Cold callers are still the UK’s biggest time wasters

Even in the age of e-mail spam, one in four people say that old-fashioned cold callers are still the UK's biggest time-wasters, according to research by online insurer swiftcover.com.

However, Brits say their absolute biggest waste of time is the daily commute, as cited by 29% of people, with 51% having a daily commute of an hour or more.

According to swiftcover.com's survey, these are the UK's biggest wastes of time:

29% of people said commuting to and from work
26% of people said telephone sales callers
25% said doing chores or the housework
23% said long queues in shops were the biggest waste of time
16% said doing paperwork, i.e. banking, filling out forms etc
14% cited slow drivers as the biggest waste of time

However, people are taking steps to remove some of the hassle from their lives, particularly when it comes to utilising the internet - seven out of ten people are now doing their banking and setting up their insurance online, whilst four out of ten are doing their shopping via the internet.

Unfortunately, 11% of people admit they are eating a lot more microwave convenience meals to save time these days.

Tina Shortle, marketing director for swiftcover.com, said: "We live in a fast-paced world where we want things to happen immediately and demand instant gratification, which is why the growth of online retailing has been so quick - the internet is fast, simple and convenient, letting us decide what we want to buy and when we want to buy it.

"But because our lives are so busy, this means our downtime is even more precious and we don't like it when we're invaded at home or on our mobile phones by sales cold-calls from old-fashioned call-centres, trying to sell us things we don't want and have not asked for."

swiftcover.com found the most popular time saving measures were:

70% of people have switched to online banking and insurance to save time
42% of people do their shopping online
29% have hired a cleaner to save time on chores
19% have got somebody to do their ironing
11% admit they eat a lot more microwave meals
11% have hired a gardener
9% of people have established a rota to share the chores
6% have paid their kids to help out with the chores