lack of free time essay

Americans work less than ever before but still feel like there's no free time — and there's a simple explanation

• S creen-based devices eat up what precious free time we have left.
• For a lot of people time not spent working feels like a waste.

The number of hours Americans work has  gone down over the last several decades, according to data from the OECD, while leisure time has gone up. But that's hardly the perception for many working people.

The psychologist Adam Alter offered one reason in his 2017 TED talk "Why our screens make us less happy."  He says that screen-based devices eat up what precious free time we have left.

But that may only be part of the story when it comes to the lack of leisure time. Here's why it feels like you have no free time anymore.

Our view of free time has changed.

Now that Americans have left the Industrial Age for the Information Age, the way people think about the value of time has changed.

Psychologists have found people do actually equate time with its monetary value (i.e. "Time is money."). At the same time, people have more opportunities than ever for multi-tasking. The result is time not spent working feels like a waste.

"Multi-tasking is what makes us feel pressed for time," Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, told the Economist .

People are working from home more often.

A 2017 Gallup survey of 15,000 American workers found that 43% of people spent at least some of their time working remotely — an increase of four percentage points since 2012.

They're also doing it more often: While the share of people who said they work remotely one day a week or less has fallen since 2012, the share of people who do it four or five times a week has risen, from 24% to 31%.

On the one hand, more flexibility in where to work has made it easier for parents and people who travel a lot to get their work done. But it's also had the side effect of getting people comfortable with working at home, at times they'd normally be relaxing.

We are spending longer hours in the office.

A 2011 survey of more than 300 companies in the US and Canada found nearly two-thirds of employers were demanding longer hours of their employees than they did three years prior.

Roughly half said they expected the longer hours to get even longer over the next three years.

According to additional survey results, the attitude may be due to the fact employers weren't aware that workers felt their mental health had suffered due to the longer hours.

People are spending their weekends working.

Another consequence of having constant access to mobile technology is that industries can work round-the-clock, which includes Saturday and Sunday. Americans, more than any residents of any other country, spend their weekends working,  according to OECD data, 

The 2014 data show 29% of American employees had worked over the weekend at some point during the past year. Fewer than 25% of people in Germany and 10% of people in Spain reported the same.

Flexibility to work remotely has also contributed to the ease of working weekends.

What free time people do have, they spend it on their devices.

Finally, once people do get free time, they tend to squander the opportunity by retreating to their phones or tablets.

NYU psychologist Adam Alter has found in his research that screen time has increased dramatically over the last decade. In 2007, people spent only a fraction of their free time on devices. By 2017, the ratio had flipped: People now spend a fraction of their time  not  on devices.

"That's where your humanity lives," Alter told the TED audience, referring to the portion of time where you are undistracted by technology. "And right now it's in a very small box."

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Why is free time still so elusive?

Distinguished Professor of Modern History, Penn State

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Gary Cross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Penn State provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.

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There have been massive gains in productivity over the past century.

So why are people still working so hard for so long?

Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the U.S. The standard American workweek, meanwhile, has remained unchanged, at about 40 hours.

This paradox is especially notable in the U.S., where the average work year is 1,767 hours compared with 1,354 in Germany , a difference largely due to Americans’ lack of vacation time .

Some might argue that Americans are just more hardworking. But shouldn’t more productive work be rewarded with more time free from work?

This is the central theme of my new book, “ Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal .”

Keynes misses the mark

Many economists see the status quo mostly as a choice : People would simply rather have more money. So they prioritize work over free time.

However, in the past, many economists assumed that people’s need for more stuff would eventually be met. At that point, they would choose more free time.

In fact, one of the most famous economists of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, confidently predicted in 1930 that within a century, the normal workweek would decrease to 15 hours. Yet Americans in their prime working age are still on the job 41.7 hours per week.

Why was Keynes wrong?

Obviously, people’s needs or wants were not fully met. In the first half of the 20th century, advertising shifted in ways that emphasized emotions over utility, making consumers feel like they needed to buy more stuff; planned obsolescence shortened how long products remained functional or fashionable, spurring more frequent purchases; and new, exciting – but costly – goods and services kept consumerism churning.

So workers continued to labor for long hours to earn enough money to spend.

Furthermore, as wages rose, the opportunity cost of time spent away from work also grew. This made more free time less economically appealing. In a consumption-saturated society, time spent neither producing nor consuming goods increasingly appeared as wasted time.

Interest in slower, cheaper activities – reading a book, meeting a friend to catch up over coffee – started to seem less important than buying a pickup truck or spending an hour at the casino, pursuits that demand disposable income.

Forced labor

It’s still important to consider whether there’s even any choice to be made.

Almost everyone who works 40 hours a week or more does so because they have to. There are bills to pay, health insurance coverage to maintain and retirement to squirrel away money for. Some jobs are more precarious than others, and many workers even forego earned vacation time for fear of losing promotions .

This hardly makes for a free choice.

But the 40-hour week isn’t the result of a personal calculation of costs and benefits. Rather, it’s the result of a hard-fought political battle that culminated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 , which established the standard 40-hour workweek, along with a minimum wage.

Pressed by a labor movement that was far more powerful than today’s , the government implemented a range of progressive economic policies during the 1930s to help the nation emerge from the Great Depression.

Many government officials viewed setting a standard workweek as a way to curtail exploitation and unfair competition among employers, who would otherwise be motivated to push their employees to work for as long as possible. It was an emergency measure, not a choice of more time over more personal income. Nor was it a step toward the progressive reduction of hours worked, as Keynes had envisioned.

In fact, it was hardly a radical measure.

Labor leaders had initially proposed a 30-hour week, which government officials resoundingly rejected. Even New Deal liberals saw a shortening of working hours as a potential threat to economic growth .

So the 40-hour week ended up as the compromise, and the standard hasn’t been updated since.

For most Americans, this was an acceptable trade-off. They might be working long hours, but they could afford television sets, cars and homes in the suburbs. Many families could live on the wages of the full-time work of the father, making the 40-hour week seem reasonable, since the mother had time to care for the family and home.

But this consensus has long since been undermined. Since the 1970s, inflation-adjusted wages haven’t risen with economic growth . In many households that include married or partnered couples, a single wage earner has been replaced by two earners, both of whom find themselves working at least 40 hours per week.

It’s almost as if the 40-hour week has been replaced by an 80-hour week – at least in terms of hours worked per household .

Who has time to raise kids? Who can afford them? It’s no wonder the birth rate has declined .

Separating economic growth from well-being

For decades, the amount of work we do has been talked about as “just the way things are” – an inevitability, almost. It doesn’t seem possible for society to take a different tack and, like flipping a switch, work less.

To me, this resignation points to a need to reconsider the social contracts of the past. Most Americans will not abandon their work ethic and their insistence that most people work. Fair enough.

Many people prefer working over having vast stores of free time, and that’s OK. And there’s still immense value in work that doesn’t produce a paycheck – caregiving and volunteering, for example.

But reducing the standard workweek, perhaps by transitioning to a four-day week, could ease stress for overworked families.

These changes require political action, not just individuals making the personal choice to arrive at a better work-life balance. And yet a national reduction in the standard workweek seems almost impossible. Congress can’t even pass legislation for paid family leave or guaranteed vacation time.

It doesn’t help that elected leaders continue to insist that well-being be measured mostly by economic growth, and when the U.S. media breathlessly reports quarterly economic growth data, with increases deemed “good” and decreases deemed “bad.”

Why shouldn’t free time and its benefits be included in the equation? Why aren’t figures on the social costs of unlimited growth publicized? Does it even matter that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has doubled in less than a decade when economic security is so fragile and so many people are overstressed ?

The idea that stratospheric increases in productivity can allow for more time for life is not simply a romantic or sentimental idea. Keynes viewed it as entirely reasonable.

Opportunities like the one that led to the 40-hour workweek in the 1930s rarely appear. But some sort of paradigm shift is urgently needed.

Something has to give.

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Why having too much free time can be as bad for you as having too little

Have you ever had one of those days — that turned into weeks — when you had approximately 645 things to do and not a single minute for leisure time?

Like many of us, Cassie Mogilner Holmes sometimes feels as if she lives in that state. She also — and this will probably sound familiar — has entertained the idea of trading all those obligations for a desert island.

Instead, Holmes, a professor of marketing and behavioral decision-making at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, decided to research whether extra free time would actually make her happier. It turns out that reclining alone on a beach all day might not be as ideal as it sounds. “To that initial question, ‘Shall we quit everything and go live on a desert island?’ The answer is no,” Holmes says. “We would not be any happier.”

According to study results published earlier this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, an individual’s well-being increases in correlation with their free time — but only to a certain point. Although having too little free time isn’t healthy, having too much also diminishes well-being.

“What we found is that a moderate amount of free time or discretionary time is kind of the sweet spot that people are happiest with,” says lead author Marissa Sharif, an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who collaborated on the new study with Holmes and Hal E. Hershfield.

