Just as we have an individual personality, we also have a "time personality". The personality captures our relationship to time: whether we're punctual (守时的), how much time we believe we have, and specific time-related habits we may display. According to Kristin Anderson, founder of Madison Square Psychotherapy, time personality is our natural style when it comes to managing time. For the majority of us, our time personality tends to fall along a range, from very rigid to very flexible.
Here's a brief overview of four common time personalities. A "time optimist" tends to underestimate how long things take, leading to a pattern of ongoing delays. On the other end of the range, we have the "time anxious" personality. These people tend to be anxious to begin with. They also assume everything might go wrong (e. g., traffic delays, getting lost). Therefore, they show up to commitments far in advance. Those in the "time bender" category are driven by their emotions, or inspiration. They seem to live in their own personal time zone, maximizing "flow state" when they've entered it. For those who identify with the "time blind" personality, sensing the passage of time is challenging. They might start a task and, by the time they check the clock, an entire hour has disappeared somehow.
What exactly drives our varying relationships with time perception? Personality is a key player. People characterized by competitiveness, ambition, and drive may be more likely to be time anxious and rigid about schedules. In contrast, those who have characteristics like patience, calmness and cooperativeness tend to be flexible and may lean toward being time benders. Neurobiological factors also play a role. Higher dopamine (多巴胺) levels in the brain can speed up the brain's internal clock, impacting our perception of time. Finally, age can affect our time perception. This is because adults have fewer new experiences and slower dopamine metabolism (新陈代谢), which makes time seem like it's going by faster than it actually is.
While each time personality comes with its own set of drawbacks when not properly managed, the good news is that we can work with these tendencies to manage our time better.