Have you ever found yourself dreading a leisurely activity you had eagerly scheduled days or weeks in advance?
I first caught myself doing this a few years ago when I was traveling home to Turkey. I had excitedly made plans to meet up with some old friends. But to my surprise, as the date approached, I started to feel reluctant and unenthusiastic about these long-awaited reunions.
“I have to go get lunch with my friend,” I’d grouse to others, making it sound like a chore.
Was I an anomaly? Or do other people feel this way too? We increasingly rely on scheduling to organize our lives: phone calls, appointments, dates – and, yes, fun social activities. But can planning leisure activities also start to feel like work, too? Why might they become a source of dread?
As someone who studies consumer behavior and decision-making, I decided to explore this phenomenon with Gabbie Tonietto, a Ph.D. candidate in marketing. With Tonietto leading the investigation (the results would eventually become a part of her dissertation), we conducted a series of studies to see if filling out our calendars – even with fun activities – can have unexpected side effects.
All work, no play?
Across 13 studies, we found that the simple act of scheduling makes otherwise fun tasks feel more like work. It also decreases how much we enjoy them.
For example, in one, we asked participants to imagine grabbing a coffee with a friend. Half of the participants imagined that they planned this gathering a few days in advance and put it on their calendar, while the other half were told that they decided to grab a coffee on the fly. We found that this simple, relaxing activity was associated more with work-like qualities (“obligation,” “effortful,” “work”) when it was scheduled, compared with when it was impromptu.
Top Comments
I wonder if there were any deeply introverted and/or anxious people involved in the study. As a person who is both, I can think of few things more horrifying than being comfortable at home and having a friend text me and ask if I want to meet for coffee in half an hour. I need to be in a certain frame of mind to go out and socialise and I don't like having it sprung on me. Even something like "rough scheduling" would just make me anxious.
Some of my plans are made months in advance and all are made at least a few days ahead. The only time when advance notice makes an event less fun is when it's something I never wanted to go to in the first place. That's because I keep thinking about how much I don't want to go and how awful it's going to be and end up in a really foul mood about it. If it's something I truly want to do, then the amount of time between plans and event doesn't affect me at all (as long as there's some time).
Interesting. The problem I have is that if we don't make 'appointments' to catch up with freinds, we'll never see them! Especially the ones with kids - they always seem to have weekend sports or birthday parties or whatever, plus other commitments, it can be a real struggle to squeeze in time.