Here’s How the Average American Spends the 24 Hours of Their Day

I think we all get to the end of our day wishing that their were just a few more hours left to get EVERYTHING done. It makes you wonder what exactly are we doing with the 24 hours we have in each day. Well, the U.S. Department of Labor just released the results of their annual study in the Wall Street Journal on how we Americans use our time. And you'll be happy to know we work a little, we sleep a lot, and we don't waste our free time with ANYTHING productive.

Here's how the average American's 24 hours break down in a day and we'll also compare them to how we spent our hours in 2007, before the recession.

SLEEP: 8 hours, 23 minutes. That's up five minutes from 2007 and, ya know, MORE than the recommended eight hours of sleep. Who are these people and why am I not getting 8 and 1/2 hours of sleep.

LEISURE ACTIVITIES: 4 hours, 40 minutes. That breaks down even further into 2 hours, 31 minutes of TV and 2 hours, 9 minutes of other activities. TV time is up five minutes from 2007, other leisure time is up one minute.

WORK: 4 hours, 24 minutes. That's down 25 MINUTES from 2007. A lot of that change comes from people losing their jobs and dropping from eight or nine hours of work a day to ZERO.

HOUSEHOLD CHORES: 1 hour, 41 minutes. Down one minute from 2007.

EATING: 1 hour, 12 minutes. That's up one minute from 2007.

PERSONAL CARE: 49 minutes. That includes things like showering, shaving, and putting on make-up. It's up three minutes from 2007.

PURCHASING GOODS AND SERVICES: 43 minutes. That's down two minutes from 2007.

EDUCATION: 36 minutes. That's up four minutes from 2007.

CARING FOR HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS: 32 minutes. Down two minutes from 2007.

ORGANIZATIONAL, CIVIC, AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES: 16 minutes. No change from 2007.

CARING FOR NON-HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS: 12 minutes. Up one minute from 2007.

TELEPHONE, MAIL, AND EMAIL: 11 minutes. Down one minute from 2007.

And finally, OTHER ACTIVITIES: 21 minutes. Up 10 minutes from 2007.