“Having a moderate amount of discretionary time leads people to be happier than having a small amount, because it relieves that time stress,” Sharif says. “But perhaps the more interesting part is that a moderate amount of discretionary time leads people to be better off or happier compared to having a large amount of free time. And that’s because with a large amount of free time, people feel this lacking sense of productivity and purpose.”

As Holmes puts it: “We, as humans, don’t like to be idle.”

The researchers did not assign exact numbers to the optimal amount of free time per day. In general, though, it hovered around two to five hours, Sharif says. Those who had less than two hours of discretionary time per day experienced stress around their tight schedules. But once someone’s daily free time exceeded five hours, their well-being began to decline.

There were, however, some exceptions: When people with large amounts of free time spent that time with others or felt as if they were passing the hours in a meaningful way, they didn’t experience that same drop in well-being.

The new research is based on several data sets, including from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey and the Society for Human Resource Management’s National Study of the Changing Workforce. The researchers also conducted experiments in which they asked more than 6,000 Americans to imagine having a certain amount of free time every day for at least six months, and to estimate how much they would enjoy that time.

Selin Malkoc, an associate professor of marketing at Ohio State University, noted that the findings might vary in other countries “where leisure is valued differently.” Americans tend to be more obsessed with work than people in other nations, she says.

But she was intrigued that the researchers compared having too little and too much discretionary time in the same study. “There’s really been no study to date that put everything together and examined this curvilinear relationship.”

Charlotte Fritz, an associate professor in industrial and organizational psychology at Portland State University, also appreciated that the researchers “not only said too much or too little time is bad for your life satisfaction — but that they said, well, let’s look at how this time is being used and experienced.”

Based on the results of the study, here are a few tips from experts on how to optimize your free time to increase your sense of well-being.

If you feel like you have too much leisure time

Choose your optional activities wisely. According to the new study, people who spent their free time in “productive” ways, such as developing new hobbies, lifting weights, bowling or biking, experienced optimal well-being. So, if you’re newly retired or unemployed, and unsure what to do with your suddenly empty days, consider hitting the trails or, say, mastering a new language.

Fritz emphasizes that, in this context, “productive” means worthwhile or fulfilling, rather than contributing to the greater good. “For some people, it might be sitting on the beach watching the waves, and for others, it’s volunteering or renovating the house.”

Seek out other people. You’re more likely to be happy if you spend some of your free time engaged in social activities, the new research suggests. Some of the activities that participants enjoyed sharing with others included sports or playing billiards. When people spend their free time together socially, the study authors wrote, “more [free time] is better.” As Sharif puts it: “If you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend that time with other people, that’s a great way to not experience the drop off” in happiness that typically accompanies copious amounts of leisure time.

Flip your perspective. Recent research co-authored by Malkoc found that viewing leisure time as wasteful undermines how much you enjoy it. These people who believed that free time was fundamentally a waste were also more likely to be stressed and anxious, she says. To shake that attitude, she suggests focusing on the higher end goal of enjoying discretionary time: It will improve your life. That might mean telling yourself, “It will actually make me a better person, a better parent, a better friend,” she says. “Remind yourself that everything serves a purpose, including putting your feet up and reading a book or doing nothing.”

If you feel like you have too little leisure time

Evaluate what’s most important to you and what you can cut from your schedule. Most of us could benefit from pruning our schedules — but cramming them full is often a reflex. Building in leisure time requires establishing good boundaries and a strong sense of priorities, experts say. Make a list of everything that demands your time on the average day and note which tasks could be outsourced or scrapped. Malkoc suggests asking yourself: “What is the busy work that we can eliminate and replace with better things?”

Malkoc’s biggest piece of advice is to be mindful and introspective about how you use your time. “We need to know what makes us happy and take a moment to take stock of our activities, what we choose to do and what really does contribute to happiness in our lives.”

Put your calendar away. Scheduling takes the fun out of free time, says Gabriela Tonietto, an assistant professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School. According to her previous research , penciling in a date and time for leisure can make it feel like a chore. It also decreases anticipation of that free time. “Scheduled leisure is less enjoyable than more spontaneous or impromptu leisure,” Tonietto says. “It makes it feel more like work once it’s on your calendar. People start saying, ‘Well, this is an obligation,’ as opposed to something that you want to do.” Although some scheduling is inevitable, “rough scheduling” is often best: Make loose plans to meet someone for lunch or for a jog on a Friday, for example, but don’t assign a time until shortly beforehand. That’s one way to leave room for spontaneity.

Haupt is a freelance writer and editor. Follow her on Twitter: @angelahaupt .

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Making Better Use of Your Free Time

What are time affluence, time famine, and time confetti.

Posted December 16, 2021 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• Flexible work schedules may create a promise of time affluence, but, in reality, work may take over, leaving us with time famine.
• We sometimes feel guilty for outsourcing domestic tasks; when it’s affecting our mental health, there’s nothing wrong with buying back some time.
• Make a “time confetti to-do list,” so that when you find yourself with a spare moment, you know what to do.

Since the start of the pandemic, our perception of time has shifted. For many of us, working, schooling, and spending much more time at home have made it harder to create good containers for our time.

The great promise of flexible work schedules is that they create a feeling of time affluence, and, yet, in reality, flexible work often means that work takes over, leaving us with a feeling of time famine. This lack of balance puts us into a vicious cycle of overworking, burning out, and then giving into our exhaustion and feeling guilty about not overworking.

On a recent episode of the Happiness Lab podcast , Dr. Laurie Santos and Dan Harris talk about science-backed strategies for breaking this cycle. If this topic resonates with you, I recommend listening to the full episode. In what follows, I share some key insights about the psychology of time.

Time Affluence vs. Time Famine

Before we get into some tips to boost your feelings of abundance around your time, we need to better understand what social scientists mean when they talk about time affluence and time famine.

Time affluence is your subjective sense that you have free time. It’s having a state of mind that you’re “wealthy” in terms of your time. Since this is a subjective measure, it can be decoupled from the hours, minutes, and seconds you objectively have, which means that, at least in theory, even people with extreme demands on their time can experience time affluence.

Time famine is just the opposite of time affluence. It’s the feeling you get when you are starved for time. And what’s particularly interesting here is that, from a psychological perspective, time famine works similarly to hunger famine. For example, scientists see evidence of stress on the body in time-famished people.

One survey published by the Harvard Business Review even found that experiencing time famine had more of a negative impact on well-being than being unemployed. You can get a sense of this when you imagine having a full day of back-to-back meetings, a looming project deadline, and a commitment to attend your son's or daughter's soccer game after school, and your supervisor asks to schedule one-on-one time with you.

In the above situation, your nervous system will be activated—you may even be feeling on edge just reading this description.

Strategies for Gaining Time Affluence

So what can we do to gain a sense of time affluence? According to Dr. Laurie Santos, professor of psychology at Yale University, director of Yale's Comparative Cognition Lab, and host of the Happiness Lab podcast, it’s all about intentionality.

Here are three strategies Santos suggests for gaining time affluence:

1. Invest in time-saving. If you’re fortunate enough to have some disposable income, you could be directing more of those funds toward saving yourself time. Think of all the ways you could invest in time-saving:

• You could hire the teen next door to help out.
• You could get a meal service subscription or hire someone to do meal prep for you once a week.
• You could hop on a Web site like Taskrabbit and hire someone to put up your holiday decorations.
• You could use an errand service to buy holiday gifts you’ve chosen or to wrap those gifts.

Although we sometimes feel guilty for outsourcing domestic tasks, when it’s affecting our mental health, there’s nothing wrong with buying back some time.

2. Reframe the subtler time-saving things you’re already doing. In addition to the larger investments in time-saving, we often naturally spend money in subtler ways to gain back time. For example, you might order takeout once a week. But are you acknowledging that you’re saving time by doing so?

The next time you order takeout, instead of simply consuming the food while checking your email, savor the time savings. Remind yourself that you’re putting time back into your schedule by not having to spend an hour or two cooking and cleaning up.

3. Make sure you’re making good use of the free time you have. Here’s a surprising statistic: We actually have objectively more free time now than we did 15 to 20 years ago. If your schedule is anything like mine, you likely find that pretty hard to believe. But it’s true. The difference is that we feel busier now than we did in the early 2000s.

So why all the stress around our time? Time budgets look different today than they did 15 years ago. Whereas we used to have more big blocks of time off, now we have what Santos calls “time confetti.” We get five minutes between meetings or 10 minutes waiting in the carpool line to pick up the kids from school.

What do we do with these little moments of free time? We take out the devices we have glued to our sides 24/7 and check our email or scroll through the same feed we just checked 30 minutes ago. Of course we’re time-starved.

If you want to feel less time-strapped, make sure you’re making good use of the free time you have. Make a “time confetti to-do list,” so that when you find yourself with a spare moment, you know what to do.

Here are strategies Santos suggests for gaining time affluence:

• Focus on controlling your breath. Breathe in for a slow count of five, then breathe out for a slow count of five.
• Write in a gratitude journal.
• Get up and stretch.
• Go for a quick walk.

