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April 2012

‘Putting value to time may diminish your happiness’

By Tarunkumar Singhal, Raman Jokhakar, Chartered Accountants
Reading Time 1 mins
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Time is money, as the old adage goes. But, believing it too much may be bad for your overall happiness, scientists say. In a series of studies, researchers at Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto found that when people were prompted to think of their time in terms of money, they felt more impatient and received less enjoyment from leisurely activities, such as surfing Internet or listening to music, unless they were being paid to do so.

The results indicate this mindset may affect our ability to enjoy leisure time, and they have implications for our ability to ‘smell the proverbial roses’, study authors Sanford DeVoe and Julian House were quoted as saying by Live Science. They pointed out that national surveys have shown that while the number of leisure hours has increased in the US over the past 50 years, there has been no accompanying increase in happiness. Instead, people report feeling more time pressure, they said.

The study also found that when participants were paid to listen to music, after being prompted to think about their time in terms of money, they derived more enjoyment from the experience.

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