Katie Couric's Notebook: Extra Time

Ever wish you had an extra hour in the day? Well, according to a new Labor Department study, you do. Okay, not an hour, but 17 minutes, to be exact.

The study, described in the Wall Street Journal, found that the average American 15 or older spent three hours and 11 minutes per day working in 2009. That's 17 minutes less than we did two years ago.

It makes sense, considering that unemployment doubled over the same period. But how did we spend those extra minutes? Here's a hint - we weren't reading Shakespeare or saving the whales.

We watched 12 minutes more TV per day, raising the total to two hours and 49 minutes. And we slept six minutes more than we did in 2007, well over eight hours a night.

Now there's nothing wrong with a day of leisure, but TV and sleep don't make good hobbies.

In 17 minutes, you could read an article, run a mile or cook an omelet. So get cracking - there's no time to lose.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.