In the search for happiness, having a good day every day is surely crucial.
But when there are so many pursuits competing for our attention, sometimes it’s difficult to know how much time to allocate for each one.
Now, scientists in Canada claim to cracked the code for the perfect day – and surprisingly, it includes a short shift at work.
According to the experts, the formula for the perfect day is six hours of family time, two hours spent with friends, 1.5 hour socialising, two hours exercising and one hour eating and drinking.
Additionally, the perfect day should involve no more than six hours of work and less than 15 minutes commuting.
What’s more, only one hour should be spent watching TV or looking at a phone, computer or tablet – suggesting additive screen habits are not linked with happiness.
‘Life requires complex trade-offs between competing activities,’ say the experts at the University of British Columbia.
‘The present research reveals surprisingly clear tipping points that distinguish better days from typical ones.’
According to the experts, the formula for the perfect day is six hours of family time, two hours spent with friends, 1.5 hour socialising, two hours exercising and one hour eating and drinking. Up to only one hour should be spent watching TV or looking at a phone, computer or tablet
Time spent with friends had an almost boundlessly positive effect on people’s days, according to the University of British Columbia study (file photo)
The new study was led by Dunigan Folk, a social psychologist and PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
The team analysed data from the 2013 and 2021 editions of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) – two snapshots of the average American life.
ATUS collects data on how much time individuals allocate to more than 100 different activities, such as socialising, working, childcare, volunteering and leisure.
When Americans rated their day as typical or ‘better than typical’, the team used AI, to assess what activities had the biggest positive effect.
What’s more, they were able to calculate the ideal duration of each activity to work out the formula for the perfect day.
Firstly, socialising was one of the most important activities for having a good day, but beyond two hours, additional socialising had little impact.
‘Compared to a third hour of socialising, an hour of exercising might be a better use of time,’ the researchers say.
In contrast, spending time with friends had an almost ‘boundlessly positive effect’ – meaning more time with friends is almost always better.
Time spent socialising and communicating (top) and in the company of friends (bottom) were associated with having a good day in both 2021 and 2013
Both in the 2021 and 2013 datasets, spending time with family was ranked as the most important activity should should take up the most time.
But one of the most interesting findings was that work contributed to people having a good day.
Working only diminished the likelihood of having a good day when people worked for more than six hours.
As for commuting, in 2021 brief (15 minute) commutes showed a slight positive link with having a good day.
This is potentially because there may have been emotional benefits from getting out of the house during the Covid pandemic – meaning a more recent snapshot may no longer find this positive benefit.
Meanwhile, time spent on sports and exercise was positively associated with having a good day up until about five hours.
Surprisingly, spending any amount of time on relaxation and leisure negatively impacted the probability of having a good day.
A likely explanation for this finding is that watching TV and movies accounted for most of the minutes people spent on relaxation and leisure in both 2021 (70 per cent) and 2013 (72 per cent) – again suggesting screen time is not conducive to happiness.
Time spent on sports, exercise and recreation (top) was associated with having a good day in both 2021 and 2013 – but not relaxation and leisure (bottom) which included screen time
Overall, the team compare the various aspects that make a good day to the quantity of ingredients needed to make great cookies.
‘Some activities may be best in small doses, like a touch of salt when baking cookies, while other activities may be akin to chocolate chips, where more is almost always better (at least in the opinion of these authors),’ they say.
‘By understanding the optimal doses of common activities, we now know more about the recipe for a good day, and by extension, the recipe for a good life.
‘The present research provides the most comprehensive picture to date of how common behaviors predict day-to-day well-being.’
The new study has been published as a pre-print paper on PsyArXiv, meaning it’s yet to be peer reviewed.