Free Time, Stress, and Depression: My Personal Journey to Finding Balance

What do you think about free time? Do you consider it something special, important, or even a privilege?

When I worked in the shop industry, my schedule was extremely busy. I went to work at 9 a.m. and returned home around 10 p.m. As you can see, I spent almost the entire day at work, and free time was a rare luxury. I lived in this rhythm for more than five years and thought it was completely normal to spend most of my life working. But 2026 changed everything.

In January, I realized that my life needed changes, and I started looking for a new job. After a month of searching, I finally found a job with a much better schedule for me. Of course, the first two months were difficult to adapt to, but then I started to feel the presence of a huge amount of free time.

At first, it felt unbelievable. I relaxed, scrolled Instagram, watched movies, read books, and simply enjoyed doing nothing. But later, I realized that even after all these activities, I still had free time left. And that’s when I started to panic.

How do I spend free time productively?

So let’s briefly talk about how we can spend free time productively and without stress.

First of all — clean your apartment. It sounds funny, but at the beginning, it really helped me. Since my apartment was in quite a bad condition (when I worked all day, I didn’t have time for cleaning), I started deep cleaning it. Every day I cleaned a small part of my space (thankfully, I live in a one-room apartment). After a few weeks, my apartment became clean, and now I only need to maintain it. But I still had free time.

Then I decided to increase my financial income and spend my time more productively. I registered on several microtask platforms and started completing small tasks. Spoiler: it won’t make you a lot of money — usually around $20–30 per month — but it’s a nice extra income for simple work. For example, I spent around 1–2 hours per day completing 10–20 tasks.

Another way to spend free time productively is through hobbies or personal interests. For example, I returned to my English courses and my blog: https://withlovetetty.blogspot.com/. It’s a great way to improve your skills, brainstorm ideas, communicate with others, and share your experience. You can also join courses to learn something new or develop existing skills.

Finally, don’t forget about physical activity. I set a personal challenge: every second day I do 20–30 minutes of cardio or HIIT workouts. Find one or two YouTube channels you enjoy and just start. Sports improve productivity, increase energy levels, reduce cortisol, and help maintain good health.

But why can depression appear?

When you have free time, you also have time alone with yourself. For some people, including me, this can be really difficult. I find it hard to spend time alone without any activity. I often try to fill my free time with tasks (home, sport, work, etc.), because I feel uncomfortable being alone with my thoughts.

I’m afraid of this time, because I don’t always know what to do with it. The main problem for me is: I don’t know what I want to do.

But maybe that’s exactly where the real work begins.

I’m slowly learning that free time is not something to “fill,” but something to understand. Not every moment has to be productive, and not every silence needs to be avoided. Sometimes, being alone with your thoughts is uncomfortable because it shows you what you’ve been avoiding for a long time.

I’m still learning how to sit with that feeling instead of running from it.

And maybe the goal isn’t to always know what I want — but to slowly give myself permission to figure it out.