These little moments can really add up throughout the day if we use them well.

The key to breaking the cycle of overworking and burnout is to change the way we think about time. It might take some practice, but cultivating time affluence will put you into a happier cycle this holiday season and beyond!

Deana Goldin, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, is an associate clinical professor at Florida International University and an integrative psychiatric and family nurse practitioner.

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The Importance of Free Time for Kids

Betsie Van Der Meer / Getty Images

Today's children are busy, and when a child enters middle school schedules can get even busier. In fact, your child's schedule, and yours may at times be harried and overwhelming. But free time is important for children,   especially as they enter puberty and adolescence. While too much free time can become problematic,   it's important for parents to make sure that their tween has a balance between scheduled activities and time for themself.

If your tween can't seem to keep up with their responsibilities, it might be because they have too many.   Below are a few considerations when evaluating your child's free time. 

Prioritizing Free Time

Parents often have the best of intentions, but many parents are guilty of overscheduling their children, programming their schedules with extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and other demands.   The reasons behind the trend in overscheduling children are numerous. Some parents simply want to give the child opportunities that they never had. Others hope to make their children more competitive and better prepared for a successful high school experience, and beyond.  

While it is important for a child to pursue interests, hobbies or passions, it's also important for children to learn how to enjoy downtime.

Studies show that children who are overscheduled often feel overwhelmed and pressured, and that can lead to a number of problems including behavioral issues and emotional challenges.   In other words, overscheduled children can be stressed out.

Why It's So Important

Resist the urge to sign your child up for every activity that's available. Instead, help your child prioritize their interests. By doing so you're teaching your tween the skill of decision-making and that downtime should also be a priority to consider.  

Tweens Need Time to Think

Middle school can be stressful. Just consider all the challenges and obstacles a middle school student might face: bullies ; increase in homework responsibilities; pressure to excel and to be competitive; friendship issues; dating; puberty; and more.   All of those challenges require a little time on your child's part to think it through and find ways to manage it.

Allowing your child the free time to think will help your tween put it all into perspective and move on. And allowing your child the time to think also give you an opportunity to talk with one another and work through issues together. If you're rushing from one responsibility to another, conversations can be short and condensed. Allow your child the time to open up to you, or another family member.

Tweens Need to Relax

Adults understand the need to relax after a stressful week of work. Tweens are no different. If you've had a very busy week, you probably just want to go home and watch a little television. Your child might feel the same way. Free time allows your child to relax and do nothing, or to do something they've looked forward to all week.  

Tweens Need to Daydream

Daydreaming is something children are often criticized for, but children should allow themselves to daydream—just not in class. Daydreaming allows children to consider possible futures for themselves, and to ponder all the possibilities that are in front of them.   But you can't daydream if you don't have the leisure time to do so.

While pretend play is important for toddlers and preschoolers, daydreaming is important to tweens and teens. Allow your child the time to think about their future, and you might be surprised at the results.

Free Time Makes People Happy

Studies show that people are generally happier on the weekends.   Why? On the weekends, people get to choose their own activities, spend time with the people they like and separate themselves from their weekday responsibilities. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Auhuber L, Vogel M, Grafe N, Kiess W, Poulain T. Leisure Activities of Healthy Children and Adolescents . Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2019;16(12). doi:10.3390/ijerph16122078

Meldrum RC, Barnes JC. Unstructured Socializing with Peers and Delinquent Behavior: A Genetically Informed Analysis . J Youth Adolesc . 2017;46(9):1968-1981. doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0680-x

American Academy of Pediatrics. Chores and Responsibility . November 21, 2015.

Cleveland Clinic. Is Your Child Overscheduled? Kids Need ‘Down Time’ . July 16, 2018.

Vandell DL, Larson, RW, Mahoney, JL, Watts, TW. Children's Organized Activities . In Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Ecological Settings and Orocesses . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons; 2015, pp. 305-344. doi:10.1002/9781118963418.childpsy408

Brown SL, Nobiling BD, Teufel J, Birch DA. Are kids too busy?: early adolescents' perceptions of discretionary activities, overscheduling, and stress . J Sch Health . 2011;81(9):574-80. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00629.x

Barker JE, Semenov AD, Michaelson L, Provan LS, Snyder HR, Munakata Y. Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning .  Front Psychol . 2014;5:593. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593

American Psychological Association. How to help children and teens manage their stress . October 24, 2019.

McMillan RL, Kaufman SB, Singer JL. Ode to positive constructive daydreaming .  Front Psychol . 2013;4:626. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00626

Helliwell JF, Wang S. How was the weekend? How the social context underlies weekend effects in happiness and other emotions for US workers .  PLoS One . 2015;10(12):e0145123. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145123

By Jennifer O'Donnell Jennifer O'Donnell holds a BA in English and has training in specific areas regarding tweens, covering parenting for over 8 years.

• Psychology Today

People With no Free Time

At first glance, the issue seems straightforward. Time pressure comes down to a lack of time, right? Well, partly. It’s the feeling that we don’t have enough time to do what we want to do—but it turns out that feelings and enough and wants are somewhat subjective.

From 1965 to 2003, the average American workweek actually declined by three hours, while leisure time increased. And in many places in the developed world, the workweek has gotten even shorter since then. In one study of more than 7,000 working Australians, researchers declared that time pressure is an “illusion.” They estimated how much time is necessary for basic living—hours of paid work, housework, and personal care—and compared it to how much free time people had in their actual schedules. It turns out there was a big discrepancy, which was most extreme for households without children and smallest for single parents.

“Those who feel most overworked—those who have least ‘free time’—largely do it to themselves,” the researchers wrote. In other words, we could theoretically spend fewer hours making money, vacuuming and washing dishes, or cooking and eating, and we’d get by without getting overwhelmed.

Although you may not want to subsist just above the poverty line or give your kids as little attention as possible, the broader point is important: Tight-squeezy time stress has to do with the things we value and the time we devote to them. And, other research suggests, it also relates to our attitudes and mindsets about time. Rather than always blaming the clock, we can find some roots of the time crunch deep in our own psychology. Here are some scientific insights to help you make a distinction between real stopwatch pressure and the unnecessary pressure you might be putting on yourself.

1. Enjoyment and passion

In a 2004 study of nearly 800 working people in Ohio, researchers were confronted with a puzzle.

When women did more than 10 hours of housework a week, they felt more pressed for time and in turn more depressed. But when men did the same amount of housework, they didn’t. A similar pattern appeared for volunteering: Men who volunteered more were less depressed, but women got time stressed and didn’t seem to experience as much benefit.

The explanation that the researchers came up with, bolstered by people’s accounts of how they spent their time, was that men tend to do more enjoyable housework and volunteering. They cut the grass and coach soccer teams; they get into flow and feel a sense of accomplishment. Women, on the other hand, are often occupied with small, repetitive daily chores and service work: less cheering and high-fiving and more trying not to fall asleep at school meetings.

Unsurprisingly, a day packed with somewhat engaging activities feels less busy and stressful than a day of drudgery. If time flies (in a good way) when you’re having fun, it also seems to fly (in a bad way) when you’re not. This subjective element might have created more of a sense of time pressure in women who participated in the study, even if men’s activities equaled or exceeded theirs in hours.

A similar effect takes place at work. In one study , researchers surveyed more than 2,500 employees at a technology company and a financial services company. They found that people who are more passionate, who aspire to do things that matter to them at work, aren’t as rushed and harried as others.

If you feel short on time, you might simply not be enjoying the activities that fill up your schedule. Life can be like that sometimes, but if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, it might help to add one more thing to your day—something that keeps you engaged.

2. Inner conflict

Why does passion seem to free up our time? The researchers who observed this phenomenon wanted to discover what was really going on.

They found a clue when they asked employees about how conflicted or aligned their goals were. Employees lacking in passion said that their goals were competing with each other, fighting for time and attention; for example, the drive to do well at work might make it hard to get home for dinner with the family. But passionate employees were different: They saw their goals as supporting each other. After all, healthy home cooking and family bonding might give them more energy and motivation tomorrow.

Gift of Time

Spend quality time with people you care about

So, time pressure isn’t just about how enjoyable our activities are, but also how well they fit together in our heads. One study found that people who simply think about conflicting goals—like saving money vs. buying nice things, or being healthy vs. eating tasty foods—feel more stressed and anxious, and in turn shorter on time.

Knox College professor Tim Kasser , an expert on materialism who coauthored a seminal paper on time scarcity, once joked, “If every research project that I’m currently working on right now was a cat living in my house, it would be very clear that I had a problem.” If your to-do list feels like a herd of hungry felines, all in competition for your one can of food, it’s no wonder you’re overwhelmed.

While we may freely choose some tasks on our plate, others are largely the product of our society or culture, says Australian National University professor Lyndall Strazdins , who has spent the last decade trying to show how time scarcity matters for individual and public health. For example, being a good suburban mom today seems to include chauffeuring your kids around the neighborhood to countless sports and hobbies.

