Leisure is the new productivity

By Brigid Schulte

Updated 1714 GMT (0114 HKT) February 4, 2015

For U.S. residents of the East Coast, Reykjavik can be a shorter flight than going to California, and you'll get hot springs, unique food (fermented shark anyone?), interesting culture and live volcanoes. "Interstellar" even filmed some scenes there.

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Vacation ideas: Hop a plane to Iceland – For U.S. residents of the East Coast, Reykjavik can be a shorter flight than going to California, and you'll get hot springs, unique food (fermented shark anyone?), interesting culture and live volcanoes. "Interstellar" even filmed some scenes there.

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The National Park Service has 401 areas covering more than 84 million acres in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. And most don't require reservations way in advance. Shown here is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is in North Carolina and Tennessee.

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Visit a national park – The National Park Service has 401 areas covering more than 84 million acres in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. And most don't require reservations way in advance. Shown here is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is in North Carolina and Tennessee.

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If you live in or near a big city, it's easy to forget there are lots of "things the tourists do." The national Center for Civil and Human Rights (shown here) just opened in Atlanta. On Nov. 15, the Tacoma Art Museum will open the renowned Haub Family Collection of Western American Art. And the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas has an exhibit on "John James Audubon and the Artist as Naturalist." Go get some culture!

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Play tourist in your own city – If you live in or near a big city, it's easy to forget there are lots of "things the tourists do." The national Center for Civil and Human Rights (shown here) just opened in Atlanta. On Nov. 15, the Tacoma Art Museum will open the renowned Haub Family Collection of Western American Art. And the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas has an exhibit on "John James Audubon and the Artist as Naturalist." Go get some culture!

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If you're in the United States and relatively close to the Canadian or Mexican border, it can be interesting to see how another country lives. Vancouver, shown here, is just a three-hour drive from many parts of Washington state.

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Cross the border – If you're in the United States and relatively close to the Canadian or Mexican border, it can be interesting to see how another country lives. Vancouver, shown here, is just a three-hour drive from many parts of Washington state.

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One of the great cities of the United States, Chicago is less than a three-hour flight from many parts of the country. There's the new voodoo exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, shopping on the Magnificent Mile, the view from the top of Willis Tower (shown here) and all the politeness of a Midwestern city.

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Fly to Chicago – One of the great cities of the United States, Chicago is less than a three-hour flight from many parts of the country. There's the new voodoo exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, shopping on the Magnificent Mile, the view from the top of Willis Tower (shown here) and all the politeness of a Midwestern city.

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There's no time like the present to have a fine glass of wine along with some local cheese in the California town of Napa or its surroundings. Back in business after an August earthquake damaged some local wineries and hotels, the region is just several hours north of San Francisco. But if you can't get to Napa, visit wine regions in other parts of the country, including central Texas (shown here), Virginia, Oregon and New York. <br />

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Have some wine and cheese – There's no time like the present to have a fine glass of wine along with some local cheese in the California town of Napa or its surroundings. Back in business after an August earthquake damaged some local wineries and hotels, the region is just several hours north of San Francisco. But if you can't get to Napa, visit wine regions in other parts of the country, including central Texas (shown here), Virginia, Oregon and New York.

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Dollywood anyone? That's if you're in or near Tennessee. Or how about Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana (shown here)? There's even a Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York, also called the North Pole. Then there's Knott's Berry Farm, a longtime favorite for those tired of the bigger, fancier Southern California theme parks.

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Go cheesy (and fun)! – Dollywood anyone? That's if you're in or near Tennessee. Or how about Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana (shown here)? There's even a Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York, also called the North Pole. Then there's Knott's Berry Farm, a longtime favorite for those tired of the bigger, fancier Southern California theme parks.

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That swinging lowbrow cruise where guest stars bed-hop like there's no tomorrow is back on some cable networks. So save money, stay home and watch "the Love Boat" or anything else your mindless brain desires. Or go highbrow and watch NOVA; we don't mind. Or bake cookies, rake leaves, reorganize a closet or play tennis with your friends. Just don't go to work.

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... or stay home and watch the 'Love Boat' – That swinging lowbrow cruise where guest stars bed-hop like there's no tomorrow is back on some cable networks. So save money, stay home and watch "the Love Boat" or anything else your mindless brain desires. Or go highbrow and watch NOVA; we don't mind. Or bake cookies, rake leaves, reorganize a closet or play tennis with your friends. Just don't go to work.

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Story highlights

In the United States, white-collar workers work longer than peers in most advanced countries
Brigid Schulte: We need to recapture our lost leisure; more work doesn't raise productivity
She says companies reward workers for how long they sit at their desks, not for what they do

Brigid Schulte is author of "Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play when No One has the Time," a fellow at New America and a staff writer at the Washington Post. This is the second in a series, "Big Ideas for a New America," in which the Washington-based think tank New America spotlights experts' solutions to the nation's greatest challenges. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN)What if I hadn't worked so hard? What if . . . I had actually used . . . my position to be a role model for balance? Had I done so intentionally, who's to say that, besides having more time with my family, I wouldn't also have been even more focused at work? More creative? More productive? It took inoperable late stage brain cancer to get me to examine things from this angle. --Eugene O'Kelly, former CEO, KPMG

While working on "The Last Supper," Leonardo da Vinci regularly took off from painting for several hours at a time and seemed to be daydreaming aimlessly. Urged by his patron, the prior of Santa Maria delle Grazie, to work more continuously, da Vinci is reported to have replied, immodestly but accurately, "The greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less." --Tony Schwartz, "Be Excellent at Anything"

In his 1932 classic essay, "In Praise of Idleness," Bertrand Russell heralded a coming time when modern technology would bring shorter work hours and time for leisure to be enjoyed equally by everyone.

Work and leisure both would be "delightful," and the world would be the better for it. "Every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and every painter will be able to paint without starving . . . Above all, there will be happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness and dyspepsia."

Brigid Schulte

Russell, along with scholars like Josef Pieper, author of "Leisure, the Basis of Culture," thought that it is in moments of leisure that civilization gets created. Both were extraordinarily productive, despite their call for what may today be seen as slacking.

But they argued that it is only when we take the time to lift our noses from the grindstone and are not busy with the getting, making and doing that ensures our survival, that flights of imagination, bursts of insight can lead to inventions like the wheel, art, philosophy, literature, scientific discoveries and innovation.

At the turn of the 20th century, leisure time was the ultimate status symbol, a way not only of conspicuously showing off your wealth, but of your ability to enjoy the best that life had to offer. Even those without wealth in the labor movement sought a living wage and shorter work hours so they could, as a famous protest song of the time put it, not only have their bread, but the time to enjoy the roses, the fruits of their labor.

Ironically, it was only when Henry Ford took the wildly controversial step of shuttering his automobile manufacturing factories on Saturday and cutting daily work hours from the then-standard 12 to 8 that workers began not only enjoying leisure time at home, but became more efficient and productive at work.

Though his fellow captains of industry screamed in protest, Ford