Start with some backwards planning, don't be afraid to cut into some social or tv/internet time, make a list before getting groceries so that you can save time on shopping less often, cut out some luxuries and speed up the functions that can be sped up. Shower faster, walk faster, multitask where practical, don't spend too much on things that aren't necessary. Wake up earlier and go to bed at a time reasonable for your work schedule. It will take discipline, it will sting or hurt a bit, it won't be possible every single day.
It may not be easy, but on the whole it is not complicated.
Yes. Often easier in concept than practice- but the idea that you can’t maintain a life and work full time is- ridiculous. What did single people do in this ore war era? Were there none? How do some people work 60,80,100 hours and manage their lives without a spouse? Everyone is different and I am not saying that everyone should be able to run a mile in under 4 minutes because someone else has done it. I’m also not saying that we can’t or shouldn’t examine and adjust work expectations to fit the time. But the argument about “pre war relics” is daft.
Into the post war period, and for thousands of years before in cultures all over the world- the family unit was an important support system. The classic model is that established members of the home financially provide for less established or able family. Children and older relatives helped care for younger children and disabled relatives, and do house work. This arrangement often led to home situations that weren’t ideal but necessity forced them- the same as women not being able to be self reliant often forced home situations or marriages that continued to exist mainly out of practical need. But- that is how one was able to balance those things- to make a choice between living with 6 people and dealing with that, or to struggle and let things go by the way side.
The other major failing of the “pre war relic” argument- is that the “age of convenience” was largely post war. Things that took hours to do could be done in minutes. Things that took all day could be done in hours. Before the automatic rice cooker- Japanese wives could spend 4-6 hours a day just cooking rice. Before vacuums were household appliances, you had to use a dust pan and broom and drag fabrics outside and beat the dust out. Laundry was done by hand as were dishes- and meals still often required lengthy preparation and cooking- and in many places gathering ingredients- not simply buying things from the store. Meat often needed light or heavy butchering prior to use, and many goods didn’t keep as long.
So even if we just abide that the system worked with a full time home keeper in mind- mid century technology VASTLY reduced the time and effort involved in house work, and modern technology like robot vacuum cleaners and automatic mops and all these things have made it even quicker and easier to keep ones home.
What IS important to note is exercise. Exercise wasn’t something terribly common as part of the average persons life- especially in the West, in history; and certainly not to the degree and scope it is today. Most people got their exercise and activity from life. Jobs tended to be much more physical- and even hobbies and chores did too. People tended to walk more. Industrialization started to make us a more sedentary society, and post war changes saw urban lives and “white collar” or such jobs become the norm as opposed to farming, manufacturing and manual labor. So a good number of people in the modern world don’t get even basic levels of activity for health nowadays. So the addition of time to be active outside of work is somewhat attributable to post war changes.
As @famousone says though- it’s all time management. Even little things like taking stairs instead of mechanical means, parking farther or making the effort to walk when you can or bike. Using breaks and such to be active, if you have a job like a desk job and you can lift weights or use resistance bands or whatever else while at your desk...
It’s important to remember that our ideas on “personal time” are also largely post war and fed by conveniences that gave people some time back. With so much free time we often aren’t very careful with it. The “average” working adult has 5 hours of Fred time a day. Think about it- if you sleep 8 hours that gives you 16 hours. 40 hours means we 8 a day- so 8 left. If you eat 3 meals a day at a measured pace- you’re down to 6. Average American commute is about 1 hour. That’s 5 left to use as you see fit. In theory. More if you eat faster and blah blah.
It's all too easy for westerners to forget that we largely live lives that even the greatest kings of yesteryear would envy many parts of.
We can argue over ideals and self-actualization only because we no longer need to kill one another for things such as water access, or whose gods are greater.
Lol. Good points all around. Many, we could say most citizens of developed countries live to a standard much higher than people not so long ago. Many people in the less developed world still live better or arguably not necessarily worse than than generations before them. There are always improvements to be made, the goal is to try and improve the standards of living all around continually as far as we can do so I think- but certain aspects of reality complicate the utopian ideal when put into application. Bitter sweet though- humans want more. We would t have what we do today if we weren’t always asking for more, trying for better.
