{"id":5077,"date":"2025-05-13T18:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T18:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=5077"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:46:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:46:29","slug":"understanding-time-to-manage-it-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/understanding-time-to-manage-it-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Time to Manage It Better"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Time flies when you\u2019re having fun or in the zone at work, but it crawls when you\u2019re in pain or doing a boring task.<\/p>\r\n

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 North Carolina State University, said that a key element of subjective time is people\u2019s interpretation and perception of time itself.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWorking on the expense report, even 15 minutes probably feels like forever versus 15 minutes in a crisis situation feels like a blink of an eye,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cThere are different ways in which we perceive time itself, the units of time, and that shapes how we structure our time.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThat could be things like deadlines\u2014say you asked me, \u2018Hey, can you get this to me by Thursday?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThat may seem like a very long deadline to you, but if I have a very busy week, maybe that feels like that\u2019s way too soon.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt has implications for how and when we work, especially how we work with each other.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

In Shipp\u2019s and her colleagues\u2019 research on different elements of subjective time, they looked at all the different ways in which people have studied time, and which aspects of it scientists haven\u2019t studied. People who take time to examine how they perceive and interpret time may be able to improve their time management.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe found was there are many gaps, both in how researchers and practitioners look at time,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cWe found many ways in which you can better use your time if you think about it subjectively and not just objectively.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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