Cassie Holmes

Behavioral scientist and UCLA Anderson professor of marketing and behavioral decision making. She holds the Bud Knapp Marketing Professorship, studies how time shapes happiness and well-being, and is the bestselling author of Happier Hour.

More Free Time Does Not Necessarily Produce Greater Well-Being

Behavioral scientist Cassie Holmes argues that well-being depends less on maximizing free time or efficiency than on how people direct attention within the hours they have. Drawing on time-use research and her work at UCLA, Holmes finds that too little discretionary time is associated with lower life satisfaction, but so is too much when it lacks purpose or connection. Her prescription is not a universal schedule: it is to protect finite time for activities that feel worthwhile, especially ordinary rituals and relationships that urgency can obscure.

The Aspen InstituteAug 12, 202613 min read