Spending leisure time

I think a lot of us are very poor at making the best out of our leisure time. Most people are quite good at planning the use of their work time although something can be said about that as well. But when it comes to leisure time most of us do not plan at all. By leisure time I mean the time when we are not working or doing routine things everyday. I am excluding holidays from this because then you are not working at all. The best use of leisure time is do something which is mentally and physically stimulating. Exercise is purely physical although one does think of other things while exercising so it is not strictly so. Reading is purely mental. Writing is also purely mental but it is a very different kind of stimulation compared to reading.

Unplanned watching of TV is the worst way of spending leisure time. I do not feel relaxed at all after doing so.

Exercise is important. Very important. Do some regularly. Even if you think it is important you still don't know how important. It is very, very, very important. And that is all I will say about it.

Back to mental activities during leisure time.

• Day dreaming
• Reading
• Writing
• Video games
• Board games (backgammon, card games)

My favourite is writing. Not that I write a lot but I would like to. It is a creative process which is more demanding than reading. Which, to me, translates to greater mental stimulation. The second best is day dreaming. Actually when I write it is day dreaming as well but you can day dream without writing although it is not as stimulating. Some people must be capable of pure day dreaming but I can only do it either with writing or mind mapping. For mind mapping one can use software or just a piece of paper. It is my opinion that one should always convert their mind maps to writing for best results.

What about TV? Unplanned TV watching is the worst way of spending leisure time. TV watching is not stimulating at all. While you are watching TV you don't think at all. If you don't think, there is no mental stimulation.

There is one physical exercise which I cannot help but mention here, that is walking. I mention it because it is not purely physical. It is also a brilliant opportunity to think without any distractions.