Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to decide how time shifts. Any big
Speaker 1: disruption will change how we spend time, but if we're
Speaker 1: not careful, those changes won't be made mindfully. Better to
Speaker 1: think this through and make sure the time goes where
Speaker 1: you wanted to go. Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Speaker 1: here in the US released the annual American Time You Survey.
Speaker 1: This survey, which asks thousands of Americans to talk through
Speaker 1: how they spent yesterday four a m. To four am,
Speaker 1: rolling over all the days of the year, is considered
Speaker 1: one of the best time surveys out there since it
Speaker 1: covers all days and doesn't ask about particular categories of time,
Speaker 1: it is more accurate and less prune to people giving
Speaker 1: socially desirable answers. Really, I exercise for two hours every
Speaker 1: single day, I promise right, you will probably not be
Speaker 1: surprised to hear that people spent their time differently than
Speaker 1: in nine While the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually shut
Speaker 1: down the survey from March to early May because of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, there was still a lot of represented in
Speaker 1: the survey. The proportion of people doing some work at
Speaker 1: home on the day they were surveyed almost doubled. People
Speaker 1: spent less time in restaurants. Parents spend more time doing
Speaker 1: what we call secondary childcare, that is, watching kids while
Speaker 1: doing something else like working, So big time shifts, including
Speaker 1: this do zy. People spent twenty six fewer minutes traveling
Speaker 1: around each day in than they did in nine. This
Speaker 1: represents a lot less time spent commuting and running errands.
Speaker 1: What I find interesting about this number is that in
Speaker 1: the past many people have told me that they would
Speaker 1: love to spend less time commuting or doing errands. Indeed,
Speaker 1: they are not doing X, Y and z in their
Speaker 1: lives because they are spending so much time commuting and
Speaker 1: doing errands in A lot of that disappeared. When the
Speaker 1: whole population spends twenty six fewer minutes per day on
Speaker 1: something on average, that is a really significant finding. So
Speaker 1: what did we do with all this found time? Well, interestingly,
Speaker 1: we've spent nineteen more minutes watching television and ten more
Speaker 1: it's using computers for leisure in games. In other words,
Speaker 1: every single minute and more that Americans saved on travel
Speaker 1: went right into screen time, so much for the idea
Speaker 1: that we would do all sorts of productive things if
Speaker 1: we spent less time in the car. Now I understand
Speaker 1: why this shift happened. Screens are the easiest form of entertainment,
Speaker 1: and so when extra time appeared, screen time gobbled up
Speaker 1: those minutes. Spending extra time reading or exercising or volunteering
Speaker 1: takes effort. When we don't think about how we'd like
Speaker 1: to spend our time, it slides into things that are
Speaker 1: more effortless. But this need not be inevitable for us
Speaker 1: in individual cases. We just have to think about it.
Speaker 1: So whenever you are facing a major shift in how
Speaker 1: you spend your time, time, really think about how things
Speaker 1: will shift and what you want to shift, and what
Speaker 1: will happen if you don't think about it. For instance,
Speaker 1: a great many family schedules will change over the next
Speaker 1: few weeks as children go back to school. Maybe kids
Speaker 1: are starting new schools that start at different times or
Speaker 1: require different transportation arrangements. People are going to need to
Speaker 1: wake up at different times. This is probably complicated by
Speaker 1: shifting adult schedules as people go to hybrid workplace formats
Speaker 1: or go back to the office or maybe you've got
Speaker 1: a different shift, like a child leaving to go to college,
Speaker 1: or an adult child moving back home, or maybe you
Speaker 1: are moving to a different house. All of these things
Speaker 1: are going to change how you spend your time, so
Speaker 1: make sure that you are not mindlessly spending more time
Speaker 1: on something that you don't want to spend more time doing.
Speaker 1: If time opens up, great, think about where you would
Speaker 1: like it to go. If the normal slot for something
Speaker 1: you do like disappears, think about where else you can
Speaker 1: put it. But don't just bumble along. When we do.
Speaker 1: All the time we save winds up going to things
Speaker 1: that we probably don't care about all that much, and
Speaker 1: that is hardly a win in the long run. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E
Speaker 1: the number four then breakfast p O D. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
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