‘The Psychology of Time: Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day…’

27.11.2020: For this week’s blog as the Lead for Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) at the national youth homeless charity: Centrepoint, I have been continuing to reflect on some of the themes being discussed in our ongoing group reflective practice sessions, or staff 1:1 support sessions. One of these has been around the concept of ‘time’. This year (2020) has been challenging in many respects, but in particular with regard to the passing of time especially as we have been in two lockdown periods as well as other restrictions in the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These have prevented many of us from engaging in the activities throughout the year that typically help us to mark the passing of time. For example, our planned weddings, family gatherings, birthday parties, or holidays have been cancelled or postponed. As this year has moved from Spring through Summer and Autumn, and now into Winter, perhaps those events and activities that we associate with these seasons have not occurred. Nevertheless, nature has moved on regardless, which can be quite disorientating. Moreover, for some of us, lockdown meant ‘staying at home’ and even home schooling our children for long periods, which affected our usual perception of time passing, and probably felt like an eternity! Although there has been positive news in the past week of a COVID-19 vaccine on the horizon (c.f. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51665497), 2021 is still filled with some uncertainty about what we can plan and when. Consequently, I have been speaking with staff this week about the impact of this temporal uncertainty, and how we manage this psychologically moving forward.

When we think about ‘time’, most of us probably have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the concept. We know that ‘time flies when we are having fun’ and it can seemingly pass slowly when we are bored, anxious or waiting for something important to happen. In a sense, sometimes it can feel that time is ‘on our side’ whilst at other times it can feel that time is racing or even plotting against us! Of course, time is one thing that actually remains constant, in terms of how it is defined and measured. A second, minute, hour or day is actually objectively the same for all of us, it is just a unit of measurement that reflects the movement of our planet in the solar system. It isn’t actually a ‘thing in its own right’, which confused my youngest child immensely when they once asked me whilst walking around Greenwich park (i.e. the home of ‘time: Greenwich Mean Time), “who invented time?” However, whilst the measurement of time is standardised, our perception and response to it is as unique as we are. Consequently, ‘psychological time’ refers to a sense of the passage of ‘time’ and our perceived temporal experiences related to external and internal events. In others words, we can sometimes feel that the same time interval (e.g. 5 mins) lasts longer on one day than the next, and we can perceive certain events as occurring in a different order than they actually did.

Psychologists have been studying this discrepancy between how time actually passes and how we perceive this for over a century, particularly within the area of human perception (e.g. Fechner, Weber in the 1800s). Time perception has been conceptualised by psychologists as like a ‘biological stopwatch’ in the brain, which can slow or speed up in line with our attention or arousal. More recently, studies (e.g. Matthews & Meck, 2014) have utilised new technologies (e.g. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: fMRI) to look for the precise areas of the brain that are responsible for our internal time keeping. These studies have shown that a large network of neural areas and brain chemicals rather than just one single brain structure or area, underlie our subjective processing of time.

Interesting, psychologists have shown that our emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anxiety or anger) have a critical role in the way we perceive the passing of time. For example, Csikszentmihalyi (1975) first coined the now well know concept of ‘flow’ to describe the experience of being so happily immersed in an activity (e.g. sport, creative, social or work) that all distractions are shut out and time is perceived to be distorted or passing faster than usual. Tse et al (2004) also carried out studies that showed that experiencing novel or unusual stimuli that we may focus on for longer than usual could increase our perception of how long time lasts. In addition, when we feel ‘awe’, time can seem to pass more slowly (e.g. Rudd et al, 2012), and fear or anxiety can seemingly slow down time whilst excitement can speed it up (e.g. Driot-Violet, 2011; Bryant & Campbell, 2006). Moreover, our context and situation can influence our sense of time. A study by Davydenko & Peetz (2017) showed that being around nature could slow our sense of time, compared to being in an urban setting. Personally, I can attest to feeling as if time is rushing when I am travelling around London for work, and that sense of time slowing when I get the opportunity to leave London to visit family in the countryside!

As well as having conversations this week about this sense of the passing of time, whether that has been because it has been ‘too fast’ and not getting everything done or ‘too slow’ as they are waiting for something to happen or change, time has also featured in conversations about ‘time management’. Personally, I find the idea of ‘time management’ a frustrating concept because who can actually manage time? As the saying goes, ‘time waits for no man’ and regardless of what we are doing it remains objectively a consistent concept. Also, when we think about how we manage our time, especially as highlighted above, it can be perceived differently as a result of our set (e.g. emotion) or setting (e.g. situation). Therefore, what can we actually do to ‘manage’ it? However, if we think about ‘time management’ as something that refers not to ‘time’ per se (which we cannot control) but how we plan and organise ourselves in order to achieve our goals within a defined time period (which we can control) then perhaps it is more helpful.

