Vacation is never long enough? Experts teach you 3 tricks to extend the "sensory time": Start by stopping watching TV shows
Why do I always feel that “the happy time always passes so fast” after every fake carnival? Why do I feel that “seconds feel like years” when I am immersed in work? Various phenomena may be related to specific psychological effects! Research published in the “Journal of Consumer Psychology” claims that the reasons for people’s differences in perception of time are related to factors such as “expectancy effects” and “negative emotions.”
The seconds at work seem like years, but the holidays are fleeting? Research: “Two major mentalities” cause somatosensory time confusion
A research team led by the Rutgers University School of Business and the University of Ohio Fisher School of Business gathered 451 subjects and asked them to test their mood and opinions about the “coming weekend.” The research team uses a score of 0 (very close to the event) to 100 (very far away from the event) as a criterion.
The results show that subjects generally expect that a subjectively identified “good event”, such as a family trip, employee travel, friend gathering, etc., will think that it is “a long time away from now” or even end at once; and if faced with a subjectively identified “good event”, For “bad events”, such as working overtime on holidays, business trips, meetings, etc., subjects will believe that the event “seems to be close at hand” and will definitely be difficult.
Can’t take a good vacation and are thinking about work? Turns out it’s all “negative thinking” that’s at work?
Selin Malko, associate professor at the Ohio State University School of Business who led the study, explained that when humans anticipate future developments, they instinctively tend to “think negatively” and prepare for the worst, so they use negative thoughts to erase the mentality of “good things will happen”. It is normal. In addition, the “anticipation psychology” allows people to take time off and prepare in advance, but it may also cause the happy moments of vacation to be affected by work pressure.
“This also explains why every happy holiday passes very quickly, because people do not expect good things to happen; and when faced with a potentially bad week, people always worry about it for several days, which inadvertently leads to unpleasant feelings. Of course, it feels like it will take longer!” Malko believes that this kind of anticipatory psychology will also make people tend to spend money recklessly and organize extravagant activities during the holidays, because they are often afraid that the holidays will pass too quickly and they will not be able to enjoy them to the fullest.
Start by stopping watching dramas and scrolling on your phone! “3 actions” to change the wrong understanding of time
In general, according to the above research, the difference in people’s perception of time can be called the “holiday paradox.” If you want to break the shackles of the holiday paradox, you must first change your personal “wrong understanding” of time. Claudia Hammond, a well-known British psychologist and author, believes that if you want to fully grasp the limited holiday time, the following measures may help to reshape your personal sense of time:
Try a new thing or hobby. For example, learning a new sport, such as surfing, canoeing or snorkeling, or traveling to a different place and meeting new friends, the brain will try to store more new memories, making the holiday feel more fulfilling. The same repetitive behaviors such as watching TV series and scrolling on mobile phones are the main culprits that make holiday time fleeting.
Join the appropriate adventure. Hammond said that “adventurous behavior” will amplify the five senses and cause the amygdala of the brain to record this sense of alertness. Extreme sports such as skydiving, rock climbing, and high-altitude bungee jumping will allow individuals to maintain 100% concentration and make it easier to feel time. extend.
However, not everyone is suitable for extreme sports. Hammond pointed out that you can also make small changes in your life to deliberately create a sense of adventure, such as taking a different route when returning home or watching a different type of movie, which can also extend the sense of time. limited approach.
Reduce the chores. Hammond believes that time always passes unconsciously, and one of the reasons is that people deal with more trivial tasks than they think and underestimate how long these trivial tasks will take. Therefore, people should practice “simplifying” complex procedures in their lives, such as tidying up a messy room, deleting redundant mobile apps, or organizing work projects to minimize the time cost of dealing with trivial matters.
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