This is the amount of time Brits spend preparing to leave the house

What's your morning routine like? A civilised cooked breakfast, shower and grooming session with time to spare before you head off to work? Or a frantic rummage for clean, crease-free clothing and a sweaty sprint to catch the last train? A new study by home furnishing retailer Terry's Fabrics has just revealed the amount of time Brits spend preparing to leave the house each day.

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Perhaps surprisingly for the over-sleepers among us, on average we Brits spend a respectable 47 minutes getting ready for the day ahead. That equates to around 286 hours or approximately 11.9 days of the year. What are we doing with that precious 47 minutes, you ask? Terry's Fabrics has the answer to that too.

The most time consuming exercise is eating breakfast, which is how 58 per cent of us are spending our morning. 55 per cent are 'having a hot drink', 53 per cent are showering, 36 per cent are making the bed and 30 per cent are applying make up. More niche morning activities include 'feeding the wild birds' and 'practicing Spanish over breakfast'.

Regional differences

The amount of time differs regionally, with those in Newcastle getting spruced up for the day in only 29 minutes. That's a lot less than Londoners and Glaswegians, who need almost twice as long (56 minutes) to get ready. In fact, 50 per cent of Londoners admitted that their morning routine sometimes or always made them late for work.

Gender gap

And gender plays into the results too. It won't surprise many that women spend more time tidying the house before leaving (18 per cent compared with 7 per cent of men), making the bed (43 per cent compared with 26 per cent) and getting the kids ready for school (20 per cent compared with 10 per cent).

Career chasm

Another revealing outcome of the study is that those in different professions take quite contrasting amounts of time to prep for the day ahead. Those in accounts apparently take the most time (1.3 hours), doctors/nurses take 1.2 hours, HR take an average 57 minutes and administrative workers take 55 minutes.

You can see Terry's Fabric's detailed report on how we prepare ourselves for work here.

According to these results those in accounts admit to being most likely to be late on a daily basis (not surprising given that daily routine). In contrast, only 3% of retail workers say they're frequently late.