The best ideas come in your free time

Our society is obsessed with productivity, both personally and professionally. This is important, but it should not take precedence over everything.

According to psychologists, the best ideas usually appear during our free time. Working up to a certain number of hours is good, but too much is harmful. It is important to dedicate time to free time, since during these moments that we come up with the most creative ideas.

So leisure time is very important in happy companies. The person feels fulfilled, can dedicate moments to family, friends, hobbies, or simply to rest and relax… and also to give wings to creativity.

That the best ideas come to us in the shower turns out to be true. Scientifically proven!

The importance of free time

Although we believe that free time is “less important” than time spent working, the truth is that it is made up of activities that have a deep meaning for us, such as dedicating ourselves to hobbies that are fulfilling for us, relating to other people, or to our family. Enjoying free time has multiple benefits, such as reducing anxiety and stress, or even decreasing the risk of dementia.

There are different ways to spend our leisure time, but psychologists distinguish three that can help us take better advantage of their benefits:

• Palliative time: activities such as going for a walk or a run, which help us to disconnect and see things from another point of view.
• Time to lift our spirits: activities that put us in a better mood and bring a smile to our faces.
• Time to have company: activities with other people (friends, family…).

Whatever the modality chosen, the important thing to have better ideas is that it is a form of active leisure and not simply sitting down to watch television. It is also necessary that we know how to enjoy leisure without guilt.

Free time in the company culture

Although it seems that by definition, leisure is the opposite of work, there are many ways to integrate free time into the company culture.

The first thing we have to understand is that dedicating all our time to work and doing an excess of hours uninterruptedly does not increase productivity; quite the opposite. A culture based on presenteeism ends up undermining the creativity of employees and even the top management.

For this reason, I believe that companies should opt for coherent and flexible schedules, allowing employees to organize themselves in their own way to reconcile personal and work life as much as possible. If the team can enjoy free time in their private lives, they will return to the office with better ideas and their batteries charged to perform at their best.

In addition to ensuring that employees do not work too many hours and therefore have leisure time, it is also possible to incorporate recreational activities within the company itself. For example, going out to eat in a group, going on a weekend retreat, or even riding a hot air balloon or to the amusement park.

Enjoying free time both outside the company and with co-workers increases the feeling of belonging to the group and allows employees to contribute their best ideas. The result? A happier company for everyone and, paradoxically, also more productive. It’s all advantages!