Over the past few months, the Live Well Learn Well Team has been exploring what contributes to a greater sense of wellbeing and overall happiness. We’ve been using the findings from the Little Book of Lykke, by Meik Wiking, as a framework to explore how we can create a life which is conducive to positive mental health and higher levels of satisfaction. So far, we have discussed the topics of health, money, togetherness, kindness and this month we’ll be exploring freedom …
Freedom
Wiking’s chapter on freedom starts with the Human Freedom Index (HFI) that: “presents the state of human freedom in the world based on a broad measure that encompasses personal, civil, and economic freedom” (HFI, 2025). It’s an interesting index full of stats, charts and graphs that surprised me and were easy to get absorbed by.
But Wiking decides to examine factors that he feels the HFI overlooks, such as time, the fact that “every day we each get 1,1440 minutes and every week, we each get 168 hours. However, we have very different levels of freedom when it comes to how we spend our time” (Wiking, 2017, p. 165). And it’s the freedom to spend our time as we wish and in ways that contribute to our happiness that the chapter on Freedom ultimately explores, and this blog post will focus on.
How is your work/life or study/life balance?
If you reflect on the last week, month, year – have you been able to spend time doing things you want to do as well as the things you might need to do for paid work, for assignment deadlines, to ensure you’re living in a reasonably safe and healthy environment (don’t leave that washing up for too much longer!)
Wolf Wiking, father of Meik, told his son: “You are going to spend a huge part of your life working, it should be something you enjoy” (Wiking, 2017, p. 182). Wiking talks to people who have moved countries for better working and childcare conditions or who are self-employed. He finds that whilst some of these people seem incredibly busy and might not appear to have much “free” time, because they love what they are doing, it doesn’t feel like “work-work” to them; they choose to spend time this way because their work makes them happy.
But in the here and now, whilst we might be studying and/or working at university, and might not be in a position to move countries or become entrepreneurs, how might we achieve a better sense of balance with time and thereby experience more freedom?
Wiking offers 5 ways to free up time
1. Cook more than you need
Freeze leftovers for other meals. Save ourselves thinking and cooking time for a future day.
2. Use waiting time
How might we use the 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes we spend waiting for something else to happen? Wiking suggests those of us contemplating moving to live and work in other countries might want to use an app like Duolingo to brush up the relevant language. But what else might we do without resorting to our passports and/or phones? Maybe we could do a bit of exercise/stretching; maybe we could tidy up a shelf/drawer/cupboard; maybe we could check in with a family member or friend who lives away and who we keep meaning to contact but we think we don’t have time; maybe we could do a quick search for a resource we need for an assignment.
3. two in one
How about combining activities together, rather than feeling we have to choose between them. As was highlighted in the Health post of this Vitamin H blog series and Wiking suggests in his Freedom chapter, why not socialise and exercise: go for a run/play frisbee/walk/mountain bike and catch up with friends or family. I have lovely memories of taking my niece mountain biking in Grizedale forest. Turns out I am a dreadful mountain biker, but we had a great laugh outdoors and when I wasn’t biking, I was walking so keeping active. You could socialise and cook together: make pizza from scratch, for example; see this Pizza Fakeaway recipe from Foodwise Leeds.
4. FIND MORE FREEDOM WITH APPS, like the freedom app
If you receive weekly reports on how much time you’ve spent on your phone, are you ever surprised/shocked and keep meaning to spend more time doing other things but not quite managing to get off your phone? If the TikTok temptation is too tough to tackle, there are apps to help block sites and take back our time and focus. You might well have apps already available on your devices, or explore apps like Freedom, Cold Turkey, Forest. With Forest, the more time you spend focussed, the more trees that get planted by the company behind the app. As one user says: “Brilliant app with a great environmental side. Allows me to work without being distracted and help the environment at the same time.”
If you use your phone to help you focus, you might be interested in apps that connect with others to work together/hold each other accountable, eg FocusMate and FlowClub. You could set up your own accountability buddies with a friend; these could be in person or virtual.
You could always wrap up your phone in a small bag, that you put into a bigger bag, that you place in a box, that you put into a cupboard, that you then lock and you set a timer to go off at some point in the future when you allow yourself to reverse the process. It won’t cost you anything but time. Easier still, give your phone to a friend/family member and set a time when you can get it back from them.
5. apply parkinson’s law
Cyril Northcote Parkinson, British historian and author said: “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. This means we need to work out how much of our valuable lives we want tasks to take and then set a finish, as well as a start time.
The 3 minute rule is another way of making the most of our precious time. If a task takes less than 3 minutes, then do it right away and set yourself free: tidy a working space/desk; collect up dirty dishes to wash/load or unload the dishwasher; send that email you’ve been avoiding. Think of any quick tasks you might be in the habit of avoiding doing but that then nag away at you, sapping energy and joy from your precious free time. Create a 3-minute list to help remind yourself of the tasks that you are going to keep time-limited.
Another 3-minute rule and procrastination: researchers found that when research participants were told they only had to do something for 3 minutes and then they could stop if they really wanted, 98% kept going for longer (Wild, 2020). Psychologists have found that this 3-minute rule approach can help people overcome procrastination. This reflects the research of one of my favourite people on procrastination, who said that if can treat ourselves with a bit of compassion and just make a start, we may find we can move beyond the procrastination barrier (Pychyl, 2013).
Freedom to take time out
This is not to say that healthy, happy lives are filled with productivity every minute of the waking day. Time out to take a breather, lie on the grass, stare at the sky, watch a grasshopper are also expressions of the freedom to live our lives in ways that make us feel happy.
Finally
I’m reminded of Mary Oliver’s poem, ‘The Summer Day’
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean —
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
References
Oliver, M. (1992) New and selected poems. Volume 1. Beacon Press.
Pychyl, T. (2013) Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change. Tarcher.
Vásquez, I., Mitchell, M.D., Murphy, R. and Sutter Schneider, G. (2024) The Human Freedom Index. Cato Institute & the Fraser Institute.
Wiking, M. (2017) The little book of lykke: the Danish search for the world’s happiest people. Penguin Life.
Wild, J. (2020) Be extraordinary: 7 key skills to transform your life from ordinary to extraordinary. Robinson.
Posted by Sandie Donnelly, Academic Skills Manager, Student Services