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Why are Adults so busy?

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Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#51

Post by ghaff »

geezerjay wrote: post #35
sagischwarz wrote: post #21

The 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…

> 2. Cooking: 3 h (who the hell cooks three times a day?) People who enjoy cooking, and people who actually care for their health.

I suppose it depends how you define cooking. If I'm at home, I'll generally make something 3 times a day but breakfast is usually something really quick and lunch will tend to be a sandwich or heated leftovers. I like cooking but I can't really imagine cooking multiple full-blown meals a day. I don't eat that much even if someone else is doing the cooking.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#52

Post by z3t4 »

atemerev wrote: post #46

Being 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.

This also leads to breakthroughs like tools, agriculture, figuring out the planet is round, math, philosophy, physics etc. Most people would just party though.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#53

Post by brohoolio »

Family.

Let me give you one example. Birthdays. My wife has two sisters and both parents are alive. That's 5 events a year. Double that for my family. 10 events a year. That's basically once a month I'm spending a weekend afternoon or evening. That's just birthdays.

Add kids in and suddenly every other weekend is filled with something. That isn't including extended family.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#54

Post by blfr »

jdimov10 wrote: post #13

The 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..…

It's more practical than that. If you want things, you have to make them happen.

You don't clean and cook because you need to justify your existence but because you want to eat a decent meal on a clean plate. Many actions are definitely means to an end.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#55

Post by Pikago »

jdimov10 wrote: post #13

The 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..…

> But "why" is still a good question, and it remains unanswered.

Because maintenance takes time and it's not handled by your parents anymore.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#56

Post by s_kilk »

teekert wrote: post #22
joncrocks wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it's a lot easier to live in the moment when the planning is someone else's responsibility, i.e. Your son can live in the moment because you're the one buying the food, paying the bills :-)

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?

This is why I like having a good todo-list and note-taking system, I can offload those concerns and not think about them until they're needed.

I then have plenty of spare capacity for both generalised planning and chilling out.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#57

Post by knorker »

Much of this doesn't apply to me, but mostly because I've been implicitly trying to avoid it.

I don't do my taxes because I can buy an accountants time, but I can't buy more "time".

It's another reason I don't want a huge collection of "stuff". "Stuff" takes your time.

I don't have a car for this reason, and I live in a city that doesn't require one.

But the article is motivating me to be more explicit about the things that take time. To make sure I spend that time doing what I want.

Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3JzcCviNDk

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#58

Post by allengeorge »

informatimago wrote: post #48
allengeorge wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes - that can be a problem. For example, today may be the only day in the next few days I have time to buy groceries. So, not getting it today is more than "not having food for dinner", it's more like "not having breakfast for the next few days". Aight, so now I just buy breakfast on the go for the next few days, which means I've just spent 3x+ the amount of money I would on breakfast as opposed to just planning ahead...

(Yes, this has really happened.)

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#59

Post by bryanlarsen »

jbb555 wrote: post #15

A lot of my time is 'wasted' by recovering from work. I have a nice physically easy programming job. But it's quite a lot of hours, and there is travel on top of that. But when I get home I need to spend at least an hour basically going 'ughhhhh' and just doing nothing much. It's necessary, but eats so much time.

What's your commute like? Can you arrange things to combine commute and de-stress time?

In my experience the best way to de stress is to walk, but that's obviously not feasible for most. It's worth moving to make it possible, in my opinion.

Mass transit is pretty awesome too. Even if it takes longer, you can plug in your headphones and zone, netflix and chill, or best of all, take a nap.

Biking in urban areas can be pretty stressful, but the exercise it provides is pretty effective at helping the body recover from stress.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#60

Post by pjc50 »

grondilu wrote: post #49
jdimov10 wrote: post #13

The 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…

There absolutely is a 'morality' (in the socially enforced sense) of cleaning. It's not quite as bad as it used to be, but your level of cleanliness isn't entirely a free choice because it affects how people judge you. And, unless you're extremely independent-minded, how you judge yourself.

Similarly there is a 'morality' of leisure: Protestant work ethic and all that. Note that one of the sibling comments talks about feeling a lot more comfortable relaxing in (Catholic) Spain.

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