“If you don’t do that, then you feel you’re not living up to one set of norms, but if you don’t do [something else], you’re also not living up to another set of norms,” says Strazdins. “You’ve got 24 hours…and you get to a point where you just can’t expand your day.” If you feel a lot of inner conflict about a task, then you might consider just letting it go.

3. A sense of control

Often when we’re caught in a time conflict, it’s because of some external obligation: Daycare pickup runs up against an important meeting; your work shift starts at 9, but the bus is late. Time pressure goes hand in hand with feeling you’re not in control of your own schedule.

In one 2007 study , researchers interviewed 35 low-income working mothers who were caring for at least one child. They asked the moms to talk about how they spent the previous day, and how they manage to feed their families when it’s hectic.

The researchers were able to pinpoint different ways of managing time—some of which were more successful than others.

The least successful was the “reactive” style, where mothers didn’t feel in control of their days. All those mothers felt time-scarce, beholden to the clock, unable to accomplish everything they wanted to. In contrast, mothers who had an “active” time-style had some success at scheduling, managing, and structuring their days. They felt slightly more in control of their own time and a bit less time-stressed than the reactive group.

“People often complain of being in a time bind not only because they are objectively busy, but also because they perceive a lack of control over their time,” researcher Ashley V. Whillans and her colleagues write . That perception may be based on our life circumstances—because we have non-negotiable work hours or babies who aren’t fond of sleeping through the night—but it can also be part of our psychology. 

According to research, rather than experiencing life as masters of their own fate, some people tend to feel like they’re at the mercy of external forces (and thus less resilient to stress and more depressed ). If this describes you, it may be harder for you to seize back a sense of control over your schedule.

In that case, try to keep your eyes on the prize and do what you can to gain a sense of control over your time. Take little steps, like optimizing your to-do list or practicing saying “no” to people who ask for favors.

4. The value of your time

One last piece of the time-pressure puzzle is money, and that one is complicated. If you work multiple jobs or can’t pay for a babysitter, you’re bound to feel short on time. But some research has found that people with high incomes feel particularly short on time—and people who get richer become even more harried than they were before. Even just feeling rich—when your savings is on the higher end of the scale on a form you’re filling out— can make you feel more rushed .

“In a society like ours, the go-to answer [for happiness] is make more money, buy more stuff,” says Kasser. “What we’re trying to say is, well, no; what people actually need is more time.”

Why would an abundance of money feel like a scarcity of time ? One possibility is that rich people have so much they could do with their money but only a handful of hours outside work to do it, suggest researchers Daniel Hamermesh and Jungmin Lee. So many expensive hobbies to pursue, so little time!

“Those who feel most overworked—those who have least ‘free time’—largely do it to themselves”

But another possibility is that they simply put more value on their time. If each hour they’re not working is $100 they could have earned, they better use that hour well.

As economists would remind us, when something is scarce, its value goes up—but the opposite is also true. When something is valuable (like time), we perceive it to be scarcer. In one experiment , researchers asked 67 students to engage in some mock consulting work, for which they would “charge” $1.50 or $0.15 per minute. The students who were charging $1.50 felt more pressed for time—even though they weren’t actually going to earn that money! In another experiment, when people were asked to calculate their hourly wage, high earners felt even more time-starved.

“Feelings of time pressure are not just a function of individual differences, the quantitative amount of time spent working, or even people’s working conditions, although these factors are obviously important,” write researchers Sanford E. DeVoe and Jeffrey Pfeffer. “Time pressure is at least partly a result of psychological processes and the perception of time’s value.”

This is all good news and bad news. It means that our efforts to optimize and schedule, plan and streamline, might not be getting to the heart of the problem. But it also means that we may have more leverage than we think, even if we can’t manufacture spare hours to call a friend or get to the dentist. Time pressure is the uncomfortable gap between how we wish we spent our time—and how we think that would make us feel—and how we’re spending it and feeling now. With that in mind, we just might be able to find some room to breathe.

About the Author

Kira M. Newman

Kira M. Newman is the managing editor of Greater Good . Her work has been published in outlets including the Washington Post , Mindful magazine, Social Media Monthly , and Tech.co, and she is the co-editor of The Gratitude Project . Follow her on Twitter!

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• Example of a great essay | Explanations, tips & tricks

Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks

Published on February 9, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

This example guides you through the structure of an essay. It shows how to build an effective introduction , focused paragraphs , clear transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion .

Each paragraph addresses a single central point, introduced by a topic sentence , and each point is directly related to the thesis statement .

As you read, hover over the highlighted parts to learn what they do and why they work.

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Table of contents

Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay, an appeal to the senses: the development of the braille system in nineteenth-century france.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically blind education could be more widely recognized.

Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among blind students.

Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in 1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words, the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch (Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.

Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number. Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al., 2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.

While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst, 2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009), realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).

Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009), allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.

The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the transition from memory-based performance to notation-based performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Bullock, J. D., & Galst, J. M. (2009). The Story of Louis Braille. Archives of Ophthalmology , 127(11), 1532. https://​doi.org/10.1001/​archophthalmol.2009.286.

Herron, M. (2009, May 6). Blind visionary. Retrieved from https://​eandt.theiet.org/​content/​articles/2009/05/​blind-visionary/.

Jiménez, J., Olea, J., Torres, J., Alonso, I., Harder, D., & Fischer, K. (2009). Biography of Louis Braille and Invention of the Braille Alphabet. Survey of Ophthalmology , 54(1), 142–149. https://​doi.org/10.1016/​j.survophthal.2008.10.006.

Kersten, F.G. (1997). The history and development of Braille music methodology. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education , 18(2). Retrieved from https://​www.jstor.org/​stable/40214926.

Mellor, C.M. (2006). Louis Braille: A touch of genius . Boston: National Braille Press.

Tombs, R. (1996). France: 1814-1914 . London: Pearson Education Ltd.

Weygand, Z. (2009). The blind in French society from the Middle Ages to the century of Louis Braille . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Bryson, S. (2023, July 23). Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks. Scribbr. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/example-essay-structure/

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long working hours and lack of free time

IELTS essay long working hours and lack of free time

• Structure your answers in logical paragraphs
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• 5 band What is the importance of music? Music work as a stress buster as it help to reduce stress. To be precise, now everyone preoccupied with their mundane affairs so that is why the feel lethargic due to which they listen music to relax themselves. Moreover, music play a vital role in marriages. To explain, playing music is an appropri ...
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109 Time Management Topics & Essay Examples

Learn about the effects of poor time management, timetables, and organizational skill! Explore this list of 106 topics about time , compiled by our experts .

⌚ How to Write a Time Management Essay: Do’s and Don’ts

🏆 best research titles about time management, 📌 most interesting time management topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about time: management & organization, ❓ time management essay questions.

When writing a Time Management Essay, it may be easy to revert to merely enumerating and explaining how to achieve perfection through various approaches. While this is an essential part of such essays, you should not forget about other aspects of it. Here are some examples of what you should do in your paper:

• Explain the intent of your essay. Are you teaching stress management tactics to save people the time they spend worrying or discipline? Your readers should be aware of your subject.
• When mentioning a tactic, explain its purpose. People will be more intent to listen to you when they understand the intent behind the ideas that you are presenting. Compare these statements: “Keeping a bullet journal helps manage time better” and “A bullet journal’s purpose is helping people get subconsciously ready for today’s tasks.” Which one attempts to clarify the process?
• Describe the mechanisms behind the outlined techniques. Doing so helps people adjust any goal-setting process to their own needs rather than blindly following it.
• Use credible sources to back up your claims. For example, when writing about mind mapping, you can reference some of the studies conducted on this method.
• If you can, give precedents of the successful implementation of the idea that you are describing. Mention people or even companies that have benefited from applying these methods to their daily working process.

All this advice should be used together with standard essay-writing rules. Outlining and brainstorming may save you, the writer, time that you would have spent on rewriting faulty paragraphs. You should do your research beforehand and structure your work so that the topics within it do not overlap.

Additionally, reference credible book and journal titles since your audience will believe factual, source-supported evidence more willingly.

Finally, when it comes to thinking about time management essay titles, choose one that is reflective of your subject and approach it. Each structural choice should help you further your thesis statement, linking to it and helping your readers follow your train of thought.

There are other things you should avoid doing when covering your topic. All of them center on the idea that time management essay topics should be respectful of the reader. Do not:

• Write about your audience as if they are incompetent. Advice that seems condescending place is often unappreciated and neglected.
• Name-drop inventors and techniques with no explanation. Doing so will only confuse your readers needlessly and make you seem unaware of your subject yourself.
• Plagiarize from anywhere, including time management essay samples. Gaining inspiration is one thing, while purposefully copying and not referencing stolen content is an academic crime.
• Leave your paragraphs inconclusive. Apart from academically referenced facts, you should also voice your own resolutions that your used sources support.
• Promise your readers a solution to all of their problems. You are merely demonstrating sample means to better anyone’s time-management. Using these methods is an entirely different thing.

