“Doing nothing and enjoying it”: the tension between rest and productivity on weekends

This study examines how people negotiate time devoted to casual weekend leisure in light of its perception as “wasted time.” Drawing on qualitative interviews with 66 Jewish-Israeli adults from diverse religious backgrounds, findings show that participants experience ambivalence both when they engage in casual leisure and they avoid it. To understand this ambivalence, the study focuses on religious discourses associated with the weekend. It shows how such discourses enable participants to expand their definitions of casual leisure to include rest, passivity, and activities perceived outside the weekend as routine or non-leisure. The analysis then examines the tension created by this expanded understanding and identifies two justification strategies: framing the weekend as sacred time and scheduling compensatory work in advance, because this time carries religious value. The study highlights how cultural and temporal framing can promote participation in casual leisure and contributes to theories of time and leisure use on weekends.