I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but ‘they’ keep talking about ‘them’ and ‘they’ seem to think ‘they’re’ up to something.
Anyway here we go, here’s the stuff that needs to be done in a 24 hour period according to ‘them’:
Sleeping
Adults generally need about 8 hours of sleep every night. Maybe more if they’re pregnant. Studies have shown that people who think that they are OK with less usually have more trouble doing mental activities. People who feel they should have more however, are probably right.
You should also spend about 30 minutes winding down before bed not looking at any screens or doing anything too mentally or physically strenuous.
24 hours – 8.30 hours = 15.30 hours
Eating
Meals should take about half an hour to eat. Rushing is bad for you. It can cause indigestion. It takes your stomach about 20 minutes to realise it’s full, so slowing down often means you won’t need to eat as much. Not actually because you need to eat less, but simply because your body has had time to figure out it’s had enough. Then obviously you shouldn’t get up and rush off the moment you finish.
There are myths that you should eat 6 times a day, but these are false. The standard 3 is enough, so that’s an hour and a half.
But then you need to take into account preparing the meal. Depending on what it is, meals can take from five minutes to an hour or more to prepare. Let’s go on some safe averages which don’t require rushing. Breakfast – 10 mins, lunch – 10 mins dinner 30 mins. You may well take longer depending on what you have. A full English breakfast will be closer to 30 mins, while a slice of toast will be two or three.
15.30 hours – 1.30 hours – 50 mins = 13.10 hours
Exercise
It’s important to exercise in some way to keep yourself healthy and able to function. Else you will become a mess.
Experts suggest that exercise should take up about 30 minutes every day. If you’re weight training or going for a gold medal in something, this would be a lot more, but for the average Joe or Susan, 30 minutes is sufficient.
If you’re going to exercise using workout gear then you need to warm up for at least 5 minutes beforehand and another 5 for a cool down afterwards. Again, this takes longer for pros.
13.10 hours – 40 mins = 12.30 hours
Washing
Showers or baths are only arguably needed once every other day. Depending on your poison they can take different lengths of time but the usual is about 15 minutes. We’ll include this because it’s a pretty regular thing that needs doing.
As well as showers/baths, there’s the morning and evening routines.
Brushing teeth should take two minutes each time, so twice a day (that third time we hear about is a trick dentists use to see if children are lying I’m sure). Then there’s the face wash/scrub, deodorising, and optional mouthwashing, flossing and makeup. You might also have contact lenses or a brace or some other condition that gets involved here. To cover it all, we’ll call it 10 minutes each way without makeup which is a pretty individual thing.
12.30 hours – 25 mins = 12.05 hours
Toilet Time
The average adult visits the bathroom for a pee between four and seven times a day. Call it two minutes per visit and we’ll say thats 14 minutes.
Number twos should probably be about once a day, though this again varies between individuals. We’ll call a poo stop five minutes, though again, that’s entirely dependent on a number of factors, including time since curry intake.
Don’t forget to wash your hands after every visit. This should take at least 15 seconds every time, which adds up to at least two minutes.
12.05 hours – 21 mins = 11.44 hours
House Tidying
There’s always bits and pieces to do around the house, hoovering, washing up, laundry, dusting, the rest of it. It’s unhealthy to do it all in one go, but you should probably spend 15 minutes every day doing something so you can keep on top of it.
11.44 hours – 15 mins = 11.29 hours
Get Dressed
You probably should have done this before some of the other stuff.
11.29 hours – 10 mins = 11.19 hours
Work
For most people this won’t count at the weekends, but as the weekend is the temporal minority this should be included. Your average workday is something like 9-5. The average commute is 45 minutes. You do that twice to get in, then get home again. This adds up to 9 and a half hours. We’ll knock off the half as you should be using that for your lunch.
11.19 hours – 9 hours = 2.19 hours (Gosh.. we had quite a bit of time left over before this abomination happened..)
Take a Nap
Napping, often seen as a habit of the lazy, is actually recognised as a healthy and wise thing to do. The ideal time to spend napping, considering sleep patterns and REM etc is 45 minutes. That or 90 minutes. Increments of 45 basically.
2.19 hours – 45 minutes = 1.34 hours
You Time
So all you are left with at the end of the day is a measly 1 hour and 34 minutes. That’s IF you don’t need to apply and wash off makeup, or take a little longer to use the toilet, or spend longer preparing your meals, or do some housework that takes a bit longer.
This is the time you could be spending socialising, checking silly websites, learning new skills, languages or doing research on subjects that interest you, playing sports, practising religious activities, gardening, shopping and spending time with loved ones to name a few.
Great work society!
Extra Stuff To Squeeze In
– Learn something new.
– Do something that scares you.
– Speak to your mum/gran.
– Make a to-do list for the day (waste of time if you ask me.. you’ve hardly got any left after you’ve done everything else)
