| More time later? | 2005-02-16 14:53 3 comments |
 by Flemming FunchSome psychologists are studying how people's perception of available time changes when it is in the future. Article in New Scientist: The best time to ask someone for a favour is at least several weeks in advance, a new study suggests. The research finds that people consistently over-commit because they expect to have more time in the future than they do right now. So, they did experiments and asked a bunch of people questions, elliciting how much time and money they felt they had available now, and at various future times. For both, most people will act as if they'll have more of them in the future. But more so with time than with money. And the further it is into the future, the more likely it is we think we have the time, and the more likely it is we'll say yes to activities we couldn't possibly say yes to right now. How can we be so wrong? I do that too, of course. But if I really look at it, I'm terribly busy right now, and I only seem to get busier. Whether I'll have money or not, I can't say, but it certainly seems I get more and more to do per unit of time. So, in the moment I struggle to focus on the most important things, and I say no to lots of things. But ask me to help you later, in a few weeks, with something ridiculously time consuming and open-ended which I don't really feel like doing, and I might say yes. Maybe mainly to be nice, but it somehow feels safe to promise it "later", even if it is idiotic, and sooner or later that time comes, and I'll regret it. I'm sure that time organization in many ways is a key to success and peace of mind in life. Particularly that little thing on whether you fill up your future with lots of work intensive junk you've promised to do, or whether you do the opposite: arranging things now so that your future will be uncommitted and open. |