Loss of Routine is making us stressed
70% of adults believe that their parents had more routines
London, 2nd June, 2005
Britons are heading for "opportunity overload" according to new research by Visa and the Future Foundation, which reveals that flexible 21st century lifestyles and loss of routines is making us stressed.
The research shows that increased choice in what we buy, where and when we shop, and how we enjoy our leisure time is causing us to ditch daily routine in favour of "last-minute living". This is increasing stress levels and lowering our enjoyment of everyday life and almost 40% of us now say that we feel "very stressed" by everyday life.
The loss of routine is affecting many aspects of our everyday life from dinner- time (only 51% of adults now have a set time for an evening meal) to grocery shopping (less than a third of adults have now do a regular weekly shop).
The research reveals that adults with the most routine are less stressed than those without - even if they have busier than average lives - whereas a higher proportion of adults who lack set routines report finding their everyday lives stressful.
In fact, If reported stress levels continue to rise at the same rate as they have risen over the past decade, nearly seven million adults - 14% of the adult population - will report suffering from serious stress by 2020.
Greg Twichter, Visa, commented, "With so much choice in our everyday lives, it is important that not everything is complicated. Taking simple measures such as keeping control of your finances by using your Visa debit or credit card can help make a difference to how stressed we feel on a day-to-day basis."
Life coach Carole Ann Rice comments, "We all enjoy freedom of choice in our everyday lives, but without a routine we can quickly become overwhelmed and not manage to achieve the little tasks that make our lives easier. Even planning a trip to the supermarket means that you don't have to worry about an evening meal and in turn small steps like this can help keep your stress levels under control."
70% of adults feel that they have less routine in their lives compared with their parents. While three quarters of people believe we now have more choice as consumers, more options of entertainment (82%) and freedom to make spur-of-the-moment decisions (63%) such as taking last minute holidays or going for a spontaneous meal out, less than half of those surveyed feel we have a better work/ life balance than our parents' generation.
In addition, adults in the UK feel that our parents enjoyed more of the simple things that we do not have today, for example, home cooked meals (45%), a sense of local community (50%) and time to spend with family (41%).
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About Visa
In Europe, there are over 276 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 2004 calendar year, those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of almost €963 billion. Visa is one of the world's leading payment brands with over 1.2 billion cards generating €2.8 trillion ($USD3.4 trillion) in annual card sales volume.Visa has unsurpassed acceptance at approximately 24 million acceptance locations including close to one million ATMs. Visa is a Membership Association that plays a pivotal role in the global payments industry, developing innovative products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 Member financial institutions and their cardholders. For more information, visit www.visaeurope.com.
The Visa European press office only deals with media enquiries relating to the organisation's activities in the region. Journalists should email: europeanmedia@visa.com
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