Date nights really ARE more fun when they are spontaneous

Date nights planned in advance may be a way many busy couples try to squeeze some fun and romance into their lives.

But scheduling leisure time activities too strictly can turn them into chores, a study has found.

Researchers found that planning leisure activities such as going to the cinema or taking a coffee break led people to enjoy them less, and also made anticipation of them less enjoyable too.

Researchers found that ‘roughly planning’ an event – without giving a specific time – led to a similar amount of enjoyment as an off-the-cuff, unplanned event.

In a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, they reviewed 13 separate studies that looked at how scheduling leisure activities affects the way we think about them and also experience them.

In one study, the researchers asked people to select an entertaining YouTube video to view.

Some were asked to watch their chosen video immediately. Others chose a specific date and time to watch the video and put in on their calendar.

Those who watched the scheduled video enjoyed it less than those who watched it immediately, the results showed.

Selin Malkoc, co-author of the study and assistant professor of marketing at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business said:

‘People associate schedules with work. We want our leisure time to be free-flowing.’

‘Time is supposed to fly when you're having fun. Anything that limits and constrains our leisure chips away at the enjoyment.’

‘People don't want to put time restrictions of any kind on otherwise free-flowing leisure activities.’

While people seem to get less enjoyment out of precisely scheduled activities, they don't seem to mind if they are more roughly scheduled.

In another study, the researchers set up a stand on a university campus where they gave out free coffee and biscuits for students studying for final exams.

They handed out tickets for students to pick up their coffee and cookies either at a specific time or during a two-hour window. As they were enjoying their treat, the students filled out a short survey.

The results showed that those who had a specifically scheduled break enjoyed their time off less than did those who only roughly scheduled the break.

Malkoc said: ‘If you schedule leisure activities only roughly, the negative effects of scheduling disappear.’ She suggested it is better to aim to meet a friend ‘this afternoon’ rather than exactly at 1 pm.

Scheduling also seems to make activities less fun in our minds.

In one study, college students were asked to make plans to get frozen yogurt with a friend in two days’ time – and asked to imagine this was their actual schedule.

The other half of the participants were asked to imagine running into a friend and getting frozen yogurt immediately.

When asked to rate how they thought about the event, the group who planned the activity were more likely to rate the activitiy as a ‘chore’ and a ‘commitment’ than those who imagined the impromptu meeting.

Professor Malkoc added that the findings could have implications for leisure companies.

Amusement parks that offer tickets for their most popular rides allow people to avoid long lines. But this research suggests that people will enjoy these rides less if the tickets are set for a particular time.

Instead, the parks should give people a window of time to board the ride, which would be the equivalent of rough scheduling in this study.