Everyday Life in Middletown
Summer 2022 Directive
Topic: Leisure and vacation
This directive asks you to share your experiences, thoughts, and feelings about time spent away from work: off-hours, days off, vacations.
Feel free to use your creativity in expressing yourself about leisure and time off. You can write your directive out as an essay or a set of disjointed observations, or any other way you like. You do not need to answer the questions below in order (though you may do so if you wish). Don’t let the questions limit what you share, but do try to answer them all, in one way or another, in your response.
The general question we want to hear from you about is: how does time off work for you?
Write as little or as much as you like. A guideline for length would be the average length of a day diary: 2 single-spaced pages.
Questions to consider:
How do your daily rhythms change on days off and weekends?
How do your interactions with other people, including your family, shift during off-time?
To what extent are you able to “unplug” from work when you’re off? Is it difficult to do so? What makes it difficult?
How important is it for you to have clear boundaries between work and leisure? What are your strategies for doing so?
What do you actually do with your time off? What do you wish you could do?
What do you need leisure to do for you? How can you tell if your leisure time has been successful?
If you are retired, what do you consider to be your leisure activities? How do you separate those from other activity? Do you do anything that would –for a non-retired person—normally be considered “work”? What categories of activity characterize your day?