The Cost of Procrastination in Australia

Market Research Company SurveyCompare has just released a new infographic that looks at how Australians spend their time—and the results may surprise you. Rather than being down at the beach, playing sports or picking up extra work, Aussies are spending the majority of their free time procrastinating around the house, throwing away a small fortune in the process.

Based on data compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the infographic reveals that the average Aussie’s day is dominated by sleeping, eating and taking care of personal hygiene, which together take up 46% of the day. Work and family commitments comprise a further 33% of the average day, leaving just over 5 hours of free time.

According to the ABS data, the most popular way to spend free time is watching television, with a staggering 87.4% of Australians identified as regular television watchers.

Other house bound habits also proved popular free time activities, with 47.9% of people saying they often listen to the radio and 43.7% described themselves as active readers.

While it is no surprise that Australians enjoy watching television and relaxing around the house, just how much they do so is rather shocking.

Australians were found to spend 52% of their free time watching television, 19% listening to the radio and 11% reading.  This worked out to be a whopping 155 minutes each day watching television, 59 minutes listening to the radio and 33 minutes reading.

While it is obviously every person’s right to spend their free time however they wish, unproductive habits are costing Australians a fortune.

With a huge amount of work now available online, much of it well paid, each wasted hour represents lost potential earnings. Living in a place with such a high cost of living, you would think few people in Australia could afford to be throwing their money away.

SurveyCompare’s infographic broke down just how much money Australians are missing out on.

Based on making $35 an hour, if Australians spent their usual television watching time working online instead, they could make an extra $90.41 a day, $632.91 a week or an incredible $30,380 a year.

At this same rate of pay, working instead of listening to the radio was shown to be worth $34.41 a day or $11,564 a year. Replacing reading with online work represented $19.25 a day or $6,468 a year in potential earnings.

Online work offers an easy way to turn wasted time into cash, often doesn’t require experience and you can work as much or as little as you’d like from the comfort of your own home.

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