Leisure Calendar Overload

IT IS POSSIBLE to overload your leisure activities calendar! It is possible to have too many social or recreational events scheduled too close together. It is possible to have too many places to go, too many people to see, and too many planned things to do in a short period of time - even during your leisure. Perhaps we need to recognize that we can become overloaded especially during the time when we are free to choose our activities - our leisure.

Most of us can easily understand how our work-related calendars can become overly crowded. It's fairly easy for us to see how the necessities of life, coupled with our required duties, responsibilities, and obligations seem to pile-up. A more difficult concept to grasp, however, is the idea that we can also become "overly booked" during free-time hours as well. Of course, we can do it to ourselves, or it might be - at least partially - imposed upon us by someone else.

What complicates our comprehension of this notion is that we're making arrangements for doing things during our free time which we would usually enjoy. However, when we schedule our leisure calendars to excess, what would normally be fun activities can begin to lose their glow of excitement. Further, if we feel harried about planned fun activities, we are likely experiencing calendar overload.

Perhaps we need to learn to say "no" more often. Perhaps we need to realize that we do not have to accept every invitation that comes along. Perhaps we really don't need to go to every game, concert, movie, rally, outing, dinner, or horse race that is happening! Leisure activities ought to be fully enjoyed - and perhaps scheduled at a more leisurely pace. It should not be a question of how many leisure activities can be planned within the next month. What matters is the recognition that quality is more important than quantity regarding leisure experiences. And, at times, engaging spontaneously in some leisure acitivity can be enormously refreshing.

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What we do during our free time can bring balance to our lives. However, our leisure activities should not take on the characteristics of work or other obligations. We should not feel squeezed or pressured in our leisure involvement. We should play playfully; we should feel the thrill of fun and recreation; we should experience rejuvenation in free time activities. For these reasons - and several others - we need to avoid a leisure calendar overload.