When it comes to mental health, it may not be how much time you have that matters, but rather, how you feel about the time you have.
That’s one key takeaway of a new University of Colorado Boulder study examining the relationship between time and mental health.
The study of 646 undergraduates, published in the Journal of American College Health, found that those with the busiest schedules were significantly less likely to be depressed, and—contrary to some common assumptions—they got better grades. Those who felt a chronic sense of rush or “time pressure” had higher rates of anxiety and depression, regardless of what their schedules looked like.
Additionally, those who scored higher on measures of mindfulness (the ability to be present and aware in the moment) appeared to be able to take on a heftier schedule without compromising their mental health.
“We have a tendency to think, ‘Oh, things will get better, and I won’t be stressed if I can just take some things off of my plate,’” said first author Caitlin McKimmy, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. “These data show that it’s not that simple — that outside of what is actually on our calendar we need to heal our relationship with time.”
Time pressure vs. time scarcity
Previous research shows that people can experience time differently, depending on what they’re doing with it.
One study found that people who give their time away, through things like volunteering or helping friends, tend to feel less stressed about time than those who spend time on themselves or waste time. Other research has shown that when someone is fully immersed in a task they care about, also known as a “flow state,” time seems to speed by.
Deep breathing and other mindfulness practices have been shown to increase one’s sense that their time is abundant.
For the new study, McKimmy, a busy mother of two, wanted to examine the impact of two distinct elements of time: “time pressure” (or the subjective sense of rush); and “time scarcity” (the objective lack of non-committed hours).
In her survey, she gathered data on how many hours per week the student participants spent in class, preparing for class, working a job, commuting and doing other activities. Survey questions also assessed how much time pressure they felt, how anxious or depressed they were and their level of mindfulness.
The participants agreed to provide their GPAs and access to their academic records.
McKimmy was surprised to find that time scarcity was strongly associated with both better grades and lower rates of depression. Heightened time pressure, on the other hand, was strongly associated with more anxiety, depression and lower grades.
Importantly, those short on time didn’t necessarily feel time pressure.
“You can have a very busy person who has a harmonious relationship with time and someone else who, objectively speaking, has a calendar with some space in it but is really stressed out about time,” McKimmy said.
When asked what they would do with it if they did have more time, students listed self-care, including mental healthcare, as No. 1.
What causes what?
McKimmy stresses that the findings don’t prove that staying busy causes people to be happier. It could be that those with better mental health naturally seek out more experiences while those struggling with low mood say no more. There could also be shared underlying factors that influence both how someone perceives time and their mental health. For instance, some research suggests that depression itself can influence perception of time, potentially making it feel unmanageable.
What we can infer from these data, she said, is that the common less-is-more narrative may not always hold.
For instance, while a student might be inclined to skip taking a part-time job, for fear it might hurt their GPA, the study found no evidence that adding more to a schedule will hurt academic performance or mental health. While someone might retreat socially when their grades or work start to slip, this could potentially backfire, leading to a monotonous schedule—that can make time crawl by—and a sense of loneliness, warns McKimmy.
“These data support the idea that doing more and being engaged can not only lead to better mental health but could also support academic and professional success,” she said.
This is not to say that there’s no such thing as being overscheduled, she stressed. Often, for reasons they can’t control, people have less free time than is ideal.
Notably, the study showed that people who scored higher on measures of mindfulness had less negative mental health impacts when they were stressed about time.
“There appears to be something about attuning to the present moment that protects you against the negative impact of time pressure,” she said.
Her advice to those feeling stressed about their schedule: If you must fill it, try to fill it with things in line with your passions and values; try to be in the moment, not thinking about the future or past.
If you notice you are feeling stressed, take a moment to focus on your breath and ground yourself in your body and in the moment.
“The amount of time we have in our week isn’t super malleable,” she said. “But the way we think about time is.”
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Journal
Journal of American College Health
