Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Perfect Day?

Two scientists, Dr. Christian Knoll of Jacobs University in Germany and Dr. Sebastian Pokutta of the Georgia Institute of Technology, claim to have figured out a woman's perfect day.  According to articles published about the study 909 women were interviewed for the study with an average age of 38.  They were asked what activities filled their days and how much enjoyment did they derive from those activities.  Based on the women's responses the ideal day was created showing how much time the women would dedicate to each activity.

The study, published in the Journal of Economic Psychology, showed that a woman's top priority is intimacy with her partner and the least pleasurable activity is work and getting to work.  Socializing, relaxing, eating and meditation are also high on the list. I would be very interested to see a breakdown by marital and/or parental status.  The study show's 46 minutes allocated to childcare so how would the ideal day of a woman who doesn't have children differ?  I'm am of course very interested in how a single woman's ideal day compares to that of one who is married.  My big question though is:

How do they know this is really an ideal day for any woman?

The study says they asked employed women how they spent their days and then rated the activities, but what would happen if they'd asked what would you like to be spending your time doing?  Take the example of work for instance.  Perhaps the reason that work related so low on the list is that most of the women are not in jobs that they actually enjoy.   How do women who are self-employed rate the level of pleasure they take in their work?  Perhaps those women would be spending a higher amount of time working in their ideal day because they love their jobs.

Most of the time I think my days are spent doing things I enjoy doing.  Things like laundry, dishes and cleaning the cat box aren't high on that list but I don't mind doing them.  My ideal day includes plenty of time to create and learn new things though I definitely don't get to do those things everyday as things stand in my life right now.  Eating, being social and relaxing also high on the list.  Right now I think I'm going to take advantage of my 46 minutes of napping before I spend my 47 minutes of housework sweeping and washing the kitchen floor.

What is your ideal day?




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