Roundtable Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

The Effect Of Routine Daily Downtime On Productivity And Subjective Well-Being (#312)

Omid Alaei 1
  1. Happy Change, Thornhill, ON, Canada

In new era of communication we are never disconnect from our family, friends, colleagues and the world around us. The downside of this constant connection is overloading our interactions and missing our 'own time' moments.  This would keep us always busy and in continues temptation of 'finishing something'; an endless race to become 'successoholic'. Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries believes that we are at risk of becoming victims of informational overload. Being busy can be a very effective defence mechanism for warding off disturbing thoughts and feelings.

This paper examines the relationship of  routine daily downtime with   productivity and subjective well-being.  For this thesis, it was hypothesised that people who have more daily routine downtime, experience more subjective-wellbeing and feel being more productive. The research employed a survey questionnaire applied to a sample of 150 Canadian, living at GTA. The satisfaction with the life scale  (SWL) was  measured using the 5-items scale to show global cognitive judgement of one's life satisfaction. The daily 'doing nothing' time and productivity level were self –explanation measures. 

The study result shows significant correlation between downtime and happiness and  productivity up to certain level.