But there could be a case to be made for fundamental changes in how work... works. Increasing populations, increasing automation making tasks take less human time, or even completely not require humans- as we need people to perform unskilled tasks less and less- we will have to figure out how as a society we are going to handle that and handle the people- “keep them busy” or “make them productive.”
I work a part time job and spend a lot of time working on my diploma thesis so it feels like working a full time job. Sometimes I have to cook at 10PM just to have something to eat the next day (because my part time job doesn't get me enough income to be able to eat out), and all the cleaning apart from the dishes is done on the weekend so the place is a mess on weekdays.
You are factually correct, and many people could- maybe should (especially if they are having trouble balancing work/life) re prioritize how they use their time. That’s probably one of the most important “success” skills for life- simply making more efficient use of ones time. There are of course people who quite literally are running the most efficient they can for their circumstances or close to as humans get- and still come up short.
So one thing I do want to mention is that an analysis is already a bit tough- but comparing lee and post war or modern eras isn’t so straightforward. Your example points out an oversight on the original part. But- here’s the oversight in your response: the average person is required to know more and be more informed than they were back then. Some of the “winning secrets” and “breakthroughs” of the war are things that are simple to highschool students today. Knowing what’s going on locally doesn’t generally cut it any more- globalization means that we need information from around the world to act on.
Entertainment and social interactions are an important part of life- not even speaking psychology- being able to fit in with peer groups or work groups is a success skill. Talking sports with the boss or connecting over shared experiences ingratiates us and can be the difference between having flavor or attention from those in charge or being well regarded- and being forgotten or thought ill of in ones career.
In most fields- being able to “network” is crucial- we can’t really place a quantifiable value, and that value differs for everyone, on things like jobs or job skills gained from a friend or acquaintance because we had the life experiences and shared tastes to be likable, the time spent with them over drinks or viewing parties or gaming or being in an online “guild” etc. time spent tending ones life and chores is generally not time spent growing or possibly finding new opportunities. It’s upkeep to maintain ones life, not to better it- but it IS a foundation stone usually required before you can better your life.
So the two worlds are so different that we can’t necessarily compare things like this directly. For example- many office jobs, management jobs- ESPECIALLY tech jobs are salaried based off a 40 hour week- but in these roles the average week is often 50,60 or more hours. It’s an expectation that one will put in the time to complete these jobs, but more work is assigned than one can reasonably complete in 40 hours. So that isn’t an argument to cut the hours worked necessarily- but it IS an argument that a salary for a job expected to be more than 40 hours shouldn’t be treated as if it is.
At the turn of the century it was the norm to work farms or factories where a day could be 14 hours or more of work. Small businesses where outside public hours- owners needed to out in the sweat equity to make their business succeed regardless of time. We put in effect laws and other mechanisms to try to effectively balance work and life.
We have now circled back around to a place where many of the most common job types fall in to newer categories or were placed in “exempt” categories of old laws because the actual scope of the work wasn’t predicted accurately or couldn’t have been known at the time. Even in the 90’s it didn’t seem like a good portion of middle America would find themselves in a sector like tech- on a 34 hour on call clock for everything from networks to programming and more- and unlike linemen for phones- the network guys who run the pipelines to the modern world never got the union protections and legal considerations that someone working phones did.
So there are plenty of cases to re asses if not the hours being worked- at least the salaries and protections provided to workers. We can’t just look backwards to build the future. We live in a world that would have been almost unimaginable in 1950. That is the stuff of science fiction right in to the 21st century. Employers like Google or Apple provide resources for employees to help them manage their lives- people to run their errands or watch their kids- hell- Facebook is probably pretty close to hiring people to go f$ck your spouse for you since you won’t get the time to do that between assignments. But should these things be perks, or should some of these things be built in to our system? Should some or many be requirements of work places that routinely have people working hours or conditions that make managing life less an exercise in time management and more something you need a degree and software to figure out how to fit it all in?
