Sometimes it can give us the impression that the more things we try to do, the less we achieve in the end. Why is this happening to us? Now, a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research validates what many of us have long suspected: If we want to be more productive, we need to be less busy.
Too many goals, too many deadlines, too many appointments, make us less efficient with our time , research shows.
People who have scheduled meetings, tasks, etc., on the agenda, perceive that they have less time than they actually have. In addition, these limits mean that in the end they carry out fewer tasks and that they are less likely to perform tasks that require considerable time and that it would really be plausible to do them.
Defined time intervals (for example, one hour before a scheduled meeting) prospectively feel shorter than unlimited time intervals (for example, one hour with nothing scheduled later).
When we have an upcoming appointment, we tend to put off long tasks such as writing a report and we lean towards shorter and easier tasks such as answering emails or even scheduling more appointments or limits on our time.
“It’s something we can all relate to,” says Stephen Nowlis of the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, USA, a co-author of the study.
“It could be anything. You have a deadline and what do you do with your time? We don’t think about it so much from the perspective of consuming it but, in reality, time is something that we probably consume as much if not more than any other resource. So what is it? how are we consuming our time? “
To find out, the researchers conducted more than eight tests over a two-year period starting in 2015, involving more than 2,300 volunteers to see how they responded in various situations and how they used their time.
Among the tests were:
– Use the Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) survey platform. 200 participants, divided equally between those with an upcoming appointment and those with a free schedule, had to choose between a 30-minute task for $ 2.50 and a 45-minute task for $ 5. They had an hour. The funny thing is that participants with an upcoming appointment felt that they had 7’82 minutes less in their time to commit to their task than people with an open schedule.
– At Chicago O’Hare International Airport, 134 passengers were asked to complete a 15-minute survey: about half of the passengers had 30 minutes before boarding, the rest had an hour. About 26% of those who had less time agreed to participate, compared to 46% of passengers who had four times as much time.
“How do you best manage your time? How much time do you need? These are interesting questions ,” Nowlis asks.
The study provides some answers to try to avoid these problems. Basically, it advises that we schedule our tasks sensibly and wisely and set aside a portion of the open work day for long-time tasks.
“If you have a big task, having too many things scheduled will affect productivity,” Nowlis says. “A lot of programming is fine for shorter tasks, so we have to find the environment that works for us.”
Reference: When an Hour Feels Shorter: Future Boundary Tasks Alter Consumption by Contracting Time Gabriela N Tonietto Selin A Malkoc Stephen M Nowlis Journal of Consumer Research , ucy043, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy043 Published: 2018
