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Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Scientists have designed the perfect day. So I tried it
According to the Lou Reed song, the ultimate perfect day involves sangria in the park, feeding animals at the zoo and a movie. And possibly heroin. But that was the Seventies and things have changed. Feeding zoo animals is generally frowned upon nowadays, as is smack. Instead, researchers at the University of British Columbia have created the formula for a perfect day using AI analysis (admittedly, not as exciting as Spanish booze or narcotics). The boffins used data from the American Time Use Survey, in which participants recorded how much time they spent on 100 different activities and rated each. According to the science, the 'perfect' day consists of six hours of quality time with family, two hours with friends, one-and-a-half hours of socialising, less than six hours spent working (with a brief 15-minute commute), two hours of exercise and no more than an hour's worth of screen time. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? That's if you enjoy interaction with other people, because it involves a lot of that. If, on the other hand, you're an introvert, it could well be hell. Personally, I have reservations. Six hours of family time sounds excessive. And surely it would depend on which members of your family that time is devoted to. Do pets count? And two hours of exercise? I'm an avid gym-goer but would struggle with that amount of exertion. Consider, then, the opposite. What constitutes the 'worst' day? While there's been no definitive studies into this, I decided to try and build a non-scientific template by flipping the formula for the perfect day and substituting the 'good' activities with their 'bad' opposites, adding a few of the unhealthiest habits for good measure, such as sleeping in, being sedentary, excessive screen time, drinking alcohol, stress and isolation. Helpfully, the study also lists some of the lowest scoring activities, which includes gardening, looking after other people's children and time spent with spouses, which confusingly, may sound like fun ways to spend time (I love spending time with my wife, obvs). So, is the perfect day really perfect, and could the imperfect day be just as fun? I tested which was better… Skip to: The perfect day The imperfect day The verdict Normally I'll wake at 6am, get to the gym for around 7am and then spend an hour working out. I like to start work by 8.30am so the logistics of a two-hour session don't suit me. Instead, I set the alarm for 5am and get up straight away, which is a struggle, then head out for a light run, before heading to the gym for some weight training and a Blaze HIIT (high-intensity interval training) class. This is achievable in the summer when the weather is kind, but must be miserable in the cold and dark. By the end of this early morning marathon, I'm exhausted. It's much more than I'd normally do. The study distinguishes between socialising and time spent with friends and family, so I take socialising to mean social interactions. Luckily, I am friendly with many of the regulars in the gym and today I ramp up the chattiness. I stop to talk to the receptionist, then chat to the staff in the café while they try to set up for the day. On the gym floor I am that annoying person who wanders around and talks to everyone, and in the HIIT class I have plenty of banter with the instructor, monopolising the session. I then chat absently to people in the changing room in various stages of undress. As I don't work in an office, I've always valued these small interactions with different people during the day and I feel good about the connections I've made, but judging by some of the body language I fear I may have been a nuisance today. Nevertheless, I'm at my desk by 8am, happy in the knowledge that by 2pm I'll have finished. Normally I work 10 hours or more a day, often on weekends too. Being self-employed means if I don't work, I don't get paid. So a six-hour day should feel like a treat. Instead, I finish at 2pm weighed down by guilt and anxiety, knowing I'll have to start early and work late the next day just to catch up. Not exactly the perfect start to an afternoon off. According to the study, spouses don't count, which is a shame, because I really enjoy my wife's company. Besides, she's busier than I am anyway. Luckily, my mother, who lives in Australia, is visiting. It's a great chance to spend time with her and also catch up with my son and daughter, now 18 and 23. I haven't seen my mother in several years, so it's wonderful to be together again. Even so, after a couple of hours, the conversation slows, thankfully, she's great at filling the gaps. After a long lunch, I then meet up with my children, whose company I always treasure. In the evening I head off to the pub to meet a friend for an easy two hours decompressing after family time. To start with, the amount of social time looked daunting, but having spent it with a selection of my favourite people the time passes easily. The trick, I think, is to choose your company carefully. Some people are effortless company, others drain energy. Another easy win. An hour of Clarkson's Farm to round off the day is time well spent and leaves me lifted before bed. I read for half an hour before drifting off. Forcing myself to stay in bed until 8am on a weekday felt vaguely criminal. I tried to do something positive with the time and scrolled through the newspapers online, but still felt guilty. And the no-exercise rule was hard to adhere to. I wanted to go for a walk at least but instead headed to my desk in the home office. According to the study, when individuals worked for more than six hours, the positive effects rapidly turned negative, so I set myself an eight-hour working day. I have a love/hate relationship with my WFH set-up. I share the home office with my wife, who often presents seminars and workshops online, while I try to concentrate on writing. And when she is away, which she is a lot, I find the office isolating, so I work in a café or in the pub in the evening where the hum of life is comforting. Today