Kali Durost

Dr. Lawson

RPTM 120

8 Nov 2022

Time Diary Phase II

Leisure, personal work, and managing other aspects of life like leaving time for

school, exercise, etc. can be a lot, especially when expectations for more are in the air.

Personally, my free time, stress, etc. fluctuate. College students from all over the

country are just trying their best to “break away from this constant pressure.” There is a

stigma placed on students of this age to look at bettering themselves for their future

career and “to always be “doing” something, which can cause unnecessary stress when

students try to take time to themselves.”

Overall, my time had remained fairly similar in aspects of getting up and going to

bed at the same time. Since the assignment was turned in, I’ve been trying to cut back

an hour and add in personal time for exercise. This is something that has been hard.

The beginning phases of finding a routine, and creating a new habit is tricky. In the

beginning of the semester this is how I felt with my 8 am wakeups, but now my body just

knows that it’s time to wake up for the day. I also found that time management with

technology was again quite similar. Looking back onto the original sheet, I had much

more personal time on my hands than I do now. My social/alone time indicated I spent

more hours alone than with others. I found this to be pretty accurate in terms of the
weekdays at least. Most often college students are found to be more independent when

it comes to studying hours, working, and finding free time in both parties' schedules.

This alone time, and independence, should be more normalized though. I’m really

working on the goal of “cultivating the ability to enjoy and value solitary time as a

meaningful experience.” In relation to the population, my leisure time was easily 2 or

more hours than the surveyed time. I also felt that most of the leisure done in the graph

was not similar to the leisure pursuits I had done. I felt like my form of leisure was more

relaxing and caring for myself. While, the leisure shown in the graph (like playing

games) was more activity based and performance oriented. Stress and happiness, in

terms of my graphing, were quite good. Most of the hours spent I had zero stress and

happiness was higher. Part of this being so low at the time could have been the result of

not having a lot on my plate at the time, and having more free time where I had no

troubles. Because my numbers were so similar I didn’t observe much of a trend at the

time. But if I could mention one thing, it’d be that happiness was high when I had gotten

more into the day and had finally woken up, had social interaction, etc. Commonly,

stress is placed when working on an assignment, having something to check off on my

to do’s, to name a few.

Health and wellness are of great importance to myself when I acknowledge how

I’m doing, and what’s up in my life at that present moment. Leisure for me encompasses

a form of relaxation and a way for me to take “weight” off myself. Leisure that detracts

myself from personal health and wellness would be more so on weekend days where I

find myself neglecting some common rules of healthiness. Things like finding time to

work out, minimizing going out, etc. are thrown out sometimes without thought. Taking a
step back and analyzing the data, I’d say to myself “to get things done, you also need to

get up.” Sometimes the relaxation phases are so good that we forget some priorities we

want for ourselves that need to be taken care of. If something, like going to the gym,

isn’t of a priority to someone else but only yourself it becomes harder to get out of

watching that movie, listening to music, etc. Ultimately, “Leisure doesn’t improve quality

of life unless one knows how to use it effectively.”

In conclusion, this assignment really opened my eyes into what I can do better in

my free time, how to balance, and more. In finding ways to do more for my future self in

terms of career and as a person, looking into habits that can take the place of my

current leisure should happen. To end, more people should track a day or two like we’ve

done and see all they have accomplished, not done, and more.
 References

Home. The Elm. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2022, from

https://blog.washcoll.edu/wordpress/theelm/2021/09/leisure-and-relaxation-are-just-as-i

mportant-as-building-a-strong-resume/

Stieg, C. (2019, November 6). You're spending your free time wrong - here's what to do

to be happier and more successful. CNBC. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/how-successful-people-spend-leisure-time-james-wall

man.html

Solitary time important for college students: Study. ANI News. (2019, April 10).

Retrieved November 10, 2022, from

https://www.aninews.in/news/lifestyle/quirky/solitary-time-important-for-college-students-

study20190410225853/