Free Time

Do you ever feel like life is moving too fast? That work demands and your never-ending to-do list are taking up more and more hours in the day? Do you struggle to focus on the things you really love doing? When was the last time you did absolutely nothing? We live in a state of heightened time pressure, in a society where busyness is a highly valued trait because it is seen as synonymous with success, and where empty time is perceived to be wasted time. Often the choices we make about how we fill our time – scrolling social media – leave us feeling unfulfilled and guilty, and this can have dire consequences for our physical and mental health. But knowing more about the psychology of time – about how the brain processes time and the myriad ways that time perception changes within and across our lives – can help us to make better, more satisfying, choices. It can give us the power to make the bad times feel short and the good times last longer – an hour in the dentist chair can fly by in a second, but poolside afternoons will seem to last for days. And it can give us the ability to carve out time that is truly free. In Free Time, Ruth Ogden, Professor of the Psychology of Time, offers a new framework for thinking about the minutes, hours, days and weeks of our lives, showing you how to find a slower, happier pace of life. She reveals why prioritising free time is so important to our physical and mental health, and how we can harness the power of time to live better now, and in the future.