The Importance Of Leisure

Joffre Dumazedier, a leading French sociologist, defines leisure as an “activity—apart from the obligations of work, family and society—to which the individual turns at will, for either relaxation, diversion, or broadening his knowledge and his spontaneous social participation, the free exercise of his creative capacity” (Kraus 40). Out of all the definitions of leisure, this is the definition that I can relate to the most. For me, leisure is a way of having relaxation and tranquility. Leisure differs from recreation in the way that leisure doesn’t have to be “socially” likeable or involve work, but leisure is something that a person likes to the do in their free time. I feel like one of the most important things in my life is balance. Balancing

This week I have spent 4% of my time at work, 20% of my time doing leisure activities, 21% of my time doing educational activities and the rest because subsistence. This week was very equal when it came to leisure and educational activities. Usually, every third week, I have a very large amount of school work to accomplish. Before going into this project, I used it as my advantage and laid out all of my school work ahead of time, so I was about to space it out accordingly in the upcoming weeks. Fortunately, it worked out of my benefit and I was able to spend more time with my friends and family this week, than I have been able to in the past. Besides hanging out with friends and family, my leisure activities consisted of reading, cooking and watching television. During this project, I had a difficult time placing my meals that I shared with friends into a category. Normally, I would place eating into the subsistence category, but instead I placed it into the leisure activity. I did this because I consider the time I spend with my friends talking/eating together a leisure