GROUP 1
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
Leisure and Time management
Leisurerefers to the free time that people can spend away from their everyday
responsibilities e.g., work and domestic tasks to rest, relax and enjoy life. It is during leisure
time that people participate in recreation and sporting activities.
Time management is the process of organizing and planning how much time you spend on
specific activities. Invest some time in our comprehensive collection oftime management
articlesto learn about managing your own time more efficiently, and save yourself time in the
future.
What is leisure?
Leisure activities include all the things you do that give you pleasure and are not work-
related: it’s any type of recreational activity.
Leisure purpose is to be an escape from work and personal worries, it’s a time you take for
yourself, to disconnect. It’s a shot of positivity, to take your mind away from problems and
quotidian issues.
What are benefits of leisure
You will feel the positive effects of leisure time immediately, but its benefits are long-lasting,
affecting positively both your physical and mental health.
a) Leisure reduces stress and prevents depression
If you don’t make time for yourself, stress and anxiety will kick in, sooner than later. When
you engage in a recreational activity, you free your mind. The physical and emotional benefits
of taking leisure time, namely, reduced stress levels and better mood, and a lower heart rate.
Leisure time allows you to step back physically but most important, mentally from stress. Your
mind and body will tune, you will feel relaxed and disconnected from the outside world. You
will be empowering yourself to deal with situations in a less stressful way.
b) Improves your physical and mental health
A sedentary lifestyle puts one at risk for serious diseases like heart-related, obesity, or diabetes
and also for emotional distress. By engaging in physical leisure activities, you will improve
your physical and, consequently, your mental health.
Choosing your recreational activities doesn’t have to be a jigsaw or needs an extensive plan.
Be spontaneous, follow your needs and moods. One day you choose a calm walk on the beach
or a park, the next available day you go surfing or a gym session. It’s your time, do whatever
makes you happy.
c) Improves your mood
Because it’s you choosing what you’re doing in your leisure time, the activities are very likely
to provide you with mental rest and pleasure. As a consequence, your mind will clear up and
your mood will improve.
This control and choice-making not always possible in your life will make you feel more
satisfied and self-fulfilled. You know that there are things that go beyond your control, but
there are others that you can control. You will find it easier to manage your time and tasks,
you will feel less stressed, more positive with yourself and life.
d) Increases your productivity
Maybe you are one of those who believes that if you have a break, your flow of ideas will be
interrupted and your productivity will go down the drain. If you’re immersed in your tasks
without having a break, you’ll notice, at one point, your productivity decreasing: you’ll
become slower, mistakes will appear. This affects negatively your productivity.
Stepping away from work makees time for leisure will clear your mind and nourish your
problem-solving skills. It will help your productivity.
e) Promotes self-knowledge
Besides affecting physically and psychologically, leisure also has a social role. Stressful life
rhythms blur your self-awareness: you don’t have time nor energy to look into yourself, to
manage properly your emotions, to make instinctive and coherent decisions. You are in a
rational high-functioning mode. Your Self isn’t a priority: tasks, duties, and goals are.
Leisure is fundamental to balance your working life with your personal development: it allows
you to stop, to connect with yourself. You are duty-free, you are allowed to feel, to laugh of
silly things, to take deep and restorative breaths.You have time for your wellbeing.
