The Surprising Ways in Which Downtime Matters for Your Well-Being

Dr. Boróka Bó is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Essex in the UK. She uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to study the repercussions of time availability. Her work shows that individuals living in differing socioeconomic contexts experience time very differently, and that time availability is a significant contributor to well-being. Socioeconomic circumstances even shape how children experience time, both in their families and in schools.

By the end of her talk, you will learn that the data does in fact show that ‘doing nothing is one of the best things you can do”, for your health, for your community, and for your environment. This is partly because time is more than just a resource to be tracked. We make time, but at the same time, time also makes us who we are. In other words, we live in time while making time together. This makes time a jointly co-constructed social and individual experience. This means that not having enough time can be contagious. This matters, because when we catch time poverty, we lose the ability to grieve and love and to be fully present in the lives of those we care about.