How We Spend Our Time
- Dr. Carlo Filpa
- Apr 11, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 18, 2024
We all have 24 hours a day, that is 1440 minutes, 365 days a year.
Every day, the average person aged between 15 and 64 years:
⦁ Sleeps for roughly 6-8 hours.
⦁ Works for around 7-8 hours.
⦁ Commutes to work or school for approximately 90 minutes a day.
⦁ Eats for 60 minutes.
⦁ Has personal care for 60 minutes.
⦁ Does housework and shopping for nearly 2 hours.
⦁ Has a total leisure time of 4-5 hours. This includes watching TV, social media, seeing friends and other activities.
Looking further into the numbers, people spend around 6 hours and 37 minutes in front of a screen daily. Based on information from ourworldindata.org, the average user spends 2 hours and 51 minutes looking at their computer screens and 3 hours and 46 minutes looking at their mobiles, of which 2 hours and 27 minutes connected to social media... and these numbers are progressively increasing.
In theory, we spend most of our time working and sleeping. But interestingly, as we spend most of the time throughout the day watching a screen (TV, computer, mobile phone), the quality of sleep has deteriorated: roughly 1 in 3 adults worldwide have insomnia symptoms, which means they are not sleeping as they should. So we tend to sleep less and poorly.
Additionally, we tend to move less and less...
Approximately one-third of the global population engages in insufficient physical activities, which affects health. People spend around 60% of their waking hours sitting down, and this rises to as much as 75% for people who work in offices. This is equivalent to 8-12 hours per day! Inactivity is dubbed as "the new smoking", it is strongly associated with conditions like cardiovascular diseases (heart attacks, strokes), diabetes, cancer, and is a cause of premature mortality.
Inactive or sedentary lifestyles are spreading worldwide. Television viewing, video viewing and mobile phone usage are directly correlated to this.
Other interesting numbers linked to inactivity regard an unhealthy diet, and the overweight and obese population. In Europe for example, 60% of adults are obese and overweight, and nearly 30% of children are too.
It is true that the average lifespan has progressively increased worldwide, to circa 73 years. In developed countries, it is around 80 years. But a question comes to my mind: are these just years in quantity? Are we missing the quality?
Life is made of experiences, and currently we are experiencing more screens than real life. And time goes by...
If you lose money, objects and possessions, you can always have the opportunity to get them back. If you lose time, you will never get it back.
It seems we are mostly spending our time getting distracted by unreal information. Not living enough, not doing what we should be doing. Life is what happens when you are making other plans, as John Lennon said. And often we are making other plans on screens.
When we arrive to the end of our time in this world, will we regret not having used time differently?
Technology is part of our life, and it can be positive if used appropriately, but let’s not forget the incorporation of healthy habits in our daily schedule in order to not get absorbed by it.
How can we do that?
There are many ways, here you have some tips:
Exercise snacks and micro-breaks: have breaks throughout the day, ideally every 1-2 hours, where you can stretch, move around, or do a different work task. Mini high intensity interval training exercises can be done, for 10-30 seconds at a time, for example throwing punches in the air, or moving your arms as if you were running very quickly while your legs are static. This will move the energy in your body, activate you and clear your mind to continue your work.
Isometric exercises: these are exercises in which your muscles are engaged but they are not changing in length. This form of exercise involves no movement and instead focuses on holding your body in a position for a set period of time. Many of these exercises can be found online, and each one targets different muscles of the body. One example can be the “calf raise and hold”: as explained on Examples of Isometric Exercises: Try These to Bust Gym Boredom (healthline.com), you stand with your feet hip-distance apart, and with your hands on your hips or resting lightly against a wall for support, you push into the balls of your feet and lift your heels off the ground. Then you hold the position for 20-30 seconds, and perform 1-3 rounds.
Just stand up, move a bit, and have a sip of water. You can disconnect for a few seconds, get hydrated, and refresh your mind to start your activity again.
Eat a healthy snacks like almonds, nuts, celery sticks, or a fruit.
Have a pause to breathe consciously. Focus on the air entering your nose, going down to your larynx and lungs, and then feel it go out following the inverse path. It is amazing how breathing consciously can connect you to the present moment and refresh your mind, so you can start your activities again with a different vibe.
The square breathing technique: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, exhale (and smile!) for 4 seconds, and hold your breath for 4 seconds. Then repeat several times.
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