What are people even doing? Over 7 billion people in the word, all technically doing something right now. We are all constantly doing something; even doing nothing is considered doing something. So what are we doing? In this article, I set out to answer this question by asking over 900 people what they were doing, and what they did that day.
Most Popular Responses
What are people really doing?
In this section of the analysis, I sorted the responses by length. I figured the longest responses would give the most detailed look into what people do. Each paragraph is a different response.
At the moment,
I’m working on an assignment for my psychology class (analyzing the personalities of characters from The Breakfast Club) and thinking about whether I really want to follow the major I think I want or if I want to take risks to try to get my dream job.
I’m at work, in a mental health group home. I’m hanging out in the office; all the residents have gone to bed. I just got finished meditating and am looking forward to getting paid to sleep in a half hour.
[I] was in the middle of watching a movie but the other movie-goer had to leave so I’ll be stuck without closure until next time. I won’t tell you which movie to infect you with my woes.
Trying to finish a drawing of an abstract paint piece I found on Reddit, I thought it was cool but the guy was charging 350 bucks for it so I’m digitally drawing it myself.
Listening to my mom recount the highlights of a phone conversation she had with my uncle earlier today (how our relatives are doing in the small town they live in).
Waiting for housemate to go to work as I can’t sleep but don’t feel like talking to him and he’s in the kitchen so I can’t make tea yet.
Taking a break from work, to be exact, eating a jaffa cake my colleague brought into the office as dessert during my lunch break.
Reading through the “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” TvTropes page while I decide if it’s worth investing in a Switch for.
Im on my phone and i know i needed to take my sleeping pills closer to 12 or 1 but sleeping during the day was oddly tempting.
Waiting for pizza dough to rise and the oven to heat up, about to play some Legend of Zelda Age of Calamity in the meantime.
Listening to music and thinking about which video I should watch afterwards (I’m probably gonna go with a Nexpo vid next).
This morning,
I woke up at 10:30, ate chocolate donuts for breakfast, did a bunch of forgettable web browsing, and flipped through a book of poetry I have written by kids from Appalachia.
It’s 8:30 am here. Yesterday my toddler got me up, we ate porridge for breakfast and watched TV until his grandma came to collect him at 10am.
Finished crocheting a hat, thought it looked good, checked it out with the customer (my mom) who wasn’t satisfied and had me redo it.
The daily New York Times mini crossword puzzle, my Duolingo Spanish lessons, then I opened my advent calendar with my girlfriend.
I woke up, freaked out because a guy I’m talking to disappeared without an apparent reason, had breakfast and painted my nails.
Woke up, got dressed, ate a piece of toast, flung my body into the fog to reach my final destination aka work.
I cleaned my apartment, got breakfast with my roommate and got on the transit taking me where I needed to go.
brushed teeth, gave kid cereal, made coffee, booted up computer, procrastinated by opening reddit. ugh.
Woke up after going to bed late, watched tv with my nephew and went back to sleep for some hours.
Watched the start of Star Wars episode 2 and drank some coffee and hung out with my kids.
I listened to music and create a playlist with songs I’d choose if I wrote/directed a movie.
At noon,
[I] fed Tiger, the bearded dragon. I’m pet sitting him while my friend’s away. He’s very hollow-headed but he’s cute so it’s okay. Pain in the butt to feed though, he’s a terrible hunter and will miss food directly in front of his face several times. He then becomes discouraged and I have to wiggle it around to gain his attention again. I think he might have vision problems. Or maybe head trauma. He has a tendency to yeet himself off of tall places (i.e couches, tables, counters, stairs).
I was still at work. I think I had just started playing a game of pool with some residents, and shortly after had to stop it all because another resident had just gotten back from the ER. I then had to do a bunch of paperwork and add his new meds into the system.
Convincing a dementia patient that no one wanted to hurt him, that he was in the hospital and although he couldn’t leave we were all trying our best to help him. Post-surgical nurses shouldn’t be providing long term memory care.
Procrastinating, laying In bed even though I told myself I was going to set an alarm and wake up early to study because I have 9 chapters left.
It’s not 12pm yet in the UK (it’s currently 7:52am, 7/12) but when 12pm does come around I will be teaching physics to high school pupils.
Emailing my coworker and letting her know I was going to lunch. (I answer our department phones on Mondays, and she covers my lunch.).
I will be eating lunch at work. Maybe fiddling with the hot water maker to try to fix it while I wait on the microwave.
chatting with my boss while watching above his shoulder hilm trying to solve my problems and not doing it.
Sitting at my desk at home trying to figure out an address for one of my delivery drivers (FedEx).
This afternoon,
[I was] making a study schedule for my finals that I IMMEDIATELY end up not following because I’m a waste of space and somehow think I’ll wake up with a work ethic and finish 8 chapters in a day when I can barely do one. HELP.
I met 2 friends to visit a museum. Then they came home and we had mulled wine and chestnuts. It was very Christmassy and it felt like the corona was not there for the first time in months. Such a nice afternoon!.
Holding my baby 🤦♀️ after cooking. My spouse is a stay at home dad so on my days off i like to give him a break and that right now means a lot of holding and taking care of the 2 month old baby.
Played Minecraft with my little bro cos his whole year at school is being kept off for 2 weeks due to Covid cases so he’s at home and kinda bored.
Watched YouTube and Twitch. Scrolled through other social medias. What I should have been doing was homework but now it’s 11:30 so ¯\ (ツ) /¯.
I work at a recreational attraction and today was the last day before we shut down again so I decided to hang out until we closed.
