Many people reported not having as much time for family life upon returning to school. However, there was a great deal of response surrounding the fact that many people were feeling better about themselves and making the time they did spend with their family really “count”, so the positive definitely outweighed the negative.
Individuals were asked to answer questions about how much time they feel they had for personal activities since returning to school and, also, how the quality of that “me time” was affected. 40 respondents (38%) reported a decrease in both amount and quality of personal time. 22 people (20.3%) claimed a decrease in the amount of time they had for themselves, but stated an increase in quality of that personal time. 19 participants stated neither the amount nor the quality of their personal time had changed since school began.
Approximately half of the respondents stated that they did simply did not have enough time to do everything required of them (e.g. schoolwork, housework, errands) and that personal time was close to the bottom of their list of “must do” activities. Others noted that they were making better use of their time. They expressed feeling so much better about themselves that they consider schoolwork to actually be personal time well spent. Two individuals reported that they have more personal time now because they not at home with families or at a full-time job.