In no case, perhaps, is the decision of a human being impartial, or totally uninfluenced by sinister and selfish motives. Maintenance activities are quite varied in terms of their experiential profile. Few people enjoy housework, which tends to be generally negative or neutral along all dimensions. If one were to look in finer detail, however, it would turn out that cooking is often a good experience, especially compared to cleaning the house. Our motives are always pretty mixed. Personal care—washing, dressing, and so forth—is usually neither can be a good experience, but might be a negative experience for others. Eating, as mentioned earlier, is one of the most beneficial parts of the day, for many people, in terms of affect and motivation, whereas it is low in cognitive activity and seldom on occasion of flow. All the Earth, though it were full of kind hearts, is but a desolation and a desert place to a father when his children are absent. Nonetheless, I enjoy a nice hot shower because the soap has a great scent (white Dial), and the hot water feels so good on my body, it motivates me to feel fresh and clean, and have a nicely pressed outfit to wear, and fresh breath. And coming home to a clean house, with a good scent, is the best thing in the World. Exercising is also highly motivation and a great way to create flow, as well as reading a book, or learning a new skill.  

The hope of fame, desire of honor and preferment, envy, emulation, and the dread of disgrace, are motives which co-operate in suppressing that aversion to death or mutilation, which nature hath implanted in the human mind. Driving a car, which is the last major component of the maintenance category, is surprisingly a beneficial part of life. While neutral in terms of happiness and motivation, it requires skill and concentration, and some people experience flow more often while driving than in any other part of their lives.  As one would expect, leisure tends to include the more beneficial experiences of the day. Leisure is when people feel most motivated, when they say that they want to do whatever they are doing. Yet here too, we find some surprises. Passive leisure, which includes media consumption and resting, while it is a motivating and reasonably happy activity, involves little mental focus, and rarely produces flow. Socializing—conversing with my son in the morning without much ulterior purpose except the interaction itself—is generally highly beneficial even though it seldom involves high mental concentration. The motives even of our best action will not always bear examination. People are so prejudiced and so used to humbug that for the most part they do not in the least know their own motives for what they do.

Romance and Netflix and Chill function may provide some of the best moments of the day. But for the most people these activities are rather rare, so they fail to make much of a difference in the overall quality of life unless they are embedded in the context of an enduring relationship that provides emotional and intellectual rewards as well. Active leisure is another source of extremely beneficial experiences. When individuals participate in a hobby (something fun that they love to do), get involved in exercise, play a musical instrument, or go out to a movie, play video game, or go to a restaurant, they tend to be more happy, motivated, concentrated, and more often in flow than in any other part of the day. It is in these contexts that all the various dimensions of experience are most intensely focused and in harmony with each other. It is important to remember, however, that active leisure usually takes up only between a fourth and a fifth of person’s free time and for many it is vastly overshadowed by the amount of time spent in passive leisure activities such as watching television.  However, never give more than a second place to the World’s opinion. 

Another way to look at the patterns in your life is to ask which activities are the happiest? Which are most motivated? If we do that, we see that happiness is highest when taking care of our hygiene, exercising, reading a good book, or for most people eating, when in active leisure, and when conversing with people; it is lowest when we are dealing with business meetings or stuck in traffic. Motivation follows a similar pattern, with the addition that passive leisure, which does not make one happy, is something we usually want to do anyway. Concentration is highest on the job, when driving, and in active leisure—these are the activities that during the day require the most mental effort. The same activities also provide the highest rates of flow, and so does socializing with others.  When we look at the pattern this way, it again shows that active leisure provides the best experience overall, and some would say so does housework, personal care, but idling provides the worst experience. Anything becomes a pleasure if one does it too often.