Have you been waiting long?
(1) When was the last time you wasted half the morning looking for your glasses, or a pair of scissors, or the car keys? How much time do you spend waiting in queues or stuck in traffic jams? How long did you spend waiting for the bill the last time you went to a restaurant?
(2) A recent British survey found that people waste over an hour a day simply doing nothing. For example, we spend over half an hour a week waiting for public transport, and nearly one and a half hours a week looking for things at home. Traffic jams account for another hour and a half of wasted time each week. We spend over an hour a week shopping unsuccessfully, and over two hours is wasted queuing in banks or shops, waiting to be served, or dealing with needless bureaucracy.
(3) This adds up to 7 hours 24 minutes of lost leisure time each week, or roughly two and half years of the average Briton's life. Add this to the 12 years we spend watching TV, and the 20-plus years we spend sleeping, and you wonder how we get any work done at all!
(4) The survey also shows that young people waste twice as much time as old people, and that men waste more time than women. Londoners suffer most from traffic jams and slow public transport – on average it takes them three hours a week to get nowhere.
(5) How can you reduce time-wasting? The survey analysts recommend careful planning. For example, deciding what you want to buy before you go shopping, and shopping after work rather than at weekends. Living near your place of work is another obvious solution. Wearing your glasses round your neck is another.