Thus what can help us to ‘manage ourselves’ within the time we have available, especially when we may be juggling so many various domains (e.g. work, home, social life, self-care, relationships, hobbies), or even multiple things within these different areas? I am always in awe of some of my colleagues in our supported accommodation services, who have not only so much to do in their daily roles, but often also have so many competing demands and interruptions that make focusing on completing one task at a time or ‘getting everything done’ so challenging. Everyone knows about the importance of ‘to do lists’ but I think sometimes these can themselves be overwhelming! I therefore prefer to have tasks assigned to different days (e.g. like writing this blog this morning or facilitating a reflective practice session later this afternoon), which can make a long to do list feel less overwhelming as time periods are allocated to each task.

It is also key to prioritise tasks we have to complete, and of course, how we decide our priorities depends on our role within the organisation. If a staff member calls for a 1:1 or I get an important and critical email, I have to re-plan my actions for today (and reset my expectations about what I can achieve), placing the emotional wellbeing of others over completion of something else. For many of our ‘frontline’ staff, I know they may start the day with good intentions to complete some paperwork, but then a young person they are supporting needs their urgent assistance or a crises may occur that needs their attention and arguably, this is the priority that needs to be addressed in that moment. It is not that they necessarily have terrible ‘time management’, or believe that their paperwork isn’t important rather it is that another priority has leaped to the top of the ‘to do list’ that day, or there has been a curve ball thrown in to their day that they were not expecting to need to address. This is often the challenge faced in any ‘frontline’ support work where the human needs and our relationships with those we are supporting may create unexpected events that we need to prioritise. Having a good relationship with our supervisor, manager or work colleagues therefore becomes critical, as sometimes they can support us to complete work, help us to prioritise our workload or just be a listening ear when a day has felt overwhelming or so busy we have struggled to get everything done.

Of course, creating a work environment that helps us to work most effectively can help us plan our time most effectively. For example, working somewhere that has minimal distractions can help us be most productive (although again this can often be a challenge in a busy frontline service or even at home when we are surrounded by other tasks that need our attention!). Consequently, we can only do ‘what we can do’ each day. Time is not unlimited and we need to be kind to ourselves when things might not go to plan. Something I have found helpful is to actually plan for unexpected events by allocating some time in each day to deal with ‘unknowns’. If we are lucky enough not to need this time, then great but if we do have to manage crises or unforeseen issues, then we are more prepared to do so without affecting any other work we need to complete. In addition, setting ourselves achievable (not just SMART) goals or deadlines can help us manage ourselves and reduce procrastination, although it is very important to be realistic about what we can achieve, break larger tasks into smaller ones and to seek support if needed. Sometimes we may need to ignore emails or switch off our phone briefly in order to complete an urgent task or catch up on outstanding but critical piece of work. Finally, when we complete a task or steps towards a task, psychologists would also suggest that it is important to reward ourselves, perhaps with some self-care or a short break, as this increases our motivation to go onto the next task.

Over the past year, I have reflected that ‘managing our time’ has also not been a static concept. Sometimes, it has felt easier to do and at other times less so. Initially it was helpful not to have to factor so much commuting into my daily role, but this travel time was quickly filled with other activities (e.g. school run, housework, additional earlier or later work meetings). However, one thing that can helped me this past year, has been to be more ‘psychologically informed’ about time. For example, utilising Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes) concepts of being mindful and present in the moment has been useful. Therefore rather than focusing on what I have done, or have not done, or what I need to do in the future, I have tried to focus on the moment and what I am doing right now. This has helped me to be less overwhelmed in this uncertain COVID-19 pandemic world. Instead therefore of defining 2020 by what hasn’t happened, or 2021 by what I want to happen, I am trying to cultivate a greater awareness and acceptance of the ‘here and now’, and trying to experience this moment with more openness, interest and receptiveness. ACT suggests that Mindfulness can help those of us to ‘stop’ and focus on the present if perhaps we don’t find this easy or something that comes naturally (e.g. try this short mindfulness exercise here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj6_bLhMnpw). This has enabled me to gain greater satisfaction from the things I am able to achieve or do (e.g. with our PIE journey at Centrepoint) rather than worrying about those things I have not been able to do. Moreover, as one staff member commented this week, staying present focused has enabled them to gain ‘a greater awareness and pleasure from the little things’ that previously they may have taken for granted.

ACT also highlights the need for psychological flexibility and adaptableness, something that this year has certainly required us all to cultivate in ourselves. I have personally been surprised at how much I have been able to do this, as someone who is most definitely a ‘planner’ who likes to have ‘control’ over my life! COVID-19 has removed much of this in 2020, and on reflection, this has highlighted to me that I can cope with uncertainty, perhaps more than I previously believed. Moreover, I have also learnt that there may be some truth in the perhaps clique saying that ‘time is a great healer’. As we take the time to build relationships with the homeless young people we support, we need to remain flexible and adaptive. We need to give them, as well as ourselves, time and space to process our emotional responses to this year (e.g. anxiety, fear, sadness, grief or loss). Whatever the year 2020 has been like for us (e.g. difficult, relatively easy, painfully slow or a year that has flown by), if we stay focused on the present moment, reaching out for support when we need to, we (and the young people we support) will get where we need to get to because ‘even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day’ (c.f. Withnail & I)…