“Everybody knows” that the pace of daily life is speeding up, accelerated by the proliferation of mobile phones, tablets, WiFi and other communication technologies and by fallout from the 2007 economic crisis. As if anyone needed reminding of this trend, book titles echoing the faster-paced theme include The Overworked American and Busy Bodies in the early 1990s through to Faster, Fighting for Time, and Busier Than Ever.

However, despite this broad consensus, and its obvious health and quality-of-life implications, there seems little empirical survey evidence that daily life is truly speeding up. Some 15 years ago, in compiling our book Time for Life, my coauthor and I were only able to locate three short measures of subjective time pressure in the public: “stress” questions developed by the US National Institutes of Health (since discontinued); a “time crunch” scale of 10 yes-no questions (also abandoned); and two questions we had included in the initial time-use national survey conducted by the University of Michigan in 1965. These questions first asked respondents how often they felt “rushed,” and then how often they had time on their hands they didn’t know what to do with.

In that 1965 survey, we found 24 percent of respondents aged 18-64 said they “always” felt rushed, and 48 percent said they had no excess time. When we repeated the questions in the 1990s, these figures had risen to 35 percent “always” rushed and 55 percent with no excess time, where they remained, more or less, until we last asked the questions in a 2004 survey.

This set the stage, then, for our repeating these questions in two separate surveys in 2009-10. Quite contrary to our expectations, both of these surveys now show decreases in Americans feeling “always” rushed particularly among the busiest group of those aged 18 to 64 — a 7-point drop in feeling always rushed to 28 percent — and a drop to 45 percent in those feeling no excess time.

This decrease in felt time pressure since 2004 may reflect the “Great American Slowdown,” headlined in the April 10, 2008 issue of the Economist, based strictly on the performance of the economy and not the public’s response to it. It seems mirrored as well in the Great Slowdown in geographic migration noted by demographer William Frey in 2010. In the same vein, three of the main changes noted in the annual reports of the Americans’ Time Use Survey since 2007 have been a decline in shopping time along with increases in sleep time and in free time, especially TV viewing.

Both of these time-pressure questions have important implications for how Americans feel about the quality of their lives. The percent of Americans who say they are “very happy” remained a remarkably steady social indicator between 1972 to 2008, averaging about 33 percent. However, in the 2010 survey, it dropped 5 points to 28 percent, its lowest level since 1972 (and mirroring declines in other indicators of their life quality as well).

As in previous surveys the happiest people in 2009-10 are more likely to report themselves both as less rushed and with no excess time. Moreover, these higher levels are not simply due to both groups having higher income, being married, being older or other demographic predictors of happiness.

Perhaps more important is how the two questions work in combination. Almost 50 percent of respondents who feel least rushed and who also feel least excess time report being “very happy”, almost twice as high as the rest of the US public. It is an elite group, making up less than 10 percent of the population. They not only seem happier by ignoring the “rat race” and subscribing to a philosophy of “Don’t hurry, be happy,” but by organizing their lifestyles to minimize spells of boredom and lack of focus as well. Thus, there seems dysfunction in having either too much or too little free time. In a society that otherwise seems obsessed with speed and the latest IT gadgets, this would seem to offer a path to a more contented lifestyle.

Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.

9 Comments

1. 1. ultimobo 04:12 PM 2/19/13

   reminds me a book called Traffic that found that when roads are made safer, drivers tend to speed up - so the risk factor remains about the same - analysis - we seem to seek out the edge of danger/excitement/drama
   
   or eustress - positive stress as an energising motivation
   
   or gravity - we only stand because we have the energy to resist the pull of gravity
   
   life as tension - between opposing forces.
   
   perhaps as jungle survival depends on instant response to danger, we feel somehow more likely to survive if we are always 'switched on' ? So the constant distraction of digital media we can feel as constant attention to possible danger - for survival ?
   
   

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2. 2. ToNYC 03:30 PM 2/20/13

   Digital distraction is a narcotic to return the too-rudely awakened brain to the habit state to avoid the real work of observing the merde in one's immediate face. PEEDS are personal-environmental escape devices. TV on the run as it were. Stay shiny and take it slower.

