To put things in perspective, here’s how you’ll spend your time in many aspects of your life:
Time you’ll waste on the job
In meetings – 3 years
Due to interruptions – 4 years, 7 months, 8 days
Due to pointless interruptions – 3 years, 5 months, 14 days
Reading and deleting e-mails – 7 months, 14 days
Making internal phone calls and sending internal e-mails – 1 year, 9 months, 8 days
Opening junk mail – 8 months
On hold – 2 months, 2 days
Staring at a computer screen – 1 year, 5 months
Waiting for a computer to boot up – 16 days, 6 hours
Surfing the Internet – 9 months
Waiting for elevators – 3 weeks, 5 days
Procrastinating – 11 months
Working through lunch hour – 8 months, 16 days
Time you’ll waste around the house
Cleaning – 1 year, 28 days
Taking out the garbage – 19 days, 19 hours
Watching commercials – 2 years, 7 months
Reading the papers – 2 years, 6 months
Doing laundry – 3 months, 26 days
Watching the news – 10 months, 5 days
Tying your tie – 12 days, 9 hours
Looking for lost stuff – 1 year
Time you’ll waste sitting in your car
Commuting to work – 8 months, 1 day
Stuck in traffic – 4 months, 5 days
At stoplights – 6 months
Staring at women you will never meet – 2 months, 3 days
Miscellaneous
Grocery shopping – 10 months, 17 days
Waiting in lines – 5 years
Worrying – 5 years, 8 months, 15 days
Speaking – 2.5 years
In meaningful conversations with your wife or girlfriend – 29 days, 11 hours
Cursing – 3 months, 13 days
Time well spent
Sleeping – 24 years
Smoking – 5 years, 10 months, 15 days
Eating at McDonald’s – 6 days, 10 hours, 38 minutes
Watching TV – 13 years, 4 months
Having sex – 2 months, 13 days
Having an orgasm – 9 hours, 51 minutes
Relaxing – 4 months, 6 days
So if you want to have better time management, you’ll know which activity to optimise/minimize. Obviously, depending on your circumstances, your mileage may vary.