Other evident don’ts are those that your instructor should outline. Do not ignore the rules of essay writing that have been stated to you explicitly, such as the maximum word count. Your essay’s structure is reflective of your discipline and time-management.

Therefore, a careless outline or a disregard for the rules demonstrates that your work has had no positive effect on you and may have the same outcome on your readers.

Want to know more paper samples? Find more at IvyPanda!

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• The Importance of Time Management Time is one of the most important resources within the operations and execution of tasks and or activities of organizations and individuals.
• Time Management at the Workplace Traditionally, time management is associated with one’s ability to accomplish more assignment and duties within a certain period of time, but often the first task for a time manages is to eliminate some of the […]
• Procrastination and Time Management In case the available time is not properly allocated to all activities to be achieved within a given period, then the available time will not be allocated to the correct event.
• Time and Stress Management for Better Productivity Procrastination is the forwarding of events that have to be done at a specific time to another time in the future.
• Tools of Time Management for Students Students can write down all of the projects they need to complete and the deadlines for those. It is also crucial for individuals to study at what time of the day they can be the […]
• Time Management: Getting Things Done At any time, the individual knows the task to complete and the manner in which it is to be completed. The GTD system can easily lead to a disconnect between the tasks to be completed, […]
• School Principal: Successful Time Management As the key administrator of the school, the principal is expected to set the tone for a society of learners-teachers who unreservedly exchange information, thoughts and ideas.
• Time Management of a Nurse Graduate This essay discusses why time management is a critical skill for a nurse graduate and what strategies can be employed to alleviate the impact of transition from a student to a healthcare worker.
• Time Management in Tertiary Studies The essay endeavours to examine the importance of time management and the role of lectures in relation to tertiary studies. To start with, the essay will explore the importance of time management in the lives […]
• “Just in Time” – Philosophy of Management All the benefits of this system tend to be woven in the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the processes that are involved.
• Time Management for Nurses It is important for healthcare professionals to find time for patients because of identifying their needs and to know what can be done to improve the situation.
• Poor Time Management and Addressing Strategies I knew that I should not do it but the first time I broke the rule I did it unconsciously. In fact, because of these phone checks, I paid more attention to the phone rather […]
• Time Management for a Post-Graduate Student The various articles in these encyclopedias will help to form a basis for the research and will also act as a guide in conducting further research in other publications.
• Time Management in Everyday Life Time and tide wait for none and this is a very old saying but at the very same time it is extremely important to realize and absorb the essence of the same.
• Quality and Time Management Improvement Techniques Because of the lack of consistency in the types of information retrieved, the firm needs to adopt the approach that allows for arranging the existing data within the shortest amount of time.
• Value of Time Management First, when speaking about time management and the basic skills, it is crucial to mind the most important activities that should be performed and goals that should be achieved to guarantee the development of a […]
• Time Management: An Essential Skill for Top Performers According to Cornell’s system, the top column of a paper should have a cue column and a note-taking column. In this method, individuals should draw a circle in the middle of the paper and then […]
• Time Management Among Essential Student Skills It is important to realize that the learning environment is often challenging and may require the application and development of specific skills and competencies in order to experience success.
• Budget Plan: Time Management Aspects The application will not be able to diagnose this, but it will be able to warn the patient and recommend possibly going to the doctor.
• Plan-Do-Study-Act for Time Management at Home I will have to stick to a sleep schedule to change my current sleep habit, resulting in the recommended seven to eight hours every night.
• Time Management Tools in the Workplace Thus, one can intelligently distribute the available time on the number of tasks and assess productivity at the end of the day. The Medical Assisting Pocket is a tool that enables them to improve and […]
• Completion of Time Management At the same time, there is a growing feeling of helplessness in front of an avalanche of problems urgently requiring the intervention and the belief that lack of time like lack of air leads to […]
• Three Easy Ways to Improve Your Time Management For effective time management to be achieved, the level of disorganization has to be kept at the lowest level in both workplace and learning environments. As a result, there is no time wastage in moving […]
• Reconstructing for Handicapped Students: Project Time Management Originally, the reconstruction process requires the adaptation of various facilities for increasing the comfort of using them for the students with disabilities, nevertheless, the reconstruction process itself requires detailed preparation and creation of the required […]
• Concise Time Management and Personal Development Suppose that creativity can be encouraged by exploring some of the qualities and characteristics of creative thinkers and the activities/steps that can be undertaken to improve the processes involved.
• Time Management: How Developing Professional Knowledge and Abilities Impact Career Success First, it is important to assess the entire time available and then it is needed to assort the time in accordance to the need. As a result, it is important to formulate the right balance […]
• Time Management Theory and Study Skills It is during this time that a right balance between work and leisure would be the decisive factor in shaping ones future course of life.
• Researching Time Management Aspects Time management refers to the process of planning how to divide the time you have between the activities you need to perform as well as to the idea of controlling how the schedule is followed.
• Time Management Skills and Techniques Because of the lack of experience in the arrangement of activities, the experience of managing time is likely to be rather deplorable.
• Time Management Issues Among Managers The authors concluded that managers should get control over the time and content of their roles to ensure the management of their time effectively.
• Why the Poor Stewardship of Time? When asked by my teacher why I was a notorious timekeeper I used to answerer, “my home is the furthest and I could not make it early as my colleagues”.
• Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination? In order to manage time effectively the following solutions can be applied: The most popular solution is to make a schedule to keep track of important facts and ideas that can be of any use […]
• The Just-in-Time Management Concept The concept of Just-in-Time is a comparatively recent addition to the array of manufacturing strategies that are supposed to help reduce the waste levels in the organization, at the same time improving the product quality […]
• Students’ Time Management Strategies Students should keep track of the time they have to meet their responsibilities. The third strategy involves keeping reminders to keep students focused on their assignments and their deadlines.
• Time Management and Building Team The strength of the article is that it takes more time in explaining what a team is and what many think a team to be.
• Time Management: Lesson Pacing To begin with lesson pacing can be described as a given rate or speed at which a teacher tends to present a task to pupils in a class.
• Achieving Objectives Through Time Management
• Developing Good Time Management Skills
• Adulthood: Time Management and Transition
• Apply Time Management Technique to a Project
• Conflict Resolution and Time Management
• Time Management and Its Suitable Strategies for Adult Learners
• Unpreparedness and Time Management in the US Army
• Problems Associated with Poor Time Management for Students
• Analyzing Better Time Management Skills
• The Personality Assessment and the Time Management Section
• The Strengths and Weaknesses of Time Management and Their Relationship with Stress in the Workplace
• Becoming a Better Learner Through Time Management
• Time Management Is a Crucial Component of the Art of Nursing
• Importance of Planning and Time Management Techniques
• The Impact of Time Management and Causes of Stress in the Workplace
• Punctuality: Time Management and Cardinal Virtue
• Business and Effective Time Management Uses
• The Challenge of Time Management and Its Effects on Adult Learning
• The Interference Caused by Time Management, the Internet, and Sports on Education
• Expectations for Time Management and Involvement
• The Relationships Between Scope Definition and Time Management
• Effective Time Management: Identifying and Correcting Time Wasters
• The Importance of Time Management: Priorities, Being Organizing and Setting Goals
• Time Management Is an Important Ingredient for Success
• The Reality of the Effectiveness of Time Management from the Perspective of the Employees of the Beauty Clinic of Dentistry
• Problems with Time Management, Distractions, and Procrastination
• Effective Communication and Time Management for a Patient
• The Importance of Spoken Communication, Written Communication, and Time Management
• Effective Management Versus Effective Time Management
• Influence of Work Motivation, Leadership Effectiveness, and Time Management on Employees
• The Effects of Technology on Poor Time Management and Sleep Deprivation Among Students
• The Key Aspect of Time Management and Productivity
• The Different Techniques for Effective Time Management
• The Process of Improving Time Management
• Comparison of Time Management Perception of Students Studying at the Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching and Program in Primary School Education
• Importance of Time Management and Deadlines to the Work of Public Relations
• The Importance of Effective Time Management
• The Relation Between Time Management and Academic Performance Among University Students
• The Importance and Challenges of Time Management for Today’s Student Leaders
• Good Study Skills and Time Management Dissertation or Thesis Complete
• How to Solve Time Management Problems?
• How Have Sports Taught Me Time Management?
• Is Procrastination a Problem of Time Management?
• What Does Time Management Mean?
• Why Is Time Management Important?
• What Time Management for Adult Students?
• How Can Technology Improve One’s Time Management Skills?
• How Can Time Management Skills Effect Educational Achievement?
• How Better Time Management Aids?
• How Can Students Improve Their Self-Discipline and Time Management Skills?
• Can Poor Time Management Make a Student-Athlete Fail?
• Why Student-Athletes Struggle with Time Management?
• What Are Important Aspects of Time Management?
• What Connection Between Time Management and Unpreparedness in the Army?
• How Does Time Management Work?
• What Does Time Management Mean to Me?
• Why College Students Use Their Time Management and Study Skills?
• What Can Time Management Bring to Your Personal Growth?
• What Are the First Two Key Steps of Controlling Time Management?
• How Can Expectations Influence Time Management?
• What Is the Biggest Academic Challenge of Time Management?
• Who’s Got the Monkey: Concept of Time Management
• What Is the Relationship Between Time Management and Stress Management?
• How Does Social Media Effect Time Management?
• Why Time Management Is a Leader, Success Is All About Growing
• How to Prioritize and Manage Time?
• How to Use Effectively Time Management Within Education?
• How to Enhance Academic Performance with Time Management
• How Can Hospitality Organizations Successfully Apply the Skills and Principles of Time Management?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Essays About Time: Top 5 Examples and 8 Prompts

Essays about time involve looking into human existence and other intangible concepts. Check out our top examples and prompts to write an engaging piece about this subject.

