Highly Intelligent People Usually Do 11 Things In Their Free Time To Recharge & Recover
Migma__Agency | Shutterstock Highly intelligent people have their own ways of spending their free time to recharge and recover after a long, hard day of being productive.
Intelligent people often build strong routines and figure out how to meet their needs faster than the average person. It’s not necessarily because they’re more motivated, or even have all the answers. It’s because their natural curiosity allows them to try on new habits and find different solutions to their problems. While everyone needs time to relax and recover from the demands of daily life, highly intelligent people approach their downtime a little differently. Rather than simply filling their free time with distractions, they often gravitate toward activities that help them clear their minds and feel mentally refreshed.
Highly intelligent people spend their free time doing 11 things that help them recharge:
1. They get away from other people
Many high-IQ people actively seek out alone time to recharge, think, and regulate themselves. While this can sometimes spiral into loneliness without a balance of socializing, most of the time, they use this time intentionally to recharge and recover after overly social interactions or a draining week.
Compared to others who use busyness and digital stimulation to avoid being left alone with their own thoughts, smart people actually crave stillness and silence to go deeper. They can come back to the thoughts they had to suppress during the day or unwind the emotions they set on the back burner, rather than setting their future selves up for turmoil by ignoring them completely.
2. They read books that make them think
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Many intelligent people are inherently deep thinkers. They enjoy going inward and thinking about things from every angle, but oftentimes, the stimulation and obligations of the world keep them from doing so. That’s why they often resort to books with depth when they’re trying to recharge.
While the average person prefers to escape into something light-hearted and passive, the most intelligent people often crave stimulation. Especially if they can spend this time alone, reading something with real depth that challenges their minds and lets them escape into a different world, they can recharge without distractions.
3. They write down their thoughts and ideas
Especially for someone with a ton of thoughts and ideas spiraling around in their head all the time, journaling is an essential part of the day. Even if it’s just brain-dumping everything they’re mentally holding onto a piece of paper, this practice can be immediately regulating. Writing everything down can help them release some of that mental tension without losing track of the responsibilities, ideas, and inspiration they want to remember.
That’s why writing, whether in a diary, a creative document, or a journal, is a practice intelligent people return to. It helps regulate and process emotions. It helps turn creative inspiration into something tangible. It gives them a space to unload thoughts so they can simply be, without trying to keep everything organized in their heads.
4. They put time on their calendar to do absolutely nothing
On top of intentionally appreciating the time alone they do have, intelligent people are careful about overscheduling themselves. They may block downtime on their calendars or cancel plans they don’t have the social battery to maintain, all to protect the stillness and quiet their brains need to recharge.
Especially because they tend to be more sensitive people, with a higher risk of overstimulation in their daily lives, they occasionally need to put their solitude first. Despite being prosocial, after a long week or a draining day, they prefer to spend their free time in their own company.
5. They put their phone and electronics away
While social media, the internet, and cell phones can be great for acquiring information and diving deeper into a specific topic, they can quickly become draining. Especially for intelligent people who think deeply and reflect as a form of self-care, the cognitive consequences of excessive screen time are important to address.
So, instead of doomscrolling and using a screen as a distraction when they’re alone, they use their free time to go analog. They intentionally disconnect from their screens, whether by going outside for a walk or taking up a tactile hobby like knitting, to recharge and regulate themselves.
6. They find ways to be physically active
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While we tend to get caught up in the notion that exercise must mean going to the gym or dedicating at least an hour to rigorous activity, the truth is that any kind of mindful movement is incredibly healthy. Even if it’s a 10-minute walk outside, a stretch, or a yoga session at home, we support both mental and physical well-being by making time for it.
That’s why intelligent people use movement to recharge. Physical activity gives them a way to release built-up tension and manage stress without getting caught up in their own thoughts. Instead of overthinking everything, they can focus on how their bodies feel and enjoy being active.
Of course, just 10 minutes of physical movement a day can also protect sleep quality and promote more restorative sleep. They’re actively releasing mental tension and stress, and setting themselves up to get the kind of rest they need to fuel their brains during waking hours.
7. They learn new things
Many of the most intelligent people are inherently more open-minded, which fuels their curiosity and learning. Yes, they bring this energy to the workplace and their professional spaces, but it also fuels their excitement to learn in their personal lives.
That’s why many intelligent people recharge their curiosity and recover from being subjected to rigid guidelines and expectations outside of their homes by learning things that fill their own cups. Whether it’s researching something that they came across on social media, reading a nonfiction book, or diving deeper into something that sparked curiosity in a news headline, they’re always learning.
8. They play instruments or make music
Making music and playing instruments is associated with improved cognitive ability, according to a 2019 study. However, that doesn’t always mean making music makes people smarter. It may just be one of the hobbies they inevitably shift toward as a healthy escape for their brains.
Especially with a tendency to overthink and anxiously ruminate, sometimes turning their brains off is impossible. However, diving into a hobby that requires a lot of intentionality and attention can help them recharge, without effectively dulling their mind or turning it off completely.
9. They meditate
Meditation is wildly influential on our mental health, doing everything from relieving depression to reducing stress and anxiety. For intelligent people who can get caught up in anxious spirals in their mind quite quickly, this is exactly the kind of practice that allows them to recharge.
Despite effectively turning the mind off and shifting its attention to the body and breathing, meditation improves cognition. That’s why people who meditate often tend to have higher IQs. It restores their minds and quiets the kind of thinking patterns that can be draining. It’s the kind of rest that most people overlook, but that intelligent people always carve out time to practice.
10. They go outside
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We often believe that releasing stress and tension takes a lot of energy in itself. We feel as though we have to reflect on, process through, and understand everything in our minds to fully relieve that tension, when in reality, something as simple as stepping outside or sitting near a window can do that for us.
That’s why intelligent people often spend their free time in nature or appreciating natural light in their homes. Especially when they’re stressed out or anxious, they want to work smarter, not harder, to feel better.
11. They challenge themselves with strategy games
From chess to strategy video games, the most intelligent people regularly spend their free time playing. While it can sometimes feel juvenile to someone who overlooks their power, these strategy games can seriously boost their ability to self-regulate and relieve stress.
For intelligent people with a lot of thoughts and the tendency to get lost in unraveling every passing idea, these games that require attention and intention are perfect, even as a brief distraction.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a senior editorial strategist with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies, focusing on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human-interest stories.
