I spend most Sunday afternoons hanging out with elementary and middle school kids, simplifying fractions, playing Connect Four and getting reacquainted with the basic rules of spelling. I recently learned that these few hours may actually be the most productive of my week.
A couple of years ago, I started helping students with their homework as part of a volunteer program for a Brooklyn nonprofit called 826NYC, which aims to instill a love of writing in kids. The decision to spend some of my time doing unpaid work — a decision I came to on a whim — has been critical to my well-being. But I haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly why. Turns out, it’s because it makes me feel like I have more time.
Workers who volunteer feel like they have more balance between work and the rest of their lives, according to a study from researchers at the University of Zurich. The findings, which were published this month in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, are based on an analysis of more than 700 workers’ responses to survey questions about job demands, time spent volunteering and work/life balance.
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But according to the researchers, it would be a mistake for me to eschew my commitment to homework help just because I’ve gotten busier. A wise friend once told me that work only expands to the amount of time you have to do it in. And apparently, filling your time with obligations to help people is a more effective way to generate that feeling of “time affluence” than scheduling time to hang out with friends or pursue a hobby.
“When individuals feel time constrained, they should become more generous with their time — despite their inclination to be less so,” the authors of the Penn study write. I hope I heed their advice and continue to volunteer for selfish reasons.
