{"id":5063,"date":"2025-05-13T17:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T17:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=5063"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:46:13","slug":"why-doing-meaningful-work-makes-time-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-doing-meaningful-work-makes-time-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Doing Meaningful Work Makes Time Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhen you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes; when you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That\u2019s relativity.\u201d \u2014Albert Einstein<\/b><\/p>\r\n

When people talk about time at work, they usually don\u2019t think about subjective time, how we perceive time differently, for example, at work vs. on vacation, noted Academy of Management Scholar Abbie Shipp<\/a> of Texas Christian University, who coauthored an Academy of Management Annals article on that topic <\/a><\/em> with Karen Jansen<\/a> of Henley Business School.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cA key to understanding subjective time is thinking about how people interpret time itself\u2014workers often ask themselves, \u2018Is there meaning in what I\u2019m doing? Where is this leading me?\u2019\u201d Shipp said. \u201cExpense reports feel meaningless, and most people consider them to be a waste of time, as opposed to, \u2018I worked on this big project\u2014it\u2019s going to save lives, for example, if you\u2019re in the medical community.\u2019<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSo the same amount of time spent on one sort of task or project vs. another can feel different and have different meaning, and that interpretation of time is really important for how people think and feel about their job and career,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLeaders need to consider this different view of time when engaging their teams.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Shipp\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n