Free time

The new issue of n+1 starts off with an editorial piece about “free time” or why we think we don’t have enough of it.  I haven’t had the time (ha!) to finish reading the whole article yet — not enough time in the day — but one thing I drew from the beginning of the article was that most people (and this is data from surveys) report that what they do during their free time is less enjoyable (fulfilling?) than what they do at work.  Most people default to TV watching in their free time, an activity which scores 4.something on a scale of 0 to 10.  Whereas work scores above 7.

Lately, I’ve stopped telecommuting, in favor of actually doing my work in an office.  Fortunately, my commute isn’t far, so going into the office every day doesn’t mean that I’m spending a significant portion of my free time in the car, but it does add up to about ninety minutes per week that I’m giving up to the activity of commuting.  So I listen to podcasts, mostly about books and soccer.

Another of my leisure activities comes early in the morning when I go to the brewery to keg the day’s batch of beer.  While kegging beer might sound like work, it falls under the category of non-remunerative fun since I don’t get paid for this work and I do derive pleasure from the physical activity.  Although you might argue that it isn’t completely non-remunerative since (in the long run) the idea is that the brewery will one day generate enough money to pay its workers for their labor.  We just aren’t there yet.

I view kegging beer at the brewery the way most people view working out in the gym.  Instead of doing the treadmill or pumping iron at some sweaty space in a strip mall, I fill and hoist fifty pound kegs and carry them up and down stairs.  It keeps me buff and in shape.