Why it feels like we’re short on time

Tick tock. Ever feel like there are never enough hours in the day? You’re not imagining it. Researchers set out to understand why so many people feel “time poor” and whether it truly is just about having too little free time — or if there’s something deeper going on. They analyzed daily diaries from thousands of participants in the U.S. and China, tracking how many hours people had free and how those hours were spent. They found that people’s sense of time scarcity wasn’t strictly tied to the number of free hours they had. In reality, people often had plenty of free time in their day, but they still felt short on it. So, what gives? It depended on the quality of that free time and the mental state of people during it. For example, if someone has a free hour each day, they feel much less time scarce if it’s an uninterrupted hour versus fifteen minutes here and there. Spending that hour in a state of flow helps, too. So perhaps the secret to having more time might not about cramming more hours into your day but about making the hours you have count. Mind the gap. We know economic inequality is a pressing social problem, but how does it affect our mental health? A meta-analysis set out to answer that question. Researchers dug through 168 studies that included over 11 million people. On average, they found that inequality didn’t reliably lower life satisfaction or happiness. In other words, looking at entire populations, economic inequality itself doesn’t automatically make people feel worse about their lives. But the picture changes depending on income: inequality does seem to harm mental health for people in lower-income groups, and it lowers well-being on the whole during times of high inflation. The researchers said inequality might be particularly harmful to low-income folks “possibly by undermining community cohesion, fostering adverse social comparison, or fueling perceptions of unfairness.” For people who earn a little more, these effects might not be as obvious. Overall, this study shows that economic inequality’s effects on well-being depend on context. Pivot! When should you stay the course in life, and when should you shift with changing tides? Listen to learn more. The Paradox of Pleasure: Psychiatrist Anna Lembke argues that our conception of addiction is far too narrow — and that a broader understanding of it might help us to understand why so many people are anxious and depressed. Stephanie Cole’s Story On her first Christmas rush shift, teenage Stephanie froze at the register — until a customer helped her breathe again. The woman’s insistence that she “take your time” has stayed with her for decades. Don’t forget to send us the story of your unsung hero! Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org. Good news! The Hidden Brain tour continues, and we’ve added more stops. Join our host Shankar Vedantam as he brings seven key insights from the first decade of Hidden Brain to the stage. You don’t want to miss it! How can you throw a ball as hard as you can and have it come back to you, even if it doesn’t bounce off anything? There is nothing attached to it, and no one else catches or throws it back to you. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? The answer: Short Have an idea for Hidden Brain? A story you want to share with us? Send an email to ideas@hiddenbrain.org. Listen to us on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music or your favorite podcast platform.