How Much Time We Spend on 13 Everyday Activities in a Lifetime

We go about our daily lives doing so many things, and these things can add up to quite a significant amount of time over the course of our entire lives. For example, we spend about 1.83 hours a day communicating and socializing. If we lived for 70 years, that would mean we’d be socializing and communicating for more than 5 years total!

We at Bright Side were amused to find out the staggering amount of time we spend in our lives, doing little everyday things, and we believe you’d be amazed at them too.

1. Shaving legs = 2+ months

Women spend 72 days keeping their legs hairless over the course of a lifetime, even though 35% of them loath shaving their legs more than any other beauty routine. But this is assuming that 4 minutes are spent on shaving legs each time and that the activity is done 6 times a week.

2. Deciding what to wear to work = 4 months

On a typical workday, a woman will take about 16 minutes to decide what to wear to the office. This would amount to 4 months over a lifetime, assuming that an average working lifetime is 47 years.

3. Checking out people = 6 months to 1 year

A man spends about 43 minutes a day looking at 10 different women. So if we take them staring at women from age 18 to 50, an average man would spend almost a year of his life ogling women. A woman spends around 20 minutes a day looking at men, which means an average woman spends about 6 months of her life ogling men.

4. Being on Facebook = 1+ year

The time spent on Facebook daily amounts to about 58 minutes. If we use Facebook from age 18 up to 60, we would be spending more than a year of our lives just being on Facebook.

5. Removing makeup = 1+ months

A woman spends 52 days in a lifetime taking off her makeup.

6. Watching commercials = 1+ years

We spend more than 6 days a year watching commercials on TV. So if we live until 70, and have been watching TV since we were born, we would spend more than a year in our lifetime just watching advertisements.

7. Being stuck in a traffic = 3+ months

A person wastes 54 extra hours a year in traffic delays, according to a 2019 Mobility Report by Texas A&M Transportation Institute. If we assume that an average person drives from age 18 to 60, they would spend more than 3 months of their lifetime being stuck in traffic.

8. Eating and drinking = 3+ years

We spend a little over 1 hour eating every day, according to The Bureau of Labor Statistics. If we assume that we live to be 80 years old, this would amount to an estimate of 3+ years of our life spent on munching food.

9. Being in meetings = 1+ years

An average employee spends around 6 hours a week in scheduled meetings, according to an article in MIT Sloan Management Review. Assuming that an average person works from age 23 — 60, this means that they would spend more than a year in meetings over a lifetime.

10. Washing clothes = 2 months to 8 months

From the American Time Use Survey, women typically spend 17 minutes to do laundry while men spend an average of 5 minutes. Assuming that a lifetime of laundry is done from age 15 to 70, we spend about 2-8 months of our lives doing this chore.

11. Laughing = 8 months and 2 weeks

A study of 3,000 British adults that was done by Samsung revealed that an average Brit spends 8 months and 2 weeks laughing, in their adult lifetime.

12. Complaining = 7+ months

An employee spends about 10 hours a month complaining. Let’s say a typical employee has a 47-year -long working lifetime. This would amount to more than 7 months of complaining in a lifetime.

13. Crying = 30 hours

A study of 3,000 British adults by Samsung revealed that an average Brit spends 1 day and 6 hours in their adult lifetime, just crying.

Do you think we spend too much or too little time doing these activities in our lives? How would you reduce or increase the time you spend on doing all of these things? Let us know in the comments!