The Way We View Free Time Is Making Us Less Happy⁠↗

New research shows that we judge future positive events as both farther away and shorter than negative or neutral ones, leading us to feel like a holiday is over as soon as it begins. Equally, the way we chase top-notch leisure experiences has made recreation more stressful than ever. High expectations may clash with our experienced reality, making it feel anti-climactic, while trying to concoct the best vacation or leisure experience ever can fuel performativity.

For those seeking to intensify leisure, Aeon recommends using the peak-end rule, a cognitive bias that influences the way we remember events. For example, he says, at the dentist’s office, we remember the peak (when the pain was at its worst) and the end (the candy we’d get as we left); the average sum of these experiences adjusts the emotional intensity. So, for holidays, he recommends doing one thing that’s “completely insane” in the middle, such as bungee jumping, and one equally grandiose thing at the end (for instance, a spa day or indulgent meal) to elevate the entire experience and maximise hedonic utility overall.

For those seeking to intensify leisure, Aeon recommends using the peak-end rule, a cognitive bias that influences the way we remember events. For example, he says, at the dentist’s office, we remember the peak (when the pain was at its worst) and the end (the candy we’d get as we left); the average sum of these experiences adjusts the emotional intensity. So, for holidays, he recommends doing one thing that’s “completely insane” in the middle, such as bungee jumping, and one equally grandiose thing at the end (for instance, a spa day or indulgent meal) to elevate the entire experience and maximise hedonic utility overall.