🧗 Why Effortful Fun Feels More Fulfilling
New research reveals a fascinating connection between effort and meaning when it comes to your free time
All of us enjoy lazy leisure occasionally—lounging on the couch, watching TV, or scrolling through social media. The problem is this stuff doesn’t produce any real sense of meaning in life, so it can become hazardous for mental well-being in excess.
We tend to derive deeper meaning from spending time with family and friends, studying, learning, and working. All of these activities require some effort, and it turns out the effort itself might be contributing to that sense of meaning.
So what happens when leisure activities themselves are effortful?
That’s the question asked by a new set of studies looking at whether effortful leisure is more meaningful than lazy leisure. From solving puzzles to going for walks, it turns out that effortful leisure may play a significant role in our psychological wellbeing.
With the threat of widespread labor automation growing each day, these findings provide an optimistic view for the future of human fulfillment. Meaning lies just as much in how we play as it does in how we work.
🎨 Effort and meaning in everyday leisure
In a series of five studies involving over 2,500 participants, researchers investigated how effortful leisure—activities that require mental or physical exertion—compares to effortless leisure in terms of meaning and enjoyment.
In an initial survey study, 1,145 university students were asked to rate a wide range of daily activities on four dimensions: effort, meaning, enjoyment, and autonomy. Results showed a clear link: people saw more effortful leisure activities as more meaningful, but they also expected those activities to be less enjoyable.
In another experimental study, the researchers randomly assigned participants to solve either a medium- or high-difficulty Sudoku puzzle or watch a compilation of entertaining YouTube videos. Participants then rated how meaningful, enjoyable, and effortful each experience felt.
Both Sudoku conditions were rated as more effortful and more meaningful than watching videos. However, the harder puzzle wasn’t significantly more meaningful than the easier one, suggesting that meaning gains plateau at higher effort.
Importantly, despite being more effortful, Sudoku puzzles were just as enjoyable—or even more enjoyable—than passive video watching. Even though survey responses suggest people think effortful leisure will be less enjoyable than passive leisure, the reality of engaging with effortful fun paints a different picture.
In a third experiment (N = 400), participants completed either a standard Sudoku puzzle or a less effortful “click-to-reveal” game where they uncovered a hidden image. Those doing the more effortful Sudoku task rated the activity as significantly more meaningful than the click-to-reveal game. And once again, they also rated it as more enjoyable, even though it was more cognitively demanding.
To move beyond lab experiments, the researchers ran a final experience sampling study over eight days with 260 adults. Participants reported on their real-life activities each day, rating them on effort, meaning, and enjoyment.
The results were consistent with the previous experiments:
When an activity demanded more effort than a person would typically average each day, they rated that activity as more meaningful. Some of the most meaningful activities that required effort included taking trips, going for walks, socializing, and cooking.
Reading and listening to music were interesting counterexamples of activities rated high in meaning but relatively low in effort.
People who generally engaged in more effortful activities each day experienced higher overall happiness and meaning in life.
⭐️ Takeaway tips
#1. Choose leisure that challenges you
Whether it’s a puzzle, a hike, or a hands-on hobby, pick leisure activities that feel somewhat effortful, since you’re also likely to derive more meaning from them. It’s normal to expect an effortful activity to be exhausting rather than enjoyable, but it’s likely you’ll find it more pleasurable than you expected once you start. When comparing across people, those who put greater effort into their days also report greater happiness.
#2. Use effortful leisure to reset your relationship with time
Passive leisure tends to make time disappear, while effortful leisure can make time feel fuller and more memorable. If your days are starting to blur together, choose activities that require more focus and engagement. That way, you’ll end more of your days feeling like you made the most of them.
#3. Build a lifestyle of meaningful play
With the looming threat of work automation, we need to make sure we’re able to find a sense of purpose beyond our careers. So make regular time for those effortful and enjoyable hobbies that you frequently forget, and encourage yourself to pick up new hobbies whenever you feel the impulse. A sense of meaning is essential for mental well-being, so diversify your portfolio of meaningful activities.
“She could never rid herself of the sense that unhappiness was a state of disease – of suffering as opposed to doing. To "do" – it hardly mattered what – would therefore be an escape, perhaps in some degree a remedy.”
~ Henry James
Fascinating, thanks for sharing this research and your analysis.