my wife is away so, in keeping with the spirit of the experiment, I work in the home office with just the cat for company. And he whines all day. As expected, I find the solitude soul-crushing. The only bonus is that an eight-hour day, while detrimental in terms of the study data, is still shorter than my normal working day, which allows me to fit in the other unhealthy activities. In the study, time related to consumer purchases indicated a 'zero effect' on whether participants would have a good day, as did gardening. I love my garden, but am no fan of gardening. I do as little as possible, and we have gardeners. I choose the unpleasant job of pruning away aphid-infected leaves from the apple tree. The bugs excrete a liquid called honeydew and, as I chop away haphazardly, aphid excrement drips down on me. Ninety minutes later I head for a shower, then spend 30 minutes online shopping for summer clothes and pesticides. I'm lucky enough to have two pubs within yards of my front door. I head to the Brewery Inn for a couple of pints alone. I take my laptop too and cram in a bit more work. This is a regular early evening thing for me. My wife thinks it's sad; I think it's one of the best things you can do with your time. I'm comfortable with my own company, and the pub serves excellent beer and plays excellent music. Ninety minutes later, I emerge comfortably lubricated. Another surprising finding of the study was that time spent relaxing was negatively associated with having a good day. The authors make the presumption that this is because most of this time was devoted to watching television, 'which would not necessarily make for a better day'. In this spirit I settle on the sofa with crisps, biscuits, beer and wine. I try to watch programmes with no intrinsic value, but, after a trio of Eastenders, Coronation Street and Love Island, I begin to lose the will to live so switch to Shōgun, which is very good – although by this point I'm feeling the effects of the alcohol and the subtitles are challenging. I opt for something educational and watch the first episode of Adam Curtis's new social history, Shifty, which is excellent, but my brain struggles to keep up with the high-brow concepts. For light relief I head to Noel Edmonds' Kiwi Adventure, which requires no energy, unlike the show's protagonist. I finish the day in bed scrolling through TikTok, X and Truth Social, and drift off dreaming of cats and hatred. Not as perfect as it would appear, especially if you value 'me time', or time with your spouse. It depends on who you spend your time with and what you do. Meanwhile a six-hour workday seems impractical for anyone with a full-time job. For me the most detrimental elements were the lack of interactions with people and the lack of exercise. This is not a prescription for good health, and it was easy to see how this sort of lifestyle could be damaging in the long term. As a one-off, however, parts of it were enjoyable, such as slobbing out on the sofa and sinking a few pints in the pub. The only ill-effect was a fuzzy head the following morning. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Telegraph
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Scientists have designed the perfect day. So I tried it
According to the Lou Reed song, the ultimate perfect day involves sangria in the park, feeding animals at the zoo and a movie. And possibly heroin. But that was the Seventies and things have changed. Feeding zoo animals is generally frowned upon nowadays, as is smack. Instead, researchers at the University of British Columbia have created the formula for a perfect day using AI analysis (admittedly, not as exciting as Spanish booze or narcotics). The boffins used data from the American Time Use Survey, in which participants recorded how much time they spent on 100 different activities and rated each. According to the science, the 'perfect' day consists of six hours of quality time with family, two hours with friends, one-and-a-half hours of socialising, less than six hours spent working (with a brief 15-minute commute), two hours of exercise and no more than an hour's worth of screen time. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? That's if you enjoy interaction with other people, because it involves a lot of that. If, on the other hand, you're an introvert, it could well be hell. Personally, I have reservations. Six hours of family time sounds excessive. And surely it would depend on which members of your family that time is devoted to. Do pets count? And two hours of exercise? I'm an avid gym-goer but would struggle with that amount of exertion. Consider, then, the opposite. What constitutes the 'worst' day? While there's been no definitive studies into this, I decided to try and build a non-scientific template by flipping the formula for the perfect day and substituting the 'good' activities with their 'bad' opposites, adding a few of the unhealthiest habits for good measure, such as sleeping in, being sedentary, excessive screen time, drinking alcohol, stress and isolation. Helpfully, the study also lists some of the lowest scoring activities, which includes gardening, looking after other people's children and time spent with spouses, which confusingly, may sound like fun ways to spend time (I love spending time with my wife, obvs). So, is the perfect day really perfect, and could the imperfect day be just as fun? I tested which was better… Skip to: The perfect day Two hours spent exercising Normally I'll wake at 6am, get to the gym for around 7am and then spend an hour working out. I like to start work by 8.30am so the logistics of a two-hour session don't suit me. Instead, I set the alarm for 5am and get up straight away, which is a struggle, then head out for a light run, before heading to the gym for some weight training and a Blaze HIIT (high-intensity interval training) class. This is achievable in the summer when the weather is kind, but must be miserable in the cold and dark. By the end of this early morning marathon, I'm exhausted. It's much more than I'd normally do. One-and-a-half hours spent socialising The study distinguishes between socialising and time spent with friends