The existing studies have shown that focusing on the future brings academic success, and reminiscing on the positive past experiences increases one’s happiness. But if a certain time perspective starts to dominate an individual’s view of time to the extent that it excludes or minimizes the others, it may become dysfunctional. There are costs and sacrifices associated with over-emphasizing any one of the temporal zones. For example, even past-positive orientation has drawbacks that may include being excessively conservative, cautious, avoiding change and openness to new experiences and cultures, sustaining the status quo, or trying to apply old solutions to new problems.

Nancy Luksch

Our sense of time influences our choices, decisions and emotional needs. We tend to make different choices depending on our value of time, our focus on the present or the future and by regulating and justifying these choices we try to maintain a sense of overall well-being.

Time is an important issue for most of us, especially in the West. We save it, spend it, waste it, we never have enough of it. The concept of ‘time famine' has become a familiar slogan in both academic literature and the popular media. 34% of people feel rushed all the time, with 61% never having any excess time and 40% saying that time is a bigger problem for them than money. Time has a vicious habit of slipping through our fingers, leaving us with the feeling that instead of being in charge of our own time, it is driving us. We are not just busy at work, we are busy everywhere - at home, on the golf course, even on holidays.