Well if you cook for more people, and someone cleans for more people and someone else does something for more people... it becomes fun and you won't have to do some stuff of that list because someone else did it.
Why are Adults so busy?
41–50 of 485 posts
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#42I have scaled back years ago: ditched the car ( does away with a whole class of problems/bills ). When I had a job no more than 32hrs. No TV, no cable. Do my groceries in combination with going the postal office, while biking/walking. I rent, do not own. Try to own as little as possible. I call it the 'small life'. Lots of people in town know me, I know them, build a pretty social life. I am not going back.
You're very lucky that you - Found a job and dwelling that are reasonably near each other and the other amenities you need in your life, all in an area that's easily navigable by bicycle and foot - Found a job that allows you to work only 32 hours while still paying enough to pay the bills
I agree there is luck involved. But it is choices too: I chose to move back to my medium size European city ( The other choices have radically lowered or removed the bills I am getting. I hardly get any mail anymore.
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#43The article doesn't really answer the question. It says adults are busy because they have too much stuff to do (duh..) But "why" is still a good question, and it remains unanswered. The answer is that, as we grow up, we tend to develop the belief that our well-being needs to be justified somehow. In other words, we start to believe that we are not by default worthy of living a good, joyful, care-free, abundant life..…
Having grown up in the UK I've always felt guilty about not doing anything in my free time. Partly because everyone else seems to be living such a busy and rewarding existence (or so they would have me believe).
Now, living in Spain, I feel it's OK not to do anything. Just sitting in the shade for 6 hours watching the world go by doesn't make me a weirdo, like it does back home.
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#44The numbers seemed very high to me so I created a list on my own and thought I'd share it (single, no kids, full time job). 1. Work: 40 hours 2. Cooking: 3 h (who the hell cooks three times a day?) 3. Laundry: 0.5 h (once a week) 4. Cleaning: 1 h (and I am very clean, I just avoid producing dirt) 5. Buying stuff: .5 h (I try to avoid buying too much stuff I don't really need) 6. Bills: 0 h (they a are paid automatica…
Is this created from actual measurement or what you think you spend your time on?
No, it's not from actual measurement. I tried to think through my days in the past few weeks. But even if I'm off an hour here or there, I'd never come down to just 10 hours of free time a week.
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#45Because we have to do all the stuff now that our parents used to do for us?
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#46Being rich and never having to work except on something you really want to do is worth achieving mostly because of this. I don't really care about material things, and I love my job, but being free to do anything I want is liberating.
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#47I'm wondering why, with all the technological progress, we don't have 8 hour work-weeks just yet :)
Yes, good question. I think this is because nowadays, work is mostly a way to skew wealth distribution in your favor. Therefore people that can work more, do work more. That contributes to make them wealthier. The others, are unemployed.
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is of course true, but do you have to think about the shopping now, when you know you will do it at 20:00?
Well, to do it at 20:00 may involve a chain-reaction of related decisions that affect your behavior "now". - When should I leave to get there by 20:00? - Can I do something else along the way? - What can I get done before then? etc. etc.
Of course, but does that really matter?
If you do your moment stuff, and forget to buy groceries, is that really a problem of not having food for diner? Just skip it, you won't die.
Why doing today what can be done tomorrow?
Then you only need to do planning on the really important stuff.
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#49The article doesn't really answer the question. It says adults are busy because they have too much stuff to do (duh..) But "why" is still a good question, and it remains unanswered. The answer is that, as we grow up, we tend to develop the belief that our well-being needs to be justified somehow. In other words, we start to believe that we are not by default worthy of living a good, joyful, care-free, abundant life..…
> In other words, we start to believe that we are not by default worthy of living a good, joyful, care-free, abundant life.. unless it is "deserved".
It's not about being "deserved". There is no merit, morality or legitimacy concern here. Just plain pragmatism : good things will not come to you if you just sit on your couch all day.
Take for instance item 4 in OP's list: cleaning. Well, I can assure you that if I don't clean my apartment, nobody is going to show up magically and do it for me.
> Of course, as any child knows...
Well yeah, because children have their parents do stuff for them. That's precisely OP's point.
Re: Why are Adults so busy?
#50"I'm busy" is really just an excuse for not taking productive action. You know all those people you look up to that seem to be 10 times more productive than you? Whether it's Elon Musk running multiple blue ocean companies while being a technological innovator or Richard Branson leading over 400 companies, or whoever it might be, they all have the same 24 hours that you do. In the end it's up to you whether you find ways to make the most out of your time or just repeat the same tasks every day.
It took me a long time to realize this, but it finally clicked for me fairly recently. Record everything you do for a day, figure out which are of low or no value, and figure out how to get rid of them, create systems to reduce the time you spend on them, or delegate them. The most time-consuming things often can't be totally cut out, but they can be systemized or delegated. In the end, only you control your time (and if you don't, you have a bigger problem).
Edit: If anyone is interested in the resources I've found helpful in this realization and the implementation of taking actions to take back control of my own time, feel free to send me an email (in profile).