Understanding the psychology of time - a free guide

Of all the resources available to us the one that we have the least control over is time. We can’t increase it or reduce it, it just happens.

The unfortunate thing is that we all interpret time in a different way. This interpretation of time is further complicated by the way in which it can change depending on our age or the situation that we are in.

Younger people seem to have a problem waiting for anything, whilst some might say that older people are more patient, but then people reach an age when they revert to impatience.

Time at work can seem to drag, but flies at weekends which seem to be over just too soon.

How we experience time can be a physical activity that is linked to heart beat and creates an internal clock which creates our sense of time.

But it is unlikely that this sense of time is the result of a purely physical process, it can be influenced by whether our brains are naturally programmed to seek instant or deferred gratification.

If we are impulsive, making decisions quickly, we are more likely to be bored easily. How easily we become bored is itself often determined how our internal clock determines our interpretaion of time. 

These internal clocks define our perception of the passage of time, giving us a brain rhythm that sets our natural speed which differentiates quick people from slow people.

This not only determines our functional speed but also determines how we are likely to perceive the passage of time, and how long it takes other people to do things, or the punctuality of public transport.

As the passage of time is something that we can not control, we have perhaps focused on its mechanical objective nature when discussing time management, at the expense of building an understanding of the subjective emotional aspects which seem to change with the passage as we progress through life.

Marc Wittmann is psychological research fellow at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany, and the author of Felt Time: The Psychology of How We Perceive Time (MIT Press), on which this week’s free guide to understanding how we utilise time is based.

Successful time management is not, suggests Wittman about building competence in a process or the application of tools, but the consequence of the practice of mindfulness that he says can reduce the speed of life and help us gain more time.

The subjective nature of time and the boredom which appears to make time pass slowly increases as we gain competence in work activities and settle into routines.

That is when we expand work to fit the time available. The secret to a fulfilled career and a long happy life in which time expands to fit the requirements of work or other activities is variety and change.

The free guide focuses on explaining how the brain experiences time, why subjective time passes at varying rates and how being more mindful can help us make the most of the time we have available.

This is perhaps why our holidays seem to be over so quickly, we are in a different environment with days full of new and interesting activities and experiences, there just isn’t enough time to fit it all in!

Perhaps it is my enjoyment of writing about this week’s free guide that has created the impression that the time available to complete this task is just too short?

You can download this week’s free guide about understanding the psychology of how we perceive time is available from this link.

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During a career as a human resources and employee development professional that started in 1981 Michael Millward has worked around the world in a wide range of businesses from start-ups to major conglomerates. His industry experience includes, local and national government, manufacturing, financial services, retail, distribution, hi-tech, e-commerce.

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