THE WEATHER

Age, gender, culture all play a role in influencing temporal perception. Jones describes cultures as having a "future time perspective" (a high value placed on distal or future goals) and a "present time perspective" (a high value placed on proximal goals) and argues that the specific demands of the culture one lives in create environments that demand a particular temporal perspective (Jones 1988). Further research on the perceived flow of time finds that perceptions of time have been linked to changes in well-being. Under pressure, the sense that time for an activity is scarce, has been associated with stress, fatigue and diminished physical and mental health (Larson, 2006). Conversely, that pressure is lifted when we carve out space for unstructured or leisure time, though not always an easy task. The Time-Pressure Illustion: Discretionary Time vs. Free Time was an Austrailian research study (2004) that explored whether the ‘time pressure’ that people feel they are under is real or imagined – or, more precisely, whether it is a matter of choice or of necessity. The study finds that those who feel most overworked – those who have least ‘free time’ – largely do it to themselves.