Time entails many concepts that can be hard to explain. In its simplest sense, time is the period between the past, present, and future. It also encompasses every action or progression of events within those measures. Time never stops. It consistently ticks away, making it both a cruel teacher and an apt healer. It inspires many writers to write pieces about it, discussing time as a notion or an element in emotionally-driven compositions that both describe euphoric and heart-rending episodes. 

To aid you in writing a compelling piece, below are our top picks for great essays about time:

1. Time is Precious Essay by Anonymous on AreSearchGuide.com

2. an essay on time by david pincus, 3. time is money by supriya, 4. time waster by anonymous on exampleessays.com, 5. time management: using the less time to do more by anonymous on edubirdie.com, 1. how i spend my time, 2. what is time, 3. time and technology, 4. time management and procrastination, 5. if time doesn’t exist, 6. time as a currency, 7. the value of time, 8. time and productivity.

“Make most of your time and you will be rewarded ten folds of it, waste it and the little you have will be taken away, just like in the parable of talents.”

The essay begins with a convincing statement reminding the readers of the average life expectancy of a person to assert the importance of time. Then, in the later sections, the author answers why time is precious. Some reasons include time is always in motion, is priceless, and can never be borrowed. The piece also mentions why many “wait for the right opportunity,” not realizing they must plan first to get to the “right time.” Finally, at the end of the essay, the writer reminds us that balancing and planning how to spend time in all areas of life are critical to having a meaningful existence.

“I don’t know what time is, beyond a mysterious self-similar backdrop upon which we lead our lives. It is intricately woven across the scales of observation – from the quantum level to the phenomenological time of cultural revolutions.”

Pincus begins the essay with questions about time and then proceeds to answer them. Then, he focuses on time psychologically, relating it to traumas, disorders, and lack of meaning. In the next section, he discusses how psychotherapists use the concept of time to treat patients. 

In the last part of his essay, Pincus admits that he doesn’t know what time is but notes it’s akin to a thread that stitches moments together and anchors us through a complex world.

“Knowing how precious time is, we should never waste time, but make good use of it.”

Supriya’s essay is straightforward. After claiming that someone’s success depends on how they use their time, she gives an example of a student who studied well and passed an exam quickly. She follows it with more examples, referring to office workers and the famous and wealthy.

“Time is something you can’t have back, and should not be used to simply watch a computer screen for hours upon end.”

The writer shares one of his vices that leads him to waste time – technology, specifically, instant messaging. They mention how unproductive it is to just stare at a computer screen to wait for their friends to go online. They know many others have the same problem and hope to overcome the bad habit soon.

“I should strive for good time management skills which are essential to be learned and mastered in order to have a better personal and professional life… it can also help us learn more about self-discipline which is a crucial pillar for stable success… time management is a concept of balance and moderation of the things that are important to us.”

The essay affirms people need to protect time, as it’s a non-renewable resource. A great way to do it is by tracking your time, also known as time management. The writer shared their experience when they were a college student and how challenging it was to allocate their time between deadlines and other life demands. The following parts of the piece explain what time management is in detail, even recommending a tool to help individuals label their activities based on urgency. The following paragraphs focus on what the author learned about time management throughout their life and how they missed opportunities while continuously being stressed. Then, the last part of the essay suggests tips to conquer time management problems. 

Did you know that readability is critical to readers finishing your whole essay? See our article on how to improve your readability score to learn more. 

8 Writing Prompts For Essays About Time

Go through our recommended prompts on essays about time for writing:

In this essay, share how you use your time on a typical day. Then, decide if you want to keep spending your time doing the same things in the future. If not, tell your readers the reason. For instance, if you’re devoting most of your time studying now, you can say that you intend to use your future time doing other invaluable things, such as working hard to help your family.

Because there are many definitions of time, use this essay to define your interpretation of time. You can use creative writing and personify time to make your essay easy to understand. For example, you can think of time as a personal tutor who always reminds you of the things you should be able to finish within the day. For an engaging essay, use descriptive language to emphasize your points.

List technologies that help people save time, such as smartphones, computers, and the internet. Delve into how these devices help individuals complete their tasks faster. On the other hand, you can also talk about how modernization negatively affects people’s time management. Like when they distract students and workers from completing their assignments.

Discuss reasons why people procrastinate. First, ensure to pick common causes so your readers can easily relate to your piece. Then, add tips on how individuals can battle dilly-dallying by recommending influential time management theories and models. You can even try some of these theories or models and tell your readers how they worked for you. 

Open a discussion about what can happen if there is no concept of time. Include what matters you think will be affected if time is abolished. You can also debate that time does not exist, that it’s just created by people to keep track of whatever they need to monitor. Finally, add your thoughts on the notion that “we only exist within an ever-changing now.”

Share your ideas of what can take place if we use “time” to buy food, pay rent, etc. You can also analyze that when we use our time to work, get paid for it, and then purchase our necessities, we’re technically exchanging our time to be able to buy what we need. A movie that used this theory is In Time , starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, and Cillian Murphy. You can write a review of this movie and add your opinions on it.

Everyone’s aware of the importance of time. For this prompt, delve into why time is precious. Write this essay from your perspective and probe how time, such as managing or wasting it, affects your life. You can also interpret this prompt by calculating the non-monetary or opportunity costs of spending time. 

Examine the direct relationship between time and productivity. Then, list productivity strategies schools and businesses use. You can also open a discourse about the number of hours workers are supposed to work in a week. For example, debate if you think a 40-hour full-time work week in America, results in more productive employees. Then, add other schedules from other countries and how it affects productivity, such as Denmark, Germany, and Norway, with less than 30 hours of the work week. 

Do you want to know how to convince your readers effectively? Read our guide on how to write an argumentative essay . Improve your writing skills; check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Time Management — The Challenge of Time Management and Its Effects on Adult Learning

The Challenge of Time Management and Its Effects on Adult Learning

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Words: 1098 |

Published: Jan 15, 2019

Words: 1098 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

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Why is the issue significant, why does it occur, how does it affect learning, who shares a stake.

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Essay on Time

Time – how important is it.

The value of time is one of the most positive aspects of all-round self-development. Every day, our teachers, parents and grandparents remind us about the value of time. My grandmother often tells me that time is more valuable than money. However, each person has their way of utilizing the time. While successful people use them wisely, a lazy person might waste a lot of time. This can make him miss out some great opportunities in life. And once the time goes away, you cannot bring it back by any means.

Time and Tide Waits for None

Everyone needs to realize how important time is. Often, we waste a lot of time doing unnecessary activities or thinking about unnecessary things. This takes away a lot of hours from our everyday life. If we keep on losing our time, we are likely to face many hardships in the future. So, instead of attending to several things together, it is essential to focus on what is necessary. 

Our teachers always ask us to think about the most important things that we need to attend every day. We can avoid many problems in the future if we take care of them on time. There is a famous proverb, "a stitch in time saves nine". It also conveys the importance of taking timely action.

Punctuality and Time Utilization

Punctuality means always being on time. In our school, the report card always mentions whether we have been punctual during the session. Even when my parents leave for the office, they depart early. They are very particular about reaching their offices on time. As they say, staying punctual shows that we are true to our commitment and that we can manage our time properly. This is something that everyone appreciates.

Reaching on time, as well as not wasting time, would make other people believe in us. They can rely on that we will not be late to keep an appointment.

Utilizing Our 24 Hours

Managing the 24 hours in a day can be more difficult than we think. It takes some time and planning to make the most of the time available to us. The better we make plans for time management, the easier our everyday tasks become. We can start by listing our priorities, allowing separate time to do our worksheets, and setting realistic goals.

For proper use of time, we can decide on our long and short term goals. My parents have always encouraged me to make a list of things that I think is necessary, as well as a list of things that might wait for some time. Accordingly, they help me to create my priority list. Also, keeping my goals in mind helps me to stay active. I always know what are the things that I should end doing by the end of the day. So I don't feel comfortable unless I have done everything on my to-do list. It helps me to do all my tasks on time. So I always end up having some extra hours for refreshment.

