because it requires both challenge and the application of skill, is more commonly attained at work than during relaxation. As a result, people report higher levels of well-being at work.
via Why Most People are Happier Working than in Their Free Time « Scott H Young.