How much of your average day do you spend doing things you actually enjoy?

Posted by AF_II@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 27 comments

Excluding sleep, for those who enjoy it, how much of your waking day do you spend doing things that either a) you actively enjoy doing b) you *really* want to do even if you don't exactly enjoy them (e.g. watching your kids' school play, training for a specific sporting goal). I realise we all enjoy different things - some people see cooking as a chore, others have it as a hobby - so I'm interested in how it skews. Been thinking a lot about this recently and despite having quite a lot of free time it feels like once I've kept myself healthy, earnt money, made sure the house isn't a shit hole, done all the adulting stuff, I probably spend <1 hour on stuff that I actually enjoy (and then 5 hours mindlessly scrolling the internet, obvs). You?

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27 Comments

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Herne_KZN@reddit

Maybe 2 or 3 hours on a Saturday. Everything else is quite shitty.

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Outrageous_Jury4152@reddit

Not having kids, pets and responsibilities helps

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DavieODaBanks@reddit

Cool. I love kids and pets. Being fat, less so.

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thorny_business@reddit

I don't enjoy anything so none of it.

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rev-fr-john@reddit

Probably 90% on most days, 99 on others.

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T4NK82@reddit

Taking sleep ,commuting and work out Of the day- leaves 8 hours so usually an hour of cooking dinner and clearing up which I don't mind and my son (3) likes to help. I gwt to spend an hour and a half with my son before going to work in the morning (we walk the dog,eat breakfast and get ready). I get 3 hours after work and before he goes to bed to do things with him and then 3-4 hours in the evening to watch a film,paint or play pc games. Saturday is my favourite day, no work just spending time with my son. In the evening I'll go to the pub once he's asleep. Sunday is generally the day for diy or washing (get that out the way as early as possible) then take the dog for a decent walk or go to the beach or something as a family. Work, doithe washing and the daily battle to get my son to brush his teeth and wash his har (a couple of times a week) are the things I don't enjoy

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NoseGraze@reddit

I enjoy my morning coffee. That drags out into 30-50 mines. I might be working while doing it (WFH), but I still like the coffee/breakfast routine. I go for a walk every morning, followed by exercise (weights or yoga). That's a couple hours I enjoy. I cook dinner every night -- enjoy that. Evenings of TV/reading -- that's 2-3 hours. So pretty good.. got quite a few hours in there outside solid work.

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Jayatthemoment@reddit

I spend most of the day trying not to pee when I sneeze.

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Neat_Magician_4563@reddit

888 rule - 8hrs rest 8hrs work 8hrs recreational done

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Turtlefrog89@reddit

This doesn't include the work of cleaning/washing clothes/washing yourself etc (if you work 8 hours at an actual job

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TurnersCroft@reddit

Every minute apart from 20 minutes a week hovering 😜

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theotherquantumjim@reddit

In a helicopter, or…?

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TurnersCroft@reddit

Correct I typed hoovering but hovering appeared. Didn't check obvs.

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AF_II@reddit (OP)

So surprised to find the number of people in here who actively enjoy shitting. I thought it was more niche than that...

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SelfSufficientHub@reddit

90% I work for myself and probably four days out of five. I’m doing something that most people would love to have a go at.

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topher2604@reddit

On a work day, probably about four hours. On a weekend, maybe six or seven.

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gordonbennettsuncle@reddit

Most of it. I’m retired. Sorry.

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hamjamham@reddit

Fortunately I love my job/the work I do, so a good 10 hours (compressed week). Evening chores, not so much fun & sorting little one out, great fun. Then an hour or two when she's asleep to watch something, play guitar or video games.

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DropDeadDigsy@reddit

The 4 hours sleep is always good fun

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FilmFanatic1066@reddit

My job is somewhat stressful at the moment but I’m hoping this won’t last much longer other than that I have time to indulge my hobbies for most of my time outside of work

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PurpleOctopus6789@reddit

a lot actually. My work is my passion thus, I enjoy it for the most part. Every day, I take part in my hobbies, sports, dance, play with my pets, etc. I go to gigs, I travel, I take part in sporting comps (ice skating) as an amateur athlete. I minimise time needed on mundane tasks. I put things away immediately and clean as I go so there's not a lot of time needed to clean apart from occasional deep clean of things like bathroom, etc. But keeping it clean as I go really helps. I batch cook so i don't have to worry about that. One important thing to note is that I don't use social media. I don't consider reddit to be social media and I am only using it this week because I am on holiday. Any other time, I don't use it at all because it's such a time waste. I live on my own and I cherish that. i don't have to deal with other people's messes. I don't want kids for many reasons and one of them is certainly the fact that it would completely change my lifestyle for worse (IMO).

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Basabose@reddit

Lucky to work the job that I wanted as a kid so I really enjoy that. And then I've always wanted to be a dad and I love all aspects of spending time with my kid. When I put him to bed I'm lucky enough to go play golf until sunset on some days of the week. I spend less time doing things I don't want to do such as household chores. At the end of the day you only live once, spend your time enjoying your life instead of wishing you had done so later.

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Forsaken_Bee3717@reddit

Honestly I enjoy most of it. There’s the odd meeting which feels like a waste of time and some tasks which just have to be done (sorting out washing, dealing with some truly incompetent people at work). I think you can choose to enjoy/ make the most of things- I don’t actively enjoy cleaning but I put on a podcast and do it all in one go so at least I am minimising the time spent doing it, and it’s satisfying when it’s all clean and tidy. I’m lucky that I can do jobs I enjoy and find satisfaction in, I don’t have any conditions that limit what I can do as hobbies. My mum died quite young, so I think I just figured that if you were miserable waiting to retire then you might just never get there.

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Fresh-Research3450@reddit

In my job every day is different, I actually enjoy it, except for floor tiling, that's getting a bit old now and so are my knees!

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cannontd@reddit

Having been ill before and had physical problems I thought I’d be stuck with for life, I remember how much I missed doing anything. So now I make a point of deciding to enjoy everything. Dan Gilbert has some great videos on happiness and so much of how we feel about it is subjective. You can actual rewire yourself. The less happy you are, the more likely you are to not be happy.

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Turtlefrog89@reddit

I actually made a spreadsheet to count them all up 🤣 About 1 hour a day of dedicated enjoyment 😭 Obviously sometimes you can unexpectedly enjoy a moment at work for example but not often lol

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