Thread by @Anoosh_C

In the early 30s, John Maynard Keynes and Bertrand Russell wrote of Britain's future as a leisure society, where we'd work 3- or 4-hour days and focus on the “happiness and joy of life”.

Data from public "time diaries" reveals we're doing the opposite...

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

The average length of a “leisure episode” - time spent on doing a nice activity in our free time - in the UK has fallen from 1 hour 15 minutes in 1974 to just *25 minutes*:

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

Time diaries show...

- We host or visit friends 1hr 10 minutes less than we did
- Our trips to restaurants & bars are 21 minutes shorter
- We do over 1 hr less exercise.
- We spend 55 minutes less on going out - to the cinema, at a match, etc

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

Also...

- We watch 16 minutes less TV
- Our time spent volunteering has halved over the past 4 decades
- BUT time spent reading has remained stable at just over an hour a day.

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

But the biggest change is how fragmented our free time has become - a phenomenon known as "time confetti".

Think about when you last had spare time - how did you spend it?

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

On a weekend day in the Seventies, a Brit on average would do four leisure activities, adding up to 5 hours overall.

Now, we'll have 7 "leisure episodes" on an average weekend day - but these only add up to 4 hours overall.

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

"Bounded" activities - those with something scheduled afterwards - have been proven to make us *feel* more rushed, even if we have the same time to spend on them as an "unbounded" activity...

Data by my ace colleague @BNHWalker:

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

Parents have it worse - particularly mothers, whose childcare time is dominated by "practical" over "fun":

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

Housework inequality has also stalled over the decades - meaning women are stuck with more "committed time" than men:

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

Overall, as a nation we are working a bit less than in the 70s...

BUT weekend shifts have massively lengthened (over an hour a day), as has part-time work (over *an hour and a half* per shift.

So a 4-day week doesn't necessarily help those workers:

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

Despite working more than in the 70s, women are spending *more* time with their children, not less - 39 mins a week more, on average.

Plus: the higher income a woman is, the more time she spends with her kids - the higher income a man, the less time...

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

One qu (being asked in some policy circles) is why UK politicians never mention free time.

Imagine them using an election campaign to promise to “fix this country so we can have some barbecue, have some beer on the weekend”, like Lula in Brazil, for eg..

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

There are loads more interesting trends in there, thanks to time diary analysis shared exclusively with us by @ukonward.

And thanks to @BNHWalker for the data vis!

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…