Time spent with people you love isn’t something to optimize. It’s the thing everything else was optimizing for.

There is a category mistake hiding in the urge to make time with people efficient. Studying, training and working are all means, judged by what they get you, and time with people you love is the thing they were supposed to be getting you. Treating it as another task to compress is sawing at the branch. Sitting around with nothing accomplished is not wasted; it is the point arriving.

Put one block of time with someone you love in your week with no agenda attached. Do not fold it into errands. Let it be slow and slightly pointless, since that is what the rest of the schedule is for.