And then there is the government- who largely stopped at mail in where it thought it should provide infrastructure services. If the country- the world- runs on data.... why is the data all ran by private companies? We have public roads for that very reason. Public mail because the need to send information is critical to a society. But why did we stop there? Why, much like mail, can’t we have a public system of critical infrastructure and private alternatives for those who don’t want to use the public system?
How is it that cabbies and then ride shares could get affordable transportation to the public when in the US- many places effectively have no public system sand our “best” public systems pale in comparison to most of the developed world? I’m not saying the government SHOULD do these things- but I am saying that these are questions we should explore- and if not the government, if we hand all this to private industry- why can’t we require them to provide a level of care to those who make it all possible?
The flat fact is that arguments over profits and such preventing these things- don’t stack up. There are case by case arguments to be heard- but in abstract- wages have largely remained the same or decreased over 40+ years- cost of living has gone up and record profits for corporations as well as private investors have been made. There is almost none of this being invested back into the employee wether that be training and education, salary, or benefits.
We are failing the people who make the world we live in possible. The people who make up the majority of the world we live in. And if time and money interchange- you get $X for X hours of labor- you pay someone to clean or cook or wash laundry etc or for a gadget to do it and save X hours- if we say “there just isn’t a way to give people more money...” then we have to give them time.
At a certain point though- the two don’t interchange for most people. You’ll hear CEO’s and celebrities say they quit jobs paying millions a year because they just wanted the time. Have you ever felt for a moment that you wouldn’t trade 6 months of work for $1 million dollars? There are people already working more hours for far less money. But- I understand where they are coming from. All the money is nothing if you can’t enjoy it. And of course there’s a point where most people who need money would draw a line and say that it isn’t worth their time. Even the most desperate and in debt Carpenter isn’t likely going to frame a whole house for you for $20 plus materials.
So we will always come to a place where offering one or the other just isn’t going to do it- but we haven’t even reached the place where most people are given an option for more of one or the other. Most people are still being asked to take less of both money and free time. That’s not a good deal for them. More “office jobs” are moving to “flex time” and (even pre Covid but especially now) “remote work” and things like that which can at least help some people find balance. But... the laws and systems are pretty vague and workers still have little protection with things like “untracked PTO” and consistent rules and recourse. But life changes, we need to adapt, but people also need to do the best with what they have while trying for better.
One week = 168 hours. Subtract 40 for work and assume 7 hours per night of sleep consumes 89 hours leaving 79 hours for everything else. That's nearly half the week left. What are you people doing that is so all-consuming that you can't find a few of those 79 hours a week to feed yourselves?
Even if you break it down further - assume 5 work days per week and a commute of 1 hour each way every day and 7 hours a night of sleep, (120-40-10-49) that still leaves you with 35 hours per work week (not counting weekends at all) for everything else. That's a full 7 hours a day. Shower, meal prep, eat. What do you do with the other 5 hours?
Lol. Funny but also poignant. The “average” person does have about 5-7 hours of free time a day. Our above example gives 7 for sleep but depending on age, health, and activity level 7-9 hours is recommended with 8 being the commonly used figure. That asides though- the FunSubstance comment does raise a good point- that point being that those 5 hours of free time aren’t usually in a block, and are often restricted. For example for most people- 1-2 hours of that will be while at work and broken up into breaks and meal periods. Depending on where one works, one might be very limited in what they can do doing those periods but geography and other factors.
This analysis (and my own above) also don’t factor in if a person has kids or takes care of relatives etc. who can’t self care- things like watching children, playing and spending time, teaching them, putting them to bed and other care tasks can take significant time. It also doesn’t factor in responsibilities such as various obligations to paper work or finances etc- which can also be a drain on time and aren’t really “free time” as they are required to support a basic life standard, if we call those “free time” we may as well consider work free time you CHOOSE to work during.
It may not be easy, but on the whole it is not complicated.
We can argue over ideals and self-actualization only because we no longer need to kill one another for things such as water access, or whose gods are greater.
Even if you break it down further - assume 5 work days per week and a commute of 1 hour each way every day and 7 hours a night of sleep, (120-40-10-49) that still leaves you with 35 hours per work week (not counting weekends at all) for everything else. That's a full 7 hours a day. Shower, meal prep, eat. What do you do with the other 5 hours?