Cheating time
Future time perception
RNfinity | 14-08-2022Cheating Time: The Fascinating Interplay of Promises, Perception, and Tardiness in Our Daily Lives
Time perception is a complex psychological phenomenon that shapes our daily experiences and interactions. This article explores how our perception of time influences our behavior, particularly in relation to promises, tardiness, and workplace dynamics.
The Elasticity of Temporal Perception
Our perception of time is not fixed but rather highly subjective and influenced by various factors[1]. Research has shown that:- Emotional states can alter our sense of time passing[7]
- The amount and complexity of information processed affects perceived duration[9]
- Future time perspective (FTP) impacts goal-setting and well-being[4][6]
The Promise-Tardiness Paradox
In today's fast-paced world, we often find ourselves caught between making ambitious promises and the reality of tardiness:- Overpromising: The tendency to underestimate time needed for tasks
- Workplace tardiness: Its impact on productivity and team dynamics
- The psychology of lateness: Understanding why some people are chronically late
- Future promises: How our perception of future time affects commitment-making
Navigating Time Perception in the Modern World
As we move towards an AI-driven future, our relationship with time and productivity may shift dramatically. Exploring the interplay between time perception, promises, and tardiness can provide valuable insights for:- Improving workplace punctuality and reducing excessive tardiness
- Setting realistic goals and making fulfillable promises
- Addressing potential time perception disorders
- Adapting to changing work environments and expectations
Cheating time; the Perception of future time.
-Time fascinates. It only seems to travel one way and sadly off course it is finite.The differing perception of time is a much-studied phenomenon. It is well known for example, that the duration of an event may be perceived differently when in the moment, compared to when it is recollected. As the well-known adage goes time flies when you are having fun, but when we think back to those instances when we were embarking on some new activity, those activities may occupy vast sections of our memory compared to the hundreds of instances when we travelled to and from work along our well etched paths.
What about the perception of future time- how does that inflate (overestimate the actual time taken) or deflate (underestimate the actual time taken)? As everyone knows time is money or a management tool, according to some thankfully forgotten management speak. For every transaction there are 3 parts, the cost, the item or service that is being purchased or delivered and the delivery date. Imagined if you had bought a computer and it is delivered on time, but it comes with a note form the manufacturer stating that the price of the computer had increased after it had been purchased, and an extra 10 percent had been debited from your account as per the terms of some tiny small-print that you had neither the time nor the vision to read. I am sure you would be furious. Likewise, we can be quite militant about price tags even those unbelievable bargains, when the wrong price was displayed on the items. The vendor might let you get away with it at the till, acknowledging their mistake and abiding by their price pledge. By contrast, we seem to be quite flexible when it comes to time, even in many contractual situations, accepting perhaps that some unforeseen factor outside of anyone’s control will lead to a delay, and this runs all the way from minor tardiness from our colleagues and ourselves and our food deliveries, to running years behind schedule, as per the entire construction industry. We learn to accept delays. Some goods or services are not time critical after all, sometimes we kid ourselves that they were not time critical and come up with a work around strategy.
We perhaps can’t really judge the impact of something being delayed. It’s probably a lot more than we imagine and just occasionally a blessing in disguise. We make promises accordingly and try and gain every possible advantage. How long do you think you can deliver this in we are asked? What is the right answer- do we over promise and under deliver or cut ourselves some slack? My experience is that we live in a competitive world and most people need to get work, and it is the minority that have the luxury of turning work away, so pre-contract we tend to overpromise or deflate time. It is the main thing we can get away with. We can’t cheat on the price or the goods though service can be another matter. Overpromising on time, if on purpose, is a largely unprovable deception, after all time is a continuum and not a discrete entity and we accept the vagueness. Though a recent precedent was set when a food delivery company was successfully sued for a very tardy delivery. Perhaps time penalties should be employed more widely pre-contractually. There may also be a cognitive bias in assessing our own performance, where we view ourselves as always operating at our optimum, or really when all the stars aligned, rather than at our average.
It may be different when assessing the performance of other or factors outside of our control. What about time inflation when does that happen? In my experience it only occurs when I am waiting for a table to be free at a restaurant when I haven’t made a reservation. You ask the manager how long it will take for a table to be ready. They frown and say an hour maybe, but without fail, voila! the table is free within 20 minutes or less. Why is that the case? The manager perhaps gains nothing from the restaurant being busy and might want to lessen the workload by persuading you to look elsewhere; the lack of availability of tables is patently nothing to do with their personal performance; and off course, their customer service training would tell them to under promise and over deliver by setting out the worst-case scenario at the outset.
It is only property transactions or the workers who clock on and off who seem to abide by their time contract, though I like to think that in the future when much work has been replaced by AI that we will be carrying out some fake job in an office to provide ourselves with a sense of community and value and be amused by someone like Steve Karel. Then we would need never have running down the clock situations. Perhaps fake jobs will be preserved for cultural reasons much like the façades of listed buildings, hopefully for our culture and not the AI’s culture.
[1] Slow motion perception [2] Being well as time goes by: Future time perspective and well-being [3] Time perception: The bad news and the good Time Perception and Its Neuropsychological Correlates in the Human Brain Experiencing time in daily life The Psychology of Time Perception I've researched time for 15 years – here's how my perception of it has changed Time Perception and Temporal Processing in Adolescence: An Experimental Study Comparing Temporal Sensitivity and Multisensory Integration A different timeworld