I was just leaving my first shift of the day. I think I was still in the office chatting with the staff that relieves me at 3.
Got frustrated at my oculus rift 2 cause I can’t set up the stuff to stream mixed reality. Apparently I’m just an idiot.
3PM Yesterday I was in bed sporadically napping and browsing the internet on my phone. and 3PM today I was working.
Went over some meeting notes from the last meeting of a charity organization for which I am the recording secretary.
Tonight,
Pulling an all-nighter because my anatomy exam is the day after econ and I have a 15 page paper due I haven’t started and I develop a migraine just thinking bout how much work I have to do. Also this survey made me realize how fucking useless I am and how tragic my workload is and how I break down every finals season and make terrible life choices. Thanks !.
Drinking. Too much. I’m due for a PCP appointment with labs but I don’t want to know my liver values so i just. I’m not. I passed out twice this year for no explainable reason and I won’t go to a doctor because there’s just too much i don’t want to know.
Well I just finished the last episode, so that’s the entirety of season 3 [Attack on Titan] done in a day. Going to go to bed and sit there for a couple hours playing phone games and watching YouTube.
Earlier around 6pm my parents and I drove around town looking at Christmas lights! I’ll be going to bed soon, it’s 10 pm now. I wanna finish off this last sock before I go to bed.
Hanging out, passing time. All my work for my second shift here is done and pretty soon I can sleep. My Sundays are pretty long days and I usually out of energy by 9.
Probably another interview, maybe some more homework (depends on how much I get done today), after that maybe going to my boyfriend and playing some videogames.
Probably just chill. I listened to a pre-recorded lecture earlier in the evening (most of it went in one ear and out the other though :’( ).
Practicing for Written Driver’s test (lol.don’t tell the coppers I drove earlier). Trying to be prepared for a DMV appointment tomorrow.
Going to see another apartment and hopefully going to bed early so that i can actually stick to waling up at 5:30 and going for a jog.
Random Answers
Answers that were word-for-word the same were actually somewhat rare. Turns out, people are doing all sorts of random things. For this section of the analysis, I just scrolled through and picked out some answers that caught my eye.
Right now
· Another d&d podcast
· trying desperately to put the baby to bed
· listening to my mom complain
· cooking
· breastfeeding
· prepping for a meeting
· waiting for my banana bread to finish baking
· finishing up making some worms for my etsy shop (wormsforfun on etsy if ur curious lmao)
· sitting in the living room with an awkward air of tension circulating the house because of my parents
· slightly rocking in my chair
· looking for kalimba tabs
· snuggling my 2nd sweetest cat (of 3)
· waiting for my partner in a hospital
· wine + cocaine + video games
Random Mornings
· I DRANK SOME WATER
· went to the park
· i was knitting until 2am then sleep
· played animal crossing and watched the f1 race
· read fanfic
· sat in jail
· wrote my thesis
· dropped my car off for routine service
· fed the horses
· played with my cats
· cuddled my boyfriend
· cuddled with my girlfriend
· watched the spacex-21 launch
· i woke up and ate pizza for breakfast while watching youtube videos
· had a meeting with my supervisor
· walked my dog and had breakfast (it
· attend online classes
· got a covid test
It’s high noon somewhere…
· listening to a religious lesson
· finishing a crochet project
· playing at the park
· scrolling through tic tok
· watch the f1 race
· ate leftover pizza
· probably holding my baby
· leveling up my d&d character
· waiting for maintenance guy
· taking cats on a walk
· had a therapy appointment
· drinking beer
· running simulations
· buying a jar of honey
· enjoying the sun
· editing wedding photos
· playing guitar
Random Moments at 3pm
· watching super size me 2
· teaching a school on democratic centralism
· saw my grandma for her 90th birthday
· going to drink bubble tea
· roleplaying on omegle
· went for a bike ride
· knitting socks
· played tennis with my mother
· more chores
· decorate the tree
· i got picked up to go volunteer at the cat shelter
· getting my flu shot
· i played overwatch
· practicing music
· eat sandwich
· went for a walk outside
· played stylophone
· home improvement
· walked dog
· drank more beer
· play video games
· cleaned the toilet
Night Activities
· working
· relaxing
· watching anime
· talking to my boyfriend
· hanging out
· shower
· more sleeping
· crying
· homework hopefully
· talking to a friend
· practicing flute
· eating and directly to bed
· baking bread
· bowling
· relax on my computer and do some christmas present wrapping
· reheated some leftovers
· dude its 10pm
· drank with my ex🤠✌🏻
· probably crying
· sex
· relaxing with my cats
· movie with my gf
· hike with dog
Short and to the Point
Some reponses were particularly succinct. Theses were the responses with the least amount of characters.
Conclusion.
People do LOTS of things.
This study was more interesting than I expected it. I experienced a bit of sonder, or “the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own, which they are constantly living despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it.” Some people, right now, are just chilling, but other’s may be going through really tough times. I find it important to be reminded of other people’s perspectives and experiences. Too often, I can become too “far in,” when really I need to be more “far out, dude.”
It also reminded me of the first chapter of David Eagleman’s book, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives. In that chapter, Eagleman entertains the idea of an afterlife where you relive every one of your experiences by categories, rather than in chronological order. Sleep for thirty years straight, shower for 300 days, 2 days tying your shoes, etc. Here’s a youtube video of someone reading that chapter. But I really liked the short film done by Radiolab WNYC, inspired by the short story:
Idk, it also kind of makes me think of mindfulness and the timeless Ferris Bueller quote:
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
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