So... a multitude of thoughts (I slept on it before speaking this time)
First: "Leisure work" is at least sometimes "Attempting to make a dream job out of a hobby". It's the Millennial/Zoomer "Success by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps". This means that the "free time" being spent on "Leisure work" is actually the same as "putting in the extra hours to get that promotion" of 20-50 years ago, just in a new avenue.
Second: I would second that most people are terrible at time tracking, but one should likely distinguish between "Hours at work" and "hours spent working". Something I learned shortly after getting my first office job is that people spend a lot less time working than raw numbers would imply. My father once explained to me that if you get "4 hours of productive work a day" you're doing great. I kinda suspect that over estimates may come as a result of "how much time does your brain have work on the mind" being compared with "time spent working/at work".
Third: I can reliably do 2-3 things at once today in a way that wasn't possible 40 years ago. Do chores and enjoy a book? Yeah, that wasn't a thing in 1980. But today, I can easily throw some wireless headphones on and listen to the latest Dakota Krout book while folding laundry and walking the dog. It's not unheard of for someone to "play a game, have a conversation, and watch a show" all at the same time.
So we have a few conflicting notions about time. Arguably we are busier (doing more) each day that people were in the past. And today's young people are also looking for ways to advance their careers just like those in the past (but in different ways because the old avenues no longer exist). So... nice post. I think there's more going on, but I think that it isn't a single post topic.
The education bit is probably misinterpreted. Those numbers in the 60s or 80s, mean completely different things due to the rarity of higher education and its quality.
People are horrible at time tracking (that much we agree), but I think scientists are equally horrible, or rather, the subjects aren't there, and if you do get people to track time you're selecting for some pretty weird people and causing a lot of behavior change due to the increased monitoring.
Even if people could reliably track time, the conceptual apparatus we have changes, and people classify work and leisure differently. Do people spend more time on childcare or do people think of more activities as childcare?
Gosiping has turned into "therapy to improve my mental health", modernity loves to pathologise. Once actual business starts to disappear, the concept gets resued.
Finally, to me personally, it seems that "work" time is often much "easier" than "leisure" time. Leisure tends to be physically engaging (hiking, swimming, diving, riding, driving, travelling, rangling) or high-bandwidth social interactions. Work is just writing code, can't hurt myself, won't get tired doing it, won't put myself at risk of death, won't get into an awkward situation I can't escape. But maybe I'm odd in rennouncing all forms of media... still, do try to think of leisure but take out fantasy books, movies, music and games (at least the consuming of), does it suddenly not seem like a field more daunting than work.
I've recently been caught among many tortoises, and it certainly seems like an intensive task to guard one while on a walk through a busy city, I'd much rather work on a blog post when tired than have to do that.
I recently went through the rigmarole of applying for the free version (for over 75s) UK's State Mandated BBC TV License. It was for my mother and was typical of the type of laborious bureaucracy one expects of anything related to government. I would tentatively suggest that there are all manner of similar inanities which frivolously spend our precious time.
Years ago Toyota completed a works study on screen usage. They banned all of their employees from using a screen for more the five hours a day. Apparently, excessive screen use causes stress, depression, anxiety and feelings of being overworked. Ever feel like logging into your online world has become like a chore? Of course, we would go into withdrawal without it. I recently had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows 10. It was sheer torture for around 18 hours. Initially, I couldn't get past my bios- thankfully YouTube through my firestick came to the rescue.
Personally, the most annoying thing that comes from the self-imposed leisure-work is how difficult it makes it to meet people when I want to. I am too young to be sending out Calendly invites!
So... a multitude of thoughts (I slept on it before speaking this time)
First: "Leisure work" is at least sometimes "Attempting to make a dream job out of a hobby". It's the Millennial/Zoomer "Success by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps". This means that the "free time" being spent on "Leisure work" is actually the same as "putting in the extra hours to get that promotion" of 20-50 years ago, just in a new avenue.
Second: I would second that most people are terrible at time tracking, but one should likely distinguish between "Hours at work" and "hours spent working". Something I learned shortly after getting my first office job is that people spend a lot less time working than raw numbers would imply. My father once explained to me that if you get "4 hours of productive work a day" you're doing great. I kinda suspect that over estimates may come as a result of "how much time does your brain have work on the mind" being compared with "time spent working/at work".
Third: I can reliably do 2-3 things at once today in a way that wasn't possible 40 years ago. Do chores and enjoy a book? Yeah, that wasn't a thing in 1980. But today, I can easily throw some wireless headphones on and listen to the latest Dakota Krout book while folding laundry and walking the dog. It's not unheard of for someone to "play a game, have a conversation, and watch a show" all at the same time.
So we have a few conflicting notions about time. Arguably we are busier (doing more) each day that people were in the past. And today's young people are also looking for ways to advance their careers just like those in the past (but in different ways because the old avenues no longer exist). So... nice post. I think there's more going on, but I think that it isn't a single post topic.
The education bit is probably misinterpreted. Those numbers in the 60s or 80s, mean completely different things due to the rarity of higher education and its quality.
People are horrible at time tracking (that much we agree), but I think scientists are equally horrible, or rather, the subjects aren't there, and if you do get people to track time you're selecting for some pretty weird people and causing a lot of behavior change due to the increased monitoring.
Even if people could reliably track time, the conceptual apparatus we have changes, and people classify work and leisure differently. Do people spend more time on childcare or do people think of more activities as childcare?
Gosiping has turned into "therapy to improve my mental health", modernity loves to pathologise. Once actual business starts to disappear, the concept gets resued.
Finally, to me personally, it seems that "work" time is often much "easier" than "leisure" time. Leisure tends to be physically engaging (hiking, swimming, diving, riding, driving, travelling, rangling) or high-bandwidth social interactions. Work is just writing code, can't hurt myself, won't get tired doing it, won't put myself at risk of death, won't get into an awkward situation I can't escape. But maybe I'm odd in rennouncing all forms of media... still, do try to think of leisure but take out fantasy books, movies, music and games (at least the consuming of), does it suddenly not seem like a field more daunting than work.
I've recently been caught among many tortoises, and it certainly seems like an intensive task to guard one while on a walk through a busy city, I'd much rather work on a blog post when tired than have to do that.
I recently went through the rigmarole of applying for the free version (for over 75s) UK's State Mandated BBC TV License. It was for my mother and was typical of the type of laborious bureaucracy one expects of anything related to government. I would tentatively suggest that there are all manner of similar inanities which frivolously spend our precious time.
Years ago Toyota completed a works study on screen usage. They banned all of their employees from using a screen for more the five hours a day. Apparently, excessive screen use causes stress, depression, anxiety and feelings of being overworked. Ever feel like logging into your online world has become like a chore? Of course, we would go into withdrawal without it. I recently had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows 10. It was sheer torture for around 18 hours. Initially, I couldn't get past my bios- thankfully YouTube through my firestick came to the rescue.
It is quite useful for technical help...
Personally, the most annoying thing that comes from the self-imposed leisure-work is how difficult it makes it to meet people when I want to. I am too young to be sending out Calendly invites!