TIME MANAGEMENT By Jill Carton Time Management Problems

TIME MANAGEMENT By: Jill Carton

Time Management Problems and Discounted Utility By: Cornelius J. Koing & Martin Kleinmann

STUDY Between subjects design § The manipulation occurrence of interruption occurred either: § (1) Close to the beginning of time reserved for the task OR § (2) Close to the end of the task DV : Duration for which the participant answered the survey on the phone Lab setting § Used a typical time management issue : An interruption Latter case : Utility of the task should be higher because it’s less discounted § The likelihood that attention & time spent on the task rises and the likelihood that participants spend time on interruptions should decrease Hypothesis : Participants will spend more time on an interruption if it occurs earlier in the task

METHOD Setting § In day assessment centers advertised as university training courses for job applicants. § This offered applicants the opportunity to become familiar with assessment and receive feedback on their performance To increase their motivation to participate : They paid a small amount of money to participate Participants : 43 total (22 women, 21 men)

METHOD Material & Procedure § Told the participants to assume they were managers of a car hire company § After coming home from a 4 day business trip, they have many messages & mail § They’re required to prioritize items & determine how to respond § There is a time restriction to 40 minutes, making it hard to finish the task The interruption is a call from an electronic survey § They are asked a variety of questions § The call is either placed : § (1) 9 minute from the task start (near the beginning of the task) OR § (2) 31 minutes from the start (near the end of the task)

RESULTS All participants cut the electronic survey by hanging up the phone Interruption at 9 minutes : 50. 2 seconds on the phone Interruption at 31 minutes : 19. 9 seconds on the phone These results showed that the participants spent more time on an interruption if it occurred earlier in the task

DISCUSSION When the deadline for a task gets closer, less discounting of the outcome of the task occurs § If there is less discounting, there is a less likelihood of working on the task increases § The resulting consequence is that people spend less time on other tasks (interruption by phone) People don’t pay a lot of attention to tasks with deadlines in the far future or no set deadline

Time Crawls When You’re Not Having Fun : Feeling Entitled Makes Dull Tasks Drag On By: Edward H. O’Brien, Phyllis A. Anastasio, and Brad J. Bushman

BACKGROUND People who view themselves as important value their time as “more precious” Focuses on entitlement : being more deserving than another person Entitled people view activities as dull, showing perception of time and a higher percentage of these activities as wasting their “precious” time

STUDY They first assessed time perception while performing dull versus fun tasks among individuals with varying trait entitlement levels § There were no predictor of time estimates for fun tasks § They focused on time perception of dull tasks Participants who did a Psychological Entitlement Scale 1 month earlier rated how much time passed while doing a dull or fun lab task Controlled several factors : Subjective rating of task, time urgency, mood, sensation seeking, status, power ; which were all measured on a rating scale Hypothesis § Time would drag during a dull lab task § No relationship between entitlement & time perception for fun tasks : People shouldn’t see time spent doing “fun” tasks as wasted / dragging on

METHOD Participants : 50 college students Method § 1 month before, they did a reliable / valid 9 item Psychological Entitlement Scale § “If I were on the Titanic, I would deserve to be on the first lifeboat” § 7 point scale (1= strong disagreement, 7= strong agreement) § Randomly assigned to complete a fun or dull task : had a 10 minute time limit § Dull : reproducing a matrix § Fun: using the same group letters to form people’s first names in English § Then they were asked to rate how much time they thought had elapsed § They rated their current mood (1=extremely negative, 7= extremely positive)

METHOD Hypothesis § The fun task would be rated more fun and interesting than the dull task § Participants who completed the fun task to be in a better mood than participants who completed the dull task

RESULTS There were no gender differences : They combined the data Fun task were rated more fun than dull task & rated more interesting as well Those completing the fun task were in a better mood afterward than those who completed the dull task There was a significant positive relationship between scores on the Psychological Entitlement Scale and estimates of how much time had passed while completing the dull task (more entitlement = more time had passed) There was no relationship between Psychological Entitlement Scale & rating of how much time had passed while completing the fun task

DISCUSSION The time spent doing dull tasks seemed to crawl for more individuals : Results stayed the same when controlled for variety of variables, including time perception The only signification predictor of time spent completing the dull task was the level of entitlement There was no relationship between entitlement & the time spent completing the fun task There’s a time entitlement link and is specific to dull tasks : When entitled people aren’t having fun, time seems to crawl