Prioritizing Our Works

Not all works of our everyday life are equally important. For example, while some entertainment and outdoor sports might be important for mental refreshment, I can always reserve some time for them on the weekends or the holidays. During the weekdays, my priority always remains on preparing my lessons and doing other activities on the allotted time. Managing our everyday routine is a very fruitful way to prioritize. And once we manage to do it smoothly, we can recognize the significance of several jobs and tasks that we are supposed to do.

Lack of Time Management

Discipline is a very important part of everyone's development. Having a clumsy and unplanned everyday schedule can be a discredit on our part. This can simply show our inability to organise our tasks. Improper time management can lead to failure in different tasks that we do. It can also prove our laziness or inability to take proper steps.

FAQs on Time Essay

Q1. Name Some Basic Ways to Value Time.

Ans: The different ways to value time are:

Know what tasks are important to you. Finish your own work first before helping others.

Follow a well-planned and disciplined approach to every time-bound task given to us.

Go by the examples of famous and successful people. All of them respect whatever time they get. They do not let a single minute go by idly. Also, they always remain active during their working hours. They never allow any distraction during this time.

Q2. How can Goals and Work Lists Assist Us?

Ans: Keeping a to-do list is always helpful because it makes us more productive. It can help to outline our day to day activities. Also, having a list helps to set our priorities.

Q3. How to Prepare an Effective to-Do List?

Ans: We can always ask our parents and elders to help. However, we can start our own by observing how many hours we spend in schools, as well as intuition classes and while travelling. Also, we can make a list of things that we do every day. Next pick the things that are most important for the day to day works, as well as that of things that are not absolutely important. A responsible adult can help us get started.

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Free time activities essay 13 models

Last updated Friday , 15-03-2024 on 11:57 am

Free time activities essay contains many interesting  about how to spend leisure time in useful and interesting things at the same time. All of this will be found here in free time activities essay .

Free time activities essay

Many of us are bored in our spare time and find nothing to occupy ourselves with at those times ,and here we will offer you many activities that can be exploited in leisure time. This is here in free time activities essay .

Leisure time

Leisure time is considered one of the most problems experienced by young people in our time. They spend their time playing or sitting in front of television and computer screens without doing anything useful. Therefore, we will present in this article a set of activities that can be done to get rid of this problem.

How to spend your free time:

 Reading, where reading is one of the most beautiful and wonderful activities and useful works.In addition to the pleasure and entertainment that it adds to the life of the person,it also fills the mind with knowledge , science ,stories and useful novels .

A person can follow the style of reading in his life, either by buying books, making use of a free library card, or by exchanging books with his friends.

Writing, as this means has a great role in improving the psyche of the person and the translation of ideas and feelings and emptying them on paper.

 Man can adhere to this habit until it becomes an integral part of his life, and may develop this talent to become a well-known writer later.

 A person can begin to write about a particular event or turning point in his or her life, he can also write his diary, for example.

Writing poetry in its various forms and types.

 Sewing , a nice idea to start a sewing project, fashion design, knitting art pieces.

 Walking, it has multiple benefits to the health of the body, heart and blood vessels.

Drawing, which allows the person to translate the ideas in his head through the work of simple graphics, and can develop this talent through the lessons of learning online and available free of charge.

Cooking,   cooking skill is necessary and must be learned in life, and there is nothing more beautiful than to cook with your hands and make new and unfamiliar dishes.

The manufacture of various accessories and jewelry , which require multiple raw materials, and can learn this skill through learning lessons spread across the Web.

Fishing,   this is a good way to spend enjoyable time for people who live near the sea and the water bodies.

Taking photos , using specialized cameras or using a smartphone’s camera, so that people can take beautiful pictures of scenic and natural places.

To learn the chess , it is known that this game helps to increase thinking, raise the level of intelligence, in addition to being a good way to challenge the self.

My free time activities are walking and jogging. I love to share this hobby with others, especially with friends, after a long and hard school week.

I need nothing more than to drain my energy so that I can release the pressure and tension from within me. And renew my activity to return to school with all activity and vitality.

Walking is very wonderful, especially when you wake up early and start some warm-up with friends, have some interesting conversations, and then start doing sports.

I always find my day more energetic when I can get up early and do my exercises. I already feel the effect of the activity of the blood circulation, and the softness of the nerves and muscles, and I can relax without feeling any pain in my body resulting from pressure and tension.

Therefore, I like to do some sports activities during my spare time, whether with friends or on my own.

Free time activities paragraph

The activities I do in my spare time are many because of the area in which I live. My friends and I can go mountain bike tours, visit different places by bike and experience discovery. I also tend to try out some new practices like gymnastics, horseback riding, or playing tennis.

It is nice to take advantage of the free time and acquire some new skills. I love doing all these things but I’m still interested in short trips with friends that allow us to get to know each other more, and spend evenings and trips half a day or a full day together. That makes me very happy.

What do you do in your free time essay

I like to use my free time to do useful work, or practice a hobby that I like, therefore, I spend my spare time fishing, which is my favorite hobby.

Fishing is an interesting hobby and has many benefits, including that I enjoy watching the sea and its crashing waves, and also enjoying the fresh air. Then I finally get a meal of delicious fresh fish. Also, I don’t go fishing alone, I go with my best friend, we have a good time and we make use of the fish we caught.

A free time activity you enjoy essay

The activity I like to do in my spare time is cooking of all kinds, as I make all kinds of pizzas and sweets. I learned to cook from my aunt because she was working as a chef in a big hotel. When I was young I watched her cook and I was so happy. As I got older, I became more attached to this hobby until I became unable to do anything else. At the end of the year, I go to my aunt’s house to learn a number of new recipes, so that I can implement them in my next spare time.

How do you spend your free time essay

My name is (..). I have a brother who is two years younger than me, I am in (..) class . I like to spend my spare time in ice skating, all the children of the town practice ice skating in the winter season.

Snow covers everything in winter and the lakes in my town freeze. I like to spend my spare time in riding a Ski Bike or in traditional skating.

Sometimes I go with my father to the lake to catch fish. The lake is frozen so we must first sit inside our log cabin on the lake and dig a hole in the ice. And through this hole we can fish. I love spending such time with my father or my friends.

Every year I spend my spare time doing the same things. I am excited in the coming years to travel to other countries and discover more curious and interesting things.

Paragraph about free time activities

My name is (..). I have a family consisting of (..) people. I am (..) years old.

On vacation last year, my father told us about the importance of volunteering in charitable work and participating in social activities through which we can help others.

Therefore, we have some activities that we do whenever the opportunity arises, especially on vacations and holidays. Such as volunteering in hygiene campaigns and preserving the environment. Or visits to hospitals and provide psychological support to the patient.

So there is always a new person we get to know and try to make happy, or there is an area we share and work to improve the general appearance of it.

We often work on the sides of roads and rivers where some people throw rubbish there. Therefore, we share hygiene and hang awareness banners in these areas.

Sometimes we distribute some warning leaflets to them to preserve the environment in which they live. I love doing these activities very much and I hope they will manage.

Paragraph about how to spend your free time

I like to spend my time on normal days playing video games and roaming with my friends in the streets, Sometimes we go to parties to have fun.

But in recent weeks, that seemed to change a little, as I became involved in voluntary activities after joining a non-governmental charitable organization, which is interested in visiting orphaned children, children with burns, and children with cancer.

Since I joined this association, I no longer care about games as much as before. I work on picking positive words during conversation and showing love through jokes and hiding the side of pity that I used to show when I saw them, I knew that it was bad and made them upset.

I think after joining this association and doing some volunteer work with them that something has changed in me. I feel that I have become more mature and I love the volunteer work through which we raise the morale of many children who need this support.

My Favourite Free Time Activities Essay

I love photography very much. I own a Nikon D3500 camera. Not the best of the species, but it is very good and took many great shots.

I very much like to go out on holidays like summer vacation, or holidays from school and take some pictures of birds and landscapes. I teach in class (write your class here). Therefore, I do not practice my hobby a lot except on vacations only.

I love visiting natural areas and photographing some close-up shots of birds or people. I always go around looking for a special shot or an impressive scene that I can capture without affecting its beauty to be natural and unique.

I like to post my photos to my social media accounts. It gets a lot of praise and encouragement. When I grow up I hope to be this is my job.

Essay a free time activity you enjoy

Undoubtedly, free time is one of the times that everyone needs to practice some activities to unload the activity trapped inside them, so I like to volunteer in some non-governmental charities and visit cancer patients and support them.

Such activities impress me a lot and make me learn from their experiences and suffering to appreciate life, and how to live according to a healthy diet, which helps me prevent many diseases.

In the aspect of self-confidence, such visits always help me in developing my rhetoric and developing jokes to ease the suffering of others.

