This post is a compiled snippet from a Twitter thread that I've transported over here for posterity. The original thread started here: https://twitter.com/b_cavello/status/1185613449860018178

How many hours a week would most people work if they could count travel, exercise, personal appointments, etc as work?

The truth is: a lot of these things (appointments, traveling to and from work, even exercise) really are work.
They’re the work of maintenance so that people can be healthy & stable enough, & in the right place to do work
If we count all that time, most people are working NONSTOP

Seems worth noting that this Executive Time Use research seems to have been investigating Italian executives
executivetimeuse.org

I actually value a lens that looks at all the work that goes into staying in the labor market. Why not recognize it, even if it’s not accounted directly? For many workers, having a working vehicle is crucial to their ability to work. Car maintenance is part of their work.

I also value lenses that acknowledge and value the work of maintaining a home and educating and caring for others.
Some are wary at classifying domestic labor and emotional labor as work, for fear of leaving no room in the human experience that isn’t work.

Those concerns may be valid, but I feel that it’s a helpful lens for examining a life.
I wonder how we might experiment with such a frame? What could we use as defining characteristics of work?

Is a student doing homework work? Does it matter if it’s novel research vs known calculations?

Is a person doing laundry work? Does it become work when there is a paid service from someone else as an alternative?
(See also: doing taxes, cutting hair, baking a cake, dance/sports)

Just came across a piece by @nickrirving on a related topic that may resonate:
medium.com/s/story/what-is-work-c0cfd6803170