Britons are feeling increasingly too busy, knackered or “burnt out” to make room for leisure activities such as the pub, volunteering or friends, research has revealed.
People are feeling overworked and rushed as mobile phones and technology blur the lines between working and downtime, the report released by think tank Onward found.
Workers are “too knackered to go to the pub let alone volunteer”, contributing to a weakened social fabric, the study said.
Today people spend less time seeing their friends, visiting restaurants, going out, volunteering, and exercising than in 1974. The greatest victim is volunteering, which has halved in the last four decades.
That’s because Britons are spending more time chopping and changing between activities more frequently - such as taking a work call while exercising - that they become overwhelmed, it said.
“Interruptions may seem small but they add up,” the paper said.
“This is called time confetti. You have an hour for exercise but this is broken up by taking a call or letting out the cat. This hour now feels more compressed and leads to people feeling like time is getting away from them.”
In 1974 the average man changed activity 18 times in the day, which almost doubled to 31 times in 2014, and women have seen an equivalent increase from 23 to 37.
“The symptoms of a manic modern world are real, but the diagnosis is wrong. We are not all working more, sleeping less and feeling more rushed,” the report said.
“But our push to do it all and reliance on multitasking is creating a higher tempo of life and breaking down the barriers between different areas of time, leaving us feeling burnt out, tired and under pressure.”
It pointed to three main myths - that people are getting too little sleep, working too much and are all “far too rushed” - and how these are not necessarily correct.
The report claimed that adults have increased their sleep by around 30 minutes a day over the last four decades and that work hours have only had a “very limited rise” since 1974.
But shift and weekend work is on the rise, with around a quarter of employed people doing paid work on the weekend, as estimated in 2020.
“As we chop and change between activities, we break down the distinction between different types of time,” the report said.
“This can lead to us feeling burnt out as work is coming home with us, or that childcare never stops. Ultimately, this means that the symptoms – tiredness, feeling overworked and feeling rushed – are real, but our diagnosis is wrong.
“We aren’t all sleeping less, working more or reporting feeling rushed. But our days have become busier and the balance between different activities has been lost.”
Free time is coming under increasing pressure, where Britons are spending less time on leisure activities and the time we have is more “fragmented” as they try to fit more across a day.
“The ability to work on our phones while out with friends, to do house chores while also listening to music, has blurred the line between different types of time.
“The blurring of the work-personal life distinction is the leading cause of burnout.”
On a weekend in 1974, someone could expect to spend just over 5 hours on leisure activities broken up into 4 episodes across a day.
But by 2014 the number of episodes of leisure in a day had increased to seven while time taken has fallen to four.
Tackling exhaustion should include policies that target those suffering the most, such as weekend and shift workers, the report suggested.
Initiatives like the four-day working week “will not achieve this”, the paper said, as “they fail to recognise that it goes beyond an issue of volume and is instead about how we work, when we are working and who is working”.
