The Skill of Making Time to Have Fun

Do we need skills to make time to have fun?

This may sound ironic and even paradoxical, but the answer is yes. Most of us assume that free time takes care of itself. But if you’ve ever looked forward to a quiet weekend only to feel strangely restless, you know that leisure can be more difficult than work.

That happened to me not long ago. The weekend stretched ahead, but instead of feeling restful, I felt unsettled. There were emails I could clear, family errands I could attend to, and projects that could use attention. Yet when I tried to do none of these, I found myself caught in what Josef Pieper once called Sunday neurosis—a hollowness that seeps in when you suddenly realize you don’t know what to do with your time.

It made me pause: why is unstructured time so hard?

Part of the answer lies in how we measure our self-worth. Many of us quietly equate busyness with importance. The fuller the schedule, the greater the sense of value. But when the calendar empties, we are left with an uncomfortable question: who am I when I am not occupied?

Free time isn’t free — it costs intention.

This is where Catherine Price’s The Power of Fun offers both comfort and challenge. Price argues that real fun—what she calls True Fun—is not about passive diversions. It is about the combination of playfulness, connection, and flow. When these three converge, leisure stops being empty and becomes deeply life-giving.

To help people get there, she introduces the SPARK framework:

S – Make space for fun by protecting time from distractions.

P – Pursue passions that energize you.

A – Attract fun by leaning into people and activities that naturally bring joy.

R – Rebel against the belief that fun is frivolous.

K – Keep at it, because fun is a practice, not a one-off event.

This framework struck me because it reframed my “lost weekend.” What I lacked was not time, but the skill of making time matter. Free hours require intention—whether through journaling, doodling, cooking, playing a song, or a simple walk with a friend. These are small acts, but they carry playfulness, connection, and flow.

And this matters for leadership. Leaders often speak of rest, but we need more than absence of work. We need to learn how to make time for fun. Not just to collapse, but to recharge. Not just to stop, but to play.

There is even a skill in doing that. And leaders who learn it will find themselves not only restored, but ready to restore others.