**You know how they say in Star Trek, famous sentence that goes "Space, the final frontier"? Well, what if we could say that for the more present as in "Time, for now, the final frontier"?! I truly hope this is a mistake or at least a partial one! But, if that really ends up being more then just another plain study and a theory, then I've been nothing but counterproductive for half of my life!**
***How many times do you look at your phone or other devices and wonder what's next?! Surprisingly, my August schedule is non-existent and that is very very rare!***
Give me several minutes and I'll try to explain what oddness of a so called fact I've come across today! Story goes like this; some of us love to have a schedule put in place for our daily so called 'routine' and now there's a claim that we've made nothing but a mess for ourselves with just that.
By thinking that having a scheduled day makes us more efficient, it can apparently affect what we'd accomplish during our unstructured time. As always I'll bore you with some boring studies along the way, so not to worry about missing out on that!
*I can tell you that no matter what, there never seems to be enough time in the day for me to do what I intend to do. One thing is for sure, and that is that time does seem to go faster as you age then when you're a child, but I'll focus on this matter some other time. Lets focus back to having much to do and not enough time, and that has its own term, which is relativly new and is called time femine.*
How many of you can relate to having your day scheduled out to the point of almost looking ridiculous, yet you still end up messing everything up?! I do, not all the time but on many of days. However, I've noticed that there's definitely something relatable with this article's title! Here we go, a study is upon us, and this one states that in two recent surveys, 51% of surveyed said they regularly used their calendar app to keep on top of their daily 'must do', and in the 2nd survey a 63% of office workers consider calendars being “very important” or almost impossible to ignore! Let's get further in to this, shall we?!
**THAT FEELING WHEN AN APPOINTMENT APPROACHES AND TIME JUST SHIRNK TO NOTHING**
Luckily I don't have one of those 24h office jobs, which means that I have to be available day nad night. That said, I can be busy in other ways; being a family man and working in healthcare have proven to be two be just that when combined. So, what do I mean by the above 'all-in-capital-letters-title'? Take this as an example; When we know a scheduled meeting or a phone call is looming, it can make us feel like we have less time to do what we need to do. Or if I'll work an afternoon shift, it'll feel like my day's gone by even before it started as I get the feeling nothing can be done in the morning (it can and it will but the feeling remains).
Would you like to hear about another study relevant to this?? No? Either way, here it is, below!
In one study, a group of people attending an academic conference were asked, if whether they would go to an unscheduled press conference lead by the POTUS (President of the United States), which'll be taking place about an hour later. Some said they would, and others said they wouldn’t. Those who planned to attend the press conference have reported that the hour leading up to it felt shorter!
I'm sure we can all put ourselves in this situation (not the part where we were going to listen POTUS talk), and I for one can agree that regardless of time left until something planned is happening, it feels like time is and has flown by. In other words, the presence of an upcoming activity seems to have shrunk how much time people felt they've had to do something.
Why does this happen? As odd as it might sound, we tend to believe that when there’s an appointment looming, we'll direct our attention to it, whether it’s mentally preparing for it or simply dreading it...yes, there could also be a thrird option, which is excitement!
**DOES THAT MEAN WE HAVE LESS TIME OR IS IT JUST A PERCEPTION, LIKE IN THAT MOVIE INCEPTION?**
Nah, that's not it, surley...I mean, in the end, you still have the same amount of time leading up to a scheduled event or whatever that might be. Fine, we can't ignore the feeling like we have less time, and in fact that feeling does matter. Why? Because feeling on its own can influence what I'll do at that time and what I'll decide to do. When something feels important and thus valuable to us, like the time itself, we feel that parting with it is the last thing we want to do. Does that make sence? I'm hoping it does.
***Time itself will stop,..,occasionally, on your watch, and that can be forever if you don't change the battery! Apart from that, there's nothing stopping it! But it can feel longer or shorter, which will be up to you!***
Some of you (including me) might think that time famine arises because you (and I) have too much to do and not enough time to do it. While this may certainly be the case at times, it also suggest that the fault (potentially) lies in our own perception of what we feel can be done with the time we have.
If you love scheduling and planning out your days (I do so much I'm getting tired of it), a trick could be to schedule events or tasks back-to-back, which leaves you with larger chunks of unscheduled time. Plan that out to the point that your uncheduled time will be as long as possible, and that will give your brain the feeling of it really being so, not just what you perceive to maybe be true whilst looking at that clock.
**It can be effective, like really effective to remind yourself that time isn’t as short as it feels. Even if you don’t think you’ll have enough time to complete something, you can still start a task and finish it later. Most of the things we do can still be controlled by us and that's a major piece of a puzzle which makes us unique! I presume it's all down to us, me and you as an individual to see, if having a schedule means less producitvity or not having a schedule leads to more chaos...**
Photos as well as thoughts in this article are all mine.
Thanks for stopping by and take care!
hiveblocks