Time Management versus Time Orientation

How you manage time may be secondary to how you experience time.

Philip Zimbardo, more famously known for his Standford Prison Experiment and PBS series, Discovering Psychology, also studies the human experience of time. However, according to Carlin Flora in the Psychology Today article Timely Makeover, Zimbardo is not a fan of time-management per se:

The proliferation of time-management books makes Zimbardo cringe, and not just because it’s emblematic of a cultural push for future-thinking. He suspects that the only people who buy them are highly future-oriented people--who should be out increasing their present-hedonistic tendencies instead.

As one might imagine, I am very interested in what the eminent Dr. Zimbardo has to say about time-management (though, as one might also imagine, I am not inclined to toss out my suite of time-management books). For readers not familiar with Dr. Zimbardo’s work, let’s take a step back and define “future-oriented people” and “present-hedonistic tendencies.”

Zimbardo describes several time-orientations or time-perspectives in his book, The Time Paradox (the basis for the PT article quoted above). People in the western world generally have some combination of the following six. Using my summaries on Zimbardo’s titles, they are:

• Past-Negative: Focused on the past, characterized by regret and rumination.
• Past-Positive: Focused on the past, characterized by nostalgia and fondness.
• Present-Hedonistic: Focused on the present and its immediate pleasures and opportunities.
• Present-Fatalistic: Focused on the present, but with a passive acceptance; believes little can be done to impact well-being or circumstances.
• Future: Focused on the future--planning, expecting, imagining, and acting in the present to serve that future.
• Transcendental-Future: Focused on a future beyond death that includes a spiritual afterlife.

These aren’t necessarily good or bad in and of themselves. Present-fatalistic sounds pretty terrible, but then it might be healthy to maintain some degree of realistic expectations about our ability to affect our well-being--not every circumstance will respond to our actions. And, as Flora points out of past-positive, “Don’t let ‘positive’ mislead: Being trapped in beautiful memories still means you’re trapped.”

That said, there is a particular balance among them that Zimbardo has found to be the healthiest. Flora described this ideal balance:

People who are high in past-positive orientation, moderately high in future, moderately high in present-hedonistic, low in past-negative, and low in present-fatalistic time perspective are happier, healthier, and more successful than people with other time perspectives.

. . .

Those with a winning blend of perspectives have hope for the future, feel securely rooted in the past, and are energetic and joyful about being alive in the present.

So, assuming that’s true, how do we know if we have the right mix, and how do we get there if we do not?

Figure Out Where You Are

Zimbardo developed a psychological instrument to measure an individual’s time perspectives; the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory is available for free at the official Time Paradox website (and is included in the book). This 60-item questionnaire will provide a reading on where you stand on the various time orientations.

Get Where You Want to Go

The second page of the Timely Makeover article quoted above offers three tips for cultivating each of the three time perspectives that make up the ideal mix. Some strike me as slightly dubious; to cultivate present-hedonistic orientation, Flora suggests, ”Don’t wear a watch.” In the age of ubiquitous mobile phones, I believe watches are becoming an anachronism. Still, most of the tips seem solid and should serve as a good starting point for creating other ways to shift your perspective.

Further Exploration

Of course, if the article, the ZPTI questionnaire, or this blog post leave you wanting to know more, then I recommend The Time Paradox itself. I read it with great interest last year before starting this blog. While I don’t wholly agree with Zimbardo’s distaste for time-management, I do find it interesting that elements of his “ideal mix” show up in many of my favorite books in the genre. Stephen Covey and the Merrills write extensively in First Things First on the topic of enjoying the precious present moments that won’t come again. David Allen waxes poetic in Ready for Anything about how his lists, organization, and careful planning (hallmarks of a strongly future-oriented perspective) allow him to be more present and to spontaneously walk away from his work to do something inspired and pleasurable, like work on his garden.

So if you find you have time-management more or less under control but aren’t feeling the satisfaction you expected to, then Zimbardo may be right; think about nurturing warm recollections or unleashing your inner hedonist.

Monday, January 4, 2010