Time Is Money: How Do We Spend Our Days?

GroovyHayley
Apr 24, 2022
4 min read

We are all gifted with 24 hours in a day, and we all must carefully choose how we spend that time. The average American spends around 692,040 hours living on Earth, equaling 28,835 days, 948 months, or 79 years. Have you ever wondered how many hours we spend on daily activities throughout our lifetime? Keep reading to find out.

“How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.

What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing.”

- Annie Dillard

Sleeping

Sleep is vital to our mental and physical wellbeing, and has an abundance of health benefits. The average American spends 7 hours a day sleeping, which equates to 227,760 hours or one third of our entire lifetime. That is equivalent to 9,490 days or 26 years spent asleep.

Surprisingly, the average American spends an additional 7 years tossing and turning in their sleep. With an extra 5110 hours spent falling asleep, the grand total comes out to 12,045 days or 33 years spent sleeping throughout our lives. In that time we could drive across the United States 5,174 times.

Eating & Drinking

Everybody loves to eat, especially Americans. The average American adult spends 8.6% of their disposable income on food, and eats a ton of food annually. Literally a ton. A total of 1,996 pounds of food are consumed by the average American every year, with 8 pounds attributed to candy. An average of 67 minutes are spent eating and drinking per day, which adds up to 32,098 hours, or 3.7 years over the course of our lives.

Driving

For the majority of Americans, driving is a necessity. With an average of 14,263 miles driven per year, Americans drive a total of 1,126,777 miles in their lifetime. That is enough miles to travel to the Moon and back to Earth almost 2.5 times.

The average American driver spends around 17,600 minutes behind the wheel per year. That is equivalent to just over 293 hours or 12 days a year. Altogether, Americans spend an average of 948 days or 2.6 years operating a vehicle, thats a lot!

Working

Work is a very important part of our lives. It helps us stay productive and gives us the ability to provide for ourselves and our families. It also allows us to meet new people and learn valuable skills that can stick with us forever. After working, we should always remember to make time for our passions, as highlighted in this tweet.

A typical corporate employee in America spends 1,943 hours a year working, and receives 10 days with paid time off (PTO) and 8 paid holidays every year. An employee that works 35 hours per week spends an average of 1,820 hours working per year. The average American works from age 15 to 64 and spends 1,801 hours working annually. That means the average American worker spends a total of 88,249 hours, 3677 days, or 10 years working throughout their lives.

Watching T.V.

Who doesn't love watching T.V.? There are so many great movies and binge-worthy shows to watch, along with news channels that always keep us informed with important updates from events around the world. Television can also be used as an educational tool for children that can learn important life lessons and values from some media.

The average American spends 3 hours watching T.V. per day, which accounts for over half of their daily leisure time. This means that on average, Americans spend 1,095 hours watching television every year, and 86,505 hours or almost 10 years over the span of their lives.

Surfing the Web

The digital world has seemingly taken over. With social media on the rise, there are more people surfing the web than ever before. Currently, there are an approximate 307.2 million internet users within the United States. Those users account for 92% of the entire U.S. population. There is nothing wrong with using the internet as long as you practice self control, which is exemplified in this tweet.

Americans spend an average of 7 hours and 50 minutes per day exploring on the internet. This leads to 171,550 minutes or 119 days spent online every year. Wow! Over the course of our lives, the average American will spend 9,401 days or almost 26 years browsing through websites and social media platforms.

Exercising

Exercising is crucial to our wellbeing and maintaining good health. Lack of exercise can lead to an overabundance of negative health effects, such as obesity, heart disease, imbalanced hormones, higher risk of cancer, poor immune system, as well as depression and anxiety. Experts recommend spending between 12 to 16 hours a week moderately exercising, or completing between 6 to 8 hours of intense physical activity. Regardless of how busy your weekly schedule is, you should always try to make exercising a high priority, as displayed in this tweet.

On average, Americans only spend 2.6 hours exercising per week. That number is low in comparison to the average 7 hours and 50 minutes Americans spend surfing the web in just 1 day. At this pace, Americans spend an average of 135.2 hours a year working out, and 10,681 total hours, 445 days, or 14.6 months throughout their lives.

So, Now What?

When our time spent on daily activities is estimated over the entire span of our lives, how much time we spend completing certain tasks can be somewhat concerning. Everyone spends their own 24 hours differently, and remember that all of the numbers above are based on averages. Despite spending years of our lives on tasks like sleeping, eating, and driving, we also spend many years of our lives making precious memories and spending time with loved ones.