Faffing about - Brits do too much of it!?!

Apparently, we as Brits spend too much time faffing about, ie wasting time. The time 'wasted' is 2-3 hours a day per British person and that's according to a report by the Learning Skills Council.

I have to admit I felt it was wrong. The claims are that we need to be more efficient with our time. That there are only a 'finite number of hours in a day' and we have to manage our time more efficiently.

Their list of top ten faffing items were:

1. Waiting for other people (children, colleagues, partners) - 42%
2. Queuing –39.5%
3. Clearing up after other people –39%
4. Gossiping –36%
5. Being kept on hold while on the phone –34%
6. Traffic jams –30%
7. Shopping for unessential bits and pieces –24%
8. Waiting for public transport - 23%
9. Chasing up people on jobs –17%
10. Waiting for the bathroom –8%

Is it just me or are some of these items just part of life?

Like gossiping. We all talk about things and people. It's called being social.

Waiting for other people? It happens, get over it.

Cleaning up after other people?! Is that wasting time? I clean up after my kids, does that count?

It all seems unreasonable for time management experts can claim that we need to manage our time better to fit other activities in. Other activities being bias to 'learning skills'.

What is faffing about?

Why isn't watching trash TV classed as faffing about?

What about playing video games?

What about incompetent people wasting your time by doing jobs poorly?

Learning is essential

I'm all for learning new skills constantly. I do it all the time. I have to. I like to. However, I don't think addressing the faffing about time is the right way. It's not like we can get each minute of faffing about and use it for learning something.

On top of everything else, sometimes it's nice to just chill and not have to think too hard.