Time management: does feeling less rushed mean having more capacity?
In Zurich's financial services, insurance, tech and European headquarters of international groups, perceived availability can influence how assignments are allocated. The managerial question is precise: can someone who feels less rushed reasonably be given more work?
What the literature establishes
Cassie Mogilner, Zoë Chance and Michael I. Norton (2012, Psychological Science) show across several experiments that spending time on others can increase people's sense of having time available. Their findings support a mechanism involving a heightened sense of personal efficacy. This is a change in perception, not evidence that participants objectively have more hours or greater productive capacity.
A perception shaped by experience
Melanie Rudd, Kathleen D. Vohs and Jennifer Aaker (2012, Psychological Science) show that experiencing awe can also increase perceived time availability by bringing people into the present moment. This second finding clarifies the distinction between measured time and experienced time: perceptions can change without a corresponding change in the calendar. It does not, however, provide a validated method for regulating workplace workload.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that encouraging people to help others is enough to reduce overload. These studies do not support that conclusion: feeling more capable or less rushed does not mean that existing commitments have become less demanding. Turning this improvement in well-being into additional assignments would confuse a psychological resource with operational capacity. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot decide
These experiments do not amount to long-term validation in Zurich teams facing regulatory, commercial or technical deadlines. They establish neither an optimal amount of time to give to others nor an availability threshold that would justify another assignment. Conversely, a record of hours is not enough to describe experienced pressure: the two dimensions deserve separate examination.
A practical check in Zurich
As part of SHR — Swiss Human Resources' “Time Management & Prioritisation” programme, a Zurich team could test a daily record for two weeks, combining a rating of perceived availability with a count of commitments falling due and actually met. The main measure would be the proportion of commitments met by the agreed date, compared across days of low and high perceived availability, while documenting changes in workload and complexity. If perceptions improve without a corresponding improvement in commitments met, this does not establish an absence of benefit, but neither does it justify adding assignments. This descriptive check makes it possible to discuss prioritisation without automatically converting reported improvements in well-being into additional capacity. To go further: explore the Time Management & Prioritisation training in Zurich in the canton of Zurich, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
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