Woman's Perfect Day Consists Of Little Work, Lots Of Play, Says Study

Woman's Perfect Day Consists Of Little Work, Lots Of Play, Says Study

Posted: 11/08/2012 1:10 pm EST Updated: 11/08/2012 1:16 pm EST

Sex, love ... and a little work. The idea of a "perfect day" is somewhat vague, but research published in the Journal of Economic Psychology claims to have discovered the ideal waking hours of the average woman -- and they consist of a whole lot more play than anything else.

Dr. Christian Kroll of Jacobs University in Germany and Dr. Sebastian Pokutta of the Georgia Institute of Technology, sought to find out how people related to everyday experiences. The researchers interviewed 909 employed women of various ages (the average age of participants was 38) and ethnic backgrounds about how they spent their time on a typical day. The also asked each woman how positive or negative they felt about each activity they engaged in. From this data, Kroll and Pokutta created a "perfect" 16-hour day, taking into account pleasurability of each activity as well as utility. "Our research asks what a perfect day would look like if we take into account the crucial fact that even the most pleasurable activities are usually less enjoyable the longer they last and the more often we do them," wrote the researchers.

The study findings suggest that the average woman's ideal day involves:
106
minutes of sexual intimacy
82
minutes of socializing
78
minutes of relaxation
75
minutes of eating
73
minutes of prayer and/or meditation
68
minutes of exercise
57
minutes of phone time
56
minutes of shopping
55
minutes of watching TV
50
minutes of food preparation
48
minutes of computer time
47
minutes of housework
46
minutes of childcare
46
minutes of napping
36
minutes of work
33
minutes of commuting

So... women would choose sex over work? No real surprise there.

When it comes to spending time with the people in their lives, the researchers found that women preferred to spend the largest amount of time with their friends and the second biggest chunk of time with relatives (including their spouses and children).