The truth, then, is that spending at least some of your leisure time “wastefully,” focused solely on the pleasure of the experience, is the only way not to waste it—to be truly at leisure, rather than covertly engaged in future-focused self-improvement.

Almost everything about having a job is conspiring to make us time poor: the time spent getting ready for work; the commute; unhealthy eating squeezed into our day (or not eating at all because we’re too busy); the after-work decompression. These negative, time-poor activities feed on themselves: if we feel time pressed, we’re less deliberate about