and family, so I take socialising to mean social interactions. Luckily, I am friendly with many of the regulars in the gym and today I ramp up the chattiness. I stop to talk to the receptionist, then chat to the staff in the café while they try to set up for the day. On the gym floor I am that annoying person who wanders around and talks to everyone, and in the HIIT class I have plenty of banter with the instructor, monopolising the session. I then chat absently to people in the changing room in various stages of undress. As I don't work in an office, I've always valued these small interactions with different people during the day and I feel good about the connections I've made, but judging by some of the body language I fear I may have been a nuisance today. Nevertheless, I'm at my desk by 8am, happy in the knowledge that by 2pm I'll have finished. Six hours of work Normally I work 10 hours or more a day, often on weekends too. Being self-employed means if I don't work, I don't get paid. So a six-hour day should feel like a treat. Instead, I finish at 2pm weighed down by guilt and anxiety, knowing I'll have to start early and work late the next day just to catch up. Not exactly the perfect start to an afternoon off. Six hours of family time According to the study, spouses don't count, which is a shame, because I really enjoy my wife's company. Besides, she's busier than I am anyway. Luckily, my mother, who lives in Australia, is visiting. It's a great chance to spend time with her and also catch up with my son and daughter, now 18 and 23. I haven't seen my mother in several years, so it's wonderful to be together again. Even so, after a couple of hours, the conversation slows, thankfully, she's great at filling the gaps. After a long lunch, I then meet up with my children, whose company I always treasure. Two hours with friends In the evening I head off to the pub to meet a friend for an easy two hours decompressing after family time. To start with, the amount of social time looked daunting, but having spent it with a selection of my favourite people the time passes easily. The trick, I think, is to choose your company carefully. Some people are effortless company, others drain energy. One hour of screen time Another easy win. An hour of Clarkson's Farm to round off the day is time well spent and leaves me lifted before bed. I read for half an hour before drifting off. The imperfect day Late waking and zero hours exercising Forcing myself to stay in bed until 8am on a weekday felt vaguely criminal. I tried to do something positive with the time and scrolled through the newspapers online, but still felt guilty. And the no-exercise rule was hard to adhere to. I wanted to go for a walk at least but instead headed to my desk in the home office. Eight hours of work According to the study, when individuals worked for more than six hours, the positive effects rapidly turned negative, so I set myself an eight-hour working day. I have a love/hate relationship with my WFH set-up. I share the home office with my wife, who often presents seminars and workshops online, while I try to concentrate on writing. And when she is away, which she is a lot, I find the office isolating, so I work in a café or in the pub in the evening where the hum of life is comforting. Today my wife is away so, in keeping with the spirit of the experiment, I work in the home office with just the cat for company. And he whines all day. As expected, I find the solitude soul-crushing. The only bonus is that an eight-hour day, while detrimental in terms of the study data, is still shorter than my normal working day, which allows me to fit in the other unhealthy activities. Two hours of gardening, plus online shopping In the study, time related to consumer purchases indicated a 'zero effect' on whether participants would have a good day, as did gardening. I love my garden, but am no fan of gardening. I do as little as possible, and we have gardeners. I choose the unpleasant job of pruning away aphid-infected leaves from the apple tree. The bugs excrete a liquid called honeydew and, as I chop away haphazardly, aphid excrement drips down on me. Ninety minutes later I head for a shower, then spend 30 minutes online shopping for summer clothes and pesticides. One-and-a-half hours of drinking alone I'm lucky enough to have two pubs within yards of my front door. I head to the Brewery Inn for a couple of pints alone. I take my laptop too and cram in a bit more work. This is a regular early evening thing for me. My wife thinks it's sad; I think it's one of the best things you can do with your time. I'm comfortable with my own company, and the pub serves excellent beer and plays excellent music. Ninety minutes later, I emerge comfortably lubricated. Five hours spent watching television and eating junk food Another surprising finding of the study was that time spent relaxing was negatively associated with having a good day. The authors make the presumption that this is because most of this time was devoted to watching television, 'which would not necessarily make for a better day'. In this spirit I settle on the sofa with crisps, biscuits, beer and wine. I try to watch programmes with no intrinsic value, but, after a trio of Eastenders, Coronation Street and Love Island, I begin to lose the will to live so switch to Shōgun, which is very good – although by this point I'm feeling the effects of the alcohol and the subtitles are challenging. I opt for something educational and watch the first episode of Adam Curtis's new social history, Shifty, which is excellent, but my brain struggles to keep up with the high-brow concepts. For light relief I head to Noel Edmonds' Kiwi Adventure, which requires no energy, unlike the show's protagonist. Late night TikTok and doom-scrolling I finish the day in bed scrolling through TikTok, X and Truth Social, and drift off dreaming of cats and hatred. The verdict Perfect Day Not as perfect as it would appear, especially if you value 'me time', or time with your spouse. It depends on who you spend your time with and what you do. Meanwhile a six-hour workday seems impractical for anyone with a full-time job. Imperfect Day For me the most detrimental elements were the lack of interactions with people and the lack of exercise. This is not a prescription for good health, and it was easy to see how this sort of lifestyle could be damaging in the long term. As a one-off, however, parts of it were enjoyable, such as slobbing out on the sofa and sinking a few pints in the pub. The only ill-effect was a fuzzy head the following morning.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
