If there is anything more challenging than managing time at work — I can’t think of it. According to new research our brain cleverly ‘adjusts’ time based on what and how you are thinking about! This New York Times article can help you improve your performance and productivity by knowing how your brain handles ‘time’.
“Yet the sensation of passing time can be very different, Dr. Zauberman said, “depending on what you think about, and how.”
“In fact, scientists are not sure how the brain tracks time. One theory holds that it has a cluster of cells specialized to count off intervals of time; another that a wide array of neural processes act as an internal clock.
Either way, studies find, this biological pacemaker has a poor grasp of longer intervals. Time does seem to slow to a trickle during an empty afternoon and race when the brain is engrossed in challenging work.
Stimulants, including caffeine, tend to make people feel as if time is passing faster; complex jobs, like doing taxes, can seem to drag on longer than they actually do.
And emotional events — a breakup, a promotion, a transformative trip abroad — tend to be perceived as more recent than they actually are, by months or even years.”
For the whole New York Times article see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/health/05mind.html