The Effects of Being Time Poor and Time Rich on Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Many people living in modern society feel like they don’t have enough time and are constantly searching for more. But, is having limited discretionary time actually detrimental? And, can there be downsides of having too much free time? In two largescale datasets spanning 35,375 Americans, we test the relationship between the amount of discretionary time individuals have and their life satisfaction. We find and internally replicate a negative quadratic relationship between discretionary time and life satisfaction. These results show that while having too little time is indeed linked to lower levels of life satisfaction, having more time does not continually translate to greater life satisfaction, and can even reduce it.

Keywords: life satisfaction, happiness, time, discretionary time, time pressure