One of my ambitions in the future is to become a doctor and I would very much like to specialize in treating children. I like to deal with them a lot and I am very happy to relieve their psychological burdens.

I also like to go out on some volunteers to clean up my surroundings and participate in some seminars.

Essay about a free time activity you enjoy

I very much like to participate in volunteer activities that make me get to know others and share conversations with them and benefit from their experience a lot.

I may describe myself as a social person who loves all people and is very tolerant with myself. One of my best features is that I can notice details and keep them in my memory without forgetting them.

Therefore, I very much like to participate in non-governmental associations for the treatment of alcohol, or any kind of addiction, and some encouraging seminars for the injured.

I always find what I look for when other people talk about their pain and tell how it happened. I can benefit from this, and I liked a lot some of my posts that I recommended to some, and the advice was fruitful and useful.

I expect to benefit from my talent in the future, I may study psychiatric counseling or some thing like that.

Write a paragraph about your free-time activities

It is great for a person to have a variety of different activities that he does in his spare time. Such variety does not make me bored and always makes me excited to try some new things.

I love fishing very much, so I practice more than one different way of fishing, and I can find out the most suitable among them according to the season, direction and wind speed. I also love very much to play basketball and soccer.

The diversity of activities always makes me active and happy and I do not feel depressed, especially when I am passionate about hunting. I can enjoy a lot of fishing and forget about anything that bothers me.

I also love to research and learn my lessons before I study them. Therefore, I like to go to the library and read some historical books or books that may be related to my studies. This makes me more open to the subject we are studying and familiar with many aspects of it.

How to spend your free time essay

When asked how do you spend your free time? I find myself thinking about one thing, I really feel that I love nothing more than fishing, and watching TV programs that talk about the means, methods and seasons of fishing.

I love being on the beaches, or rivers, I can catch fish in more than one way, I like a lot to strive to catch the biggest fish and challenge my brother or father, and maybe some friends who share my love for this hobby.

What can I say, I think I’m obsessed with this hobby and I really like the idea that it became more popular on TV shows. I watched some competitions here and there, I hope in the future to participate in one and show my hunting abilities and talents.

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Guest Essay

Is This the End of Academic Freedom?

By Paula Chakravartty and Vasuki Nesiah

Dr. Chakravartty is a professor of media, communication and culture at New York University, where Dr. Nesiah is a professor of practice in human rights and international law.

​At New York University, the spring semester began with a poetry reading. Students and faculty gathered in the atrium of Bobst Library. At that time, about 26,000 Palestinians had already been killed in Israel’s horrific war on Gaza; the reading was a collective act of bearing witness.

The last poem read aloud was titled “If I Must Die.” It was written, hauntingly, by a Palestinian poet and academic named Refaat Alareer who was killed weeks earlier by an Israeli airstrike. The poem ends: “If I must die, let it bring hope — let it be a tale.”

Soon after those lines were recited, the university administration shut the reading down . Afterward, we learned that students and faculty members were called into disciplinary meetings for participating in this apparently “disruptive” act; written warnings were issued.

We have both taught at N.Y.U. for over a decade and believe we are in a moment of unparalleled repression. Over the past six months, since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, we have seen the university administration fail to adequately protect dissent on campus, actively squelching it instead. We believe what we are witnessing in response to student, staff and faculty opposition to the war violates the very foundations of academic freedom.

While N.Y.U. says that it remains committed to free expression on campus and that its rules about and approach to protest activity haven’t changed, students and faculty members in solidarity with the Palestinian people have found the campus environment alarmingly constrained.

About a week after Hamas’s attacks in October, the Grand Staircase in the Kimmel student center, a storied site of student protests , closed indefinitely; it has yet to reopen fully. A graduate student employee was reprimanded for putting up fliers in support of Palestinians on the student’s office door and ultimately took them down; the person is not the only N.Y.U. student to face some form of disciplinary consequence for pro-Palestinian speech or action. A resolution calling for the university to reaffirm protection of pro-Palestinian speech and civic activity on campus, passed by the elected Student Government Assembly back in December, has apparently been stuck in a procedural black hole since.

The New York Police Department has become a pervasive presence on campus, with over 6,000 hours of officer presence added after the war broke out. Hundreds of faculty members have signed onto an open letter condemning the university’s “culture of fear about campus speech and activism.”

Such draconian interventions are direct threats to academic freedom.

At universities across the country, any criticism of Israel’s policies, expressions of solidarity with Palestinians, organized calls for a cease-fire or even pedagogy on the recent history of the land have all emerged as perilous speech. In a letter to university presidents in November, the A.C.L.U. expressed concern about “impermissible chilling of free speech and association on campus” in relation to pro-Palestinian student groups and views; since then, the atmosphere at colleges has become downright McCarthyite .

The donors, trustees, administrators and third parties who oppose pro-Palestinian speech seem to equate any criticism of the State of Israel — an occupying power under international law and one accused of committing war crimes — with antisemitism. To them, the norms of free speech are inherently problematic, and a broad definition of antisemitism is a tool for censorship . Outside funding has poured into horrifying doxxing and harassment campaigns. Pro-Israel surveillance groups like Canary Mission and CAMERA relentlessly target individuals and groups deemed antisemitic or critical to Israel. Ominous threats follow faculty and students for just expressing their opinions or living out their values.

To be clear, we abhor all expressions of antisemitism and wholeheartedly reject any role for antisemitism on our campuses. Equally, we believe that conflating criticism of Israel or Zionism with antisemitism is dangerous. Equating the criticism of any nation with inherent racism endangers basic democratic freedoms on and off campus. As the A.C.L.U. wrote in its November statement, a university “cannot fulfill its mission as a forum for vigorous debate” if it polices the views of faculty members and students, however much any one of us may disagree with them or find them offensive.

In a wave of crackdowns on pro-Palestinian speech nationwide, students have had scholarships revoked, job offers pulled and student groups suspended. At Columbia, protesters have reported being sprayed by what they said was “skunk,” a chemical weapon used by the Israeli military; at Northwestern, two Black students faced criminal charges , later dropped, for publishing a pro-Palestinian newspaper parody; at Cornell, students have been arrested during a peaceful protest . In a shocking episode of violence last fall, three Palestinian students , two of them wearing kaffiyehs, were shot while walking near the University of Vermont.

Many more cases of student repression on campuses are unfolding even as we write this.

Academic freedom, as defined by the American Association of University Professors in the mid-20th century , provides protection for the pursuit of knowledge by faculty members, whose job is to educate, learn and research both inside and outside the academy. Not only does this resonate with the Constitution’s free speech protections ; international human rights law also affirms the centrality of academic freedom to the right to education and the institutional autonomy of educational institutions.

Across the United States, attacks on free speech are on the rise . In recent years, right-wing groups opposed to the teaching of critical race theory have tried to undermine these principles through measures including restrictions on the discussion of history and structural racism in curriculums, heightened scrutiny of lectures and courses that are seen to promote dissent and disciplinary procedures against academics who work on these topics.

What people may not realize is that speech critical of Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies has long been censored, posing persistent challenges to those of us who uphold academic freedom. Well before Oct. 7, speech and action at N.Y.U. in support of Palestinians faced intense and undue scrutiny.

Our students are heeding Refaat Alareer’s call to bear witness. They are speaking out: writing statements, organizing protests and responding to a plausible threat of genocide with idealism and conviction. As faculty members, we believe that college should be a time when students are encouraged to ask big questions about justice and the future of humanity and to pursue answers however disquieting to the powerful.

Universities must be places where students have access to specialized knowledge that shapes contemporary debates, where faculty members are encouraged to be public intellectuals, even when, or perhaps especially when, they are expressing dissenting opinions speaking truth to power. Classrooms must allow for contextual learning, where rapidly mutating current events are put into a longer historical timeline.

This is a high-stakes moment. A century ago, attacks on open discussion of European antisemitism, the criminalization of dissent and the denial of Jewish histories of oppression and dispossession helped create the conditions for the Holocaust. One crucial “never again” lesson from that period is that the thought police can be dangerous. They can render vulnerable communities targets of oppression. They can convince the world that some lives are not as valuable as others, justifying mass slaughter.

It is no wonder that students across the country are protesting an unpopular and brutal war that, besides Israel, only the United States is capable of stopping. It is extraordinary that the very institutions that ought to safeguard their exercise of free speech are instead escalating surveillance and policing, working on ever more restrictive student conduct rules and essentially risking the death of academic freedom.

From the Vietnam War to apartheid South Africa, universities have been important places for open discussion and disagreement about government policies, the historical record, structural racism and settler colonialism. They have also long served as sites of protest. If the university cannot serve as an arena for such freedoms, the possibilities of democratic life inside and outside the university gates are not only impoverished but under threat of extinction.

Paula Chakravartty is a professor of media, communication and culture at New York University, where Vasuki Nesiah is a professor of practice in human rights and international law. Both are members of the executive committee of the N.Y.U. chapter of the American Association of University Professors and members of N.Y.U.’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine.

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