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3. 3. tiny bird43 10:45 PM 2/20/13

   I think we strive for balance all of our lives.I am retired after 54years of working and I get less done in a day than I did during my career days!I can't seem to get a routine working in my life,although there is lots to do I don't know what to do first!!I think I worked better under a certain amount of stress.Now my procrastination causes me stress.I used to read and love books,I never watch T.V.Until 2years ago I didn't own a computer,now I can't seem to get away from it,day or night!I realize I need balance but I must change lots of things and I find change comes really hard.I do some writing and enjoy that albeit on the computer as apposed to handwritten as I used to do.I feel much better when I move away from the computer although I have gained much knowledge which I am always seeking.Love to expand my mind.Everything in moderation I know the drill[so to speak!!]

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4. 4. annabanna 10:50 PM 2/20/13

   According to this Scientific American Article, happiness is when a person doesn't feel rushed but has little to no down time. If I have read the article right, the feeling of being rushed has been reduced in the 2010 survey, but those who feel happy have dropped by 5%. Also, if I have read the article right, being able to minimize down time and thus boredom by simultaneously not feeling rushed is only achieved by 10% of the population because they are the only ones that are supper happy.
   
   I found the information in this article to be extremely confusing, for I need more information. What was the quantitative description of being rushed used in the survey? How did the very happy people keep from feeling rushed and entertained? It seems to me, there is more to this than a simple equation to happiness. Did the unhappy people live in a large city where it is easier to feel rushed? Did the happy people live in a small city where it is much easier to not feel rushed? Did the happy people have new devices such as tablets and smart phones that kept them entertained? Did the unhappy find the smart phone’s data plan to be too expensive? I just don’t think there was enough information shared in this article to convince me that happiness is as simple as feeling less rushed and not being bored.
   
   Whenever we make conclusions based on surveys, thus statistics, we are in trouble. Statistics are a great way to guide us to asking more questions, but a bad way to answer questions. Especially to answer one of the greatest questions of all, what makes us happy.

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5. 5. cping500 04:16 AM 2/21/13

   Psychologists have long since distinguished between 'pressure' and 'stress'. Physiologists have worked out the implications of how the hormones are involved, and counselors have many techniques to suggest to help.
   
   Now we can say 'if we manage these two conditions properly we will be happy :-)' The recipe is just enough pressure.

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6. 6. ultimobo in reply to tiny bird43 04:44 AM 2/21/13

   thanks Dude - I'm thinking of retiring but am afraid of just what you say - when we work we feel stress, when we retire we feel stress, about what to do !
   
   Actually on my last long holiday (testing thoughts about retirement) - guess what - I found a new source of stress - a sore bum from sitting down too long !
   
   So that was a whole new stress - if I'm retired and need to sit down but can't because I get a sore bum - OMG - what a nightmare ! (since resolved by setting up a standing desk for my computer, but you get the point - in solving one problem we tend to create new ones)
   
   So I guess we can feel stress no matter our context - perhaps analogous to our 'return to the mean' of our happiness or financial state for working class lottery winners who blow the lot to return to not having anything ...

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7. 7. Nicholasunik 04:50 PM 2/21/13

   What Ultimobo refers to is well known to the transportation safety community as 'risk compensation', but I think there is something more fundamental at work here. As, if you will pardon me, metabolic processes, unlike inanimate objects, we may have an optimum level of activity, possibly determined by evolution over a long period. Every time I hear someone talking about 'saving energy' (in the bodily sense), I ask 'why would I want to?'. This realisation could, paradoxically, be part of the solution to the so-called 'energy crisis'.

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8. 8. bucketofsquid 05:57 PM 3/6/13

   I think it primarily comes down to purpose. If you have no purpose to your life then no matter what you do or how busy you are, you won't be happy. People with excess leisure time tend to be less happy because they have less purpose for living. This is why parents and married people live longer than childless singles.

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9. 9. tiny bird43 in reply to bucketofsquid 04:39 AM 3/15/13

   I think you are right!!!

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