Poll: Average Adult Spends ‘4 Hours’ a Day on Autopilot

Do you ever suddenly arrive at your destination while driving, without any recollection of the actual driving part? Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation with someone only to suddenly realize that you’ve got no clue what you’re talking about? It’s likely you zone out more than you realize – and you’re not alone.
Sputnik
A quarter of British adults admit they often drift through “as much as five or more hours a day without any real thought about what they are doing,” which adds up to nearly 10 years of their lives, a new poll has found.
The study, which was commissioned by NatWest and conducted by OnePoll, a London-based marketing research company specializing in online and mobile polling, reflected that 64% of the 2,000 people surveyed admitted that their daily routine rarely changed. However, out of those people, a majority of them felt like their repetitive routines were holding them back from achieving their goals.
This information tracks with a similar study conducted by Harvard psychologists in 2010 and published in the journal Science that utilized a phone app to randomly record what participants were thinking about in a specific moment in relation to what they were doing and how they were feeling.
In response to the study, NatWest paired with Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Steven Bartlett to create a video series aimed at motivating people to set and meet business and financial goals.
The top five things Brits were likely to do on autopilot, meaning without thinking about the act at hand, include getting dressed, showering at the same time of day, and eating the same foods for breakfast.
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