I suppose this topic isn't exactly one that the great philosophers pondered a whole lot. It's surely not some great mystery of the cosmos. But how I spend my time is critical to whether or not I'm happy in life. And I think that's true of just about anyone.
Looking back at high school, I wasted a lot of time. The countless nights I spent going out with friends or going to their houses where we did absolutely nothing. I have nothing against any of my friends, and most of my high school buddies keep in close contact with me. But the sheer amount of days and weeks even in which we aimlessly drove around from place to place, restaurant to restaurant, house to house, where it usually ended up being one or two guys playing video games as the rest of the people in the room watched them play.
Even then, I felt pangs of unease at how my quite substantial free time was wasted away by not accomplishing anything. Then last year I got a full time job, but the weekends consisted of the same kind of aimless get-togethers. My unease was further advanced since a few in the group made a point to always draw attention to themselves in public, be extremely rude, and at times, do things that were borderline criminal.
This summer however, I have not stood for such nonsense. I was recently promoted, so the weekly stress of a demanding boss and lackadaisical employees has made me despise wasting time on the job and laziness especially. That tyrannical time management at work has extended into my personal life with very positive results I believe. Now, instead of constantly visiting friends and doing nothing, I get together with them usually on an individual basis instead and slightly less often. When this happens, we tend to actually do something either productive or at least active, and talk about things of more interest.
I often make excuses to avoid large parties where I know that the activities will consist of sitting around for a few hours and doing nothing. I have dodged several massive graduation parties of people that I am only slightly acquainted with to avoid such an agonizing quagmire; a boring party with no escape. The thought of spending the good parts of my weekend sitting around is horrifying to me. I'm very restless and active, so I demand either physical activity or at the very least, mental activity in the form of reading. (I don't play video games unless I have a book nearby to read during load scenes)
I find myself much happier this summer without constantly being with close friends or going to lots of parties. My weekends are much more enjoyable when instead of spending entire days with people, I spend maybe a few hours instead. By adding slightly more Me-Time to my weekends, I have been able to get a lot of reading done, and get a lot more exercise as well. And I think I am closer to my friends as a result of slightly more separation.
So how do you all manage your time? Do you prefer to spend most of it with friends and family and less with yourself? Half and half maybe? Or a schedule in which individual time takes precedence over everything else?