Scientists have discovered the recipe for the 'perfect day' - and they're absolutely right
The average person's perfect day? It exists
It wasn't that I found myself in 'holiday mode' outside London; it was the balance, proportionally speaking. I was able to go where my instincts pulled me, enjoying life while accomplishing what needed to be accomplished. This led me to the idea that the ideal day has a certain chemistry - and that's exactly what researchers at the University of British Columbia have now discovered.
The social scientists analyzed data from the American Time Use Survey, where participants recorded how much time they spent on 100 different activities - including the most common ones like doomscrolling on their phone, exercising or socializing. They then examined how participants described a "better-than-usual day" and how much time they spent on each activity on such days. This created a formula for the average person's perfect day.
Screen time? An hour at most.
Here's the menu: six hours of quality time with family, two hours with friends, an hour and a half of social activities, a six-hour work day with a short, 15-minute commute to work, two hours of exercise, and a maximum of an hour in front of a screen.
The only thing that strikes me as odd here is the two hours of exercise - that seems excessive to most people - but maybe it also means a two-hour walk in the park with friends, a combination of activities. In order for this sample day to add up to a normal number of waking hours, you would have to combine some activities anyway.
Eight hours of work is far from perfect...
In general, the formula makes perfect sense. But our ability to apply it runs up against the fact that our work days are terribly long, usually eight or nine hours - a far cry from the "perfect" six. Personally, I can hyperfocus for four or five hours, and then I'm exhausted, out of it, and destined to spend the rest of my working hours on essential tasks like scrolling on my phone, drinking extra coffee, or distracting others. Unless we are running a business, we seem to be dependent on the companies we work for in achieving the many perfect days leading to a perfect life.
What about people without families?
Having enough time for friends and exercise is obviously important. Most of my below-average to bad days have fallen into the category of not keeping up or not planning (or both). And if you have a family, I suppose spending six hours with them will be a really good thing. But given that a lot of people, like me, live far away from family, are single, or have no family, I wonder what a perfect day looks like for us and not for the average American with 2.4 kids. I'd rather spend those six hours in quality alone time, like in L.A. - exploring, learning, reading, or hobbies.
Even work is part of a perfect day.
Ultimately, this formula reminds me of the adages "everything in moderation" and "balance is key." All elements of life have their place in the formula, they are almost revered for what they can give us. Even what we perceive as a duty, like work, has an important place here within the overall meaningfulness of our time. It is almost sad that we are so disconnected from our natural rhythms that we need someone to schedule our day. Yet we already live by a template of nine hours of work and five hours of screen time a day. Maybe we really need a new formula to get us thinking.
© Independent Digital News & Media Ltd
Prepared for the Independent by Hannah Ewens.
