False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

For more meaningful leisure, embrace 
strenuous and virtuous hobbies and 
schedule low-quality activities.
You shouldn’t underestimate the value of quality 
leisure time. As the legendary philosopher 
Aristotle pointed out, to live the good life, one 
must have the downtime needed for deep 
contemplation, for no other reason than to enjoy 
the activity itself. As Aristotle expert Kieran 
Setiya elaborates, activities that provide a 
“source of inward joy” are vital to a satisfying life.
The author calls these activities high-quality 
leisure while calling digital distractions such as 
social media and absent-minded bingeing low-
quality leisure. Therefore, one aim of digital 
minimalism is to make more room for the high-
quality while purposefully limiting low-quality 
time.
In looking at what exactly makes a high-quality 
activity, the author has found that hobbies 
requiring strenuous effort are often among the 
most rewarding. This may sound tiring at first, 
but as the influential British writer Arnold Bennett 
once noted, the more effort you put into your 
leisure activities, the more you’ll be rewarded 
with satisfaction and even come away feeling 
energized.
Engaging physically with real, three-dimensional 
objects is also key, as Gary Rogowski points out 
in his book Craftsman. As such, poking your 
finger at a small screen is unlikely to ever be a 
truly satisfying or rewarding human endeavor. 
This is why one of the “leisure lessons” of digital 
minimalism is to engage with the physical world 
by applying skills and working to create things of 
value. And for this, technology can be a great 
aide. With the abundance of YouTube tutorials 
out there, you can easily spend a rewarding 
weekend either building your own wooden 
headboard or learning some basic techniques to 
become a weekend carpenter.
You could also set leisure-time goals, like 
learning the guitar parts to five Beatles songs in 
time for a mini-concert at a friend’s Sunday 
barbeque in three weeks. Deadlines like this are 
great for keeping high-quality momentum going. 
To make sure you don’t succumb to the 
weekend-killing temptations of low-quality 
leisure, the best plan isn’t to go cold turkey, but 
rather to schedule these activities for specific 
times.
Going cold turkey can easily backfire and result 
in a relapse of old behavioral patterns, so start 
by scheduling isolated chunks of low-quality time 
on evenings and weekends while you give the 
rest of your free-time over to high-quality 
activities. Chances are you’ll feel the difference 
in quality, and the digital distractions will 
gradually become less of a concern.