U.S. men are doing a record-high 100 minutes of housework per day
Men in the U.S. are spending a record-high amount of time on household activities, though inequalities between men's and women's contributions persist, an NBC News analysis of new Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. Men spent an average of 100 minutes per day in 2024 doing household activities such as laundry and cleaning, an increase of 20 minutes from 2003 and the most of any of the years captured in the American Time Use Survey. But the gap is closing, slowly. In 2003, the first year of the survey, women worked an hour more than men on the home. In 2024, women worked 40 minutes more. At this rate, housework will be equal sometime around the year 2066. The additional work from men is most apparent in food preparation and cleanup. Men spent an average of 16 minutes per day cooking in 2003 — that value has since jumped to 28 minutes. The survey, which each year asks thousands of Americans 15 and older how they spent their past 24 hours, is designed to develop a 'nationally representative estimate of how people spend their time.' Sociologists have said the growth in men's household work may indicate broader progress toward gender equality. In a recent study, scholars used the 2003-2023 time use data to analyze changes in men's and women's daily housework. Cooking, along with other routine and frequent tasks such as house cleaning and laundry, is referred to as 'core' housework, which has traditionally been seen as feminine. The shift in men's work, largely concentrated in cooking and cleaning, has been particularly pronounced since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Melissa Milkie, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and author of the study, explained why men are doing more. 'It's a possibility that it's just this cultural change,' Milkie told NBC News. 'Men are expected to do more. They feel that they should do more and they're sort of stepping up, which is a pretty neat thing to see.' 'The pandemic seemed to push [men] in an important way that seems to have stuck.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
03-07-2025
- General
- NBC News
U.S. men are contributing to household work more than ever
Men in the U.S. are spending a record-high amount of time on household activities, though inequalities between men's and women's contributions persist, an NBC News analysis of new Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. Men spent an average of 100 minutes per day in 2024 doing household activities such as laundry and cleaning, an increase of 20 minutes from 2003 and the most of any of the years captured in the American Time Use Survey. But the gap is closing, slowly. In 2003, the first year of the survey, women worked an hour more than men on the home. In 2024, women worked 40 minutes more. At this rate, housework will be equal sometime around the year 2066. The additional work from men is most apparent in food preparation and cleanup. Men spent an average of 16 minutes per day cooking in 2003 — that value has since jumped to 28 minutes. The survey, which each year asks thousands of Americans 15 and older how they spent their past 24 hours, is designed to develop a 'nationally representative estimate of how people spend their time.' Sociologists have said the growth in men's household work may indicate broader progress toward gender equality. In a recent study, scholars used the 2003-2023 time use data to analyze changes in men's and women's daily housework. Cooking, along with other routine and frequent tasks such as house cleaning and laundry, is referred to as 'core' housework, which has traditionally been seen as feminine. The shift in men's work, largely concentrated in cooking and cleaning, has been particularly pronounced since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Coloradans spend more time working than people in most states: Study
DENVER (KDVR) — Coloradans spend more time on the clock than people in most states in the U.S., according to a new report. Qualtrics XM, a data tool for businesses, released a report in March analyzing what percentage of the past year people spent working. The study used data from the American Time Use Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for all 50 states. Data: Income levels in Colorado among highest in the US, according to report A handful of states had fewer than 10 survey responses and were excluded from the main story, but were included in a separate list. According to the report, people in these states spent the highest percentage of their past year working: Utah: 25.17% Mississippi: 23.89% North Carolina: 23.51% Alabama: 23.44% Colorado: 22.95% According to the report, Utahns work an average of eight hours and 29 minutes per day, and their time on the clock accounts for over a quarter of the year. Utah and Mississippi were the only states where the average workday exceeded eight hours. Colorado ranked at No. 5, with an average workday lasting seven hours and 44 minutes. After a year with 260 workdays, Coloradans work an average of 120,617 minutes. Report: Colorado has one of the best economies in US despite shortfalls In the report, Qualtrics XM noted several reasons why people in some states work more hours than others. 'In states like Colorado, where housing and general cost-of-living expenses are high, workers may need to work more to afford their lifestyles,' the report states. Other contributing factors include low unemployment rates and a high demand for labor, low wages, industry influences and prevalence of part-time work. The full list and more data can be found in the full Qualtrics XM report online. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
