I had overestimated the time required by 130% on the low end to 600% on the high end!
One really common time-sink that meditation might curtail, is the habit of getting into chains of thoughts of the form, “if I could go back in time and change X to make things better”, “here’s what I’ll say to make my friend happy if some very particular thing goes awry”, etc. About half of my “study” time in undergrad was consumed this way while sitting in front of a textbook or computer, and I wasn’t even a bad student overall. Meditation definitely gave me an understanding of just how much time this ate up.
One really common time-sink that meditation might curtail, is the habit of getting into chains of thoughts of the form, “if I could go back in time and change X to make things better”, “here’s what I’ll say to make my friend happy if some very particular thing goes awry”, etc. About half of my “study” time in undergrad was consumed this way while sitting in front of a textbook or computer, and I wasn’t even a bad student overall. Meditation definitely gave me an understanding of just how much time this ate up.