如何克服“時(shí)間饑荒”，提高幸福感?

如何克服“時(shí)間饑荒”，提高幸福感?

Ashley Whillans' summer started with what she calls "time famine."

阿什利·惠蘭斯的夏天始于她所謂的“時(shí)間饑荒”。

Time famine, a term that first emerged in the scientific literature around 1999, refers to the universal feeling of having too much to do but not enough time to deal with those demands.

“時(shí)間饑荒”一詞最早出現(xiàn)在1999年左右的科學(xué)文獻(xiàn)中，指的是人們普遍認(rèn)為有太多事情要做，但沒(méi)有足夠的時(shí)間來(lái)處理這些需求。

After earning her doctorate degree in social psychology at the University of British Columbia in Canada, Whillans was offered a coveted assistant professorship at Harvard Business School. Last month, Whillans and her husband uprooted to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States -- and it was overwhelming, she said.

在加拿大不列顛哥倫比亞大學(xué)(University of British Columbia)獲得社會(huì)心理學(xué)博士學(xué)位后，惠蘭斯獲得了哈佛商學(xué)院(Harvard Business School)令人垂涎的助理教授職位。上個(gè)月，惠蘭斯和她的丈夫搬到了美國(guó)馬薩諸塞州的劍橋-她說(shuō)，這讓人不知所措。

"I had multiple demands on my time. I was immigrating to a new country. I was trying to move to a new city. I was trying to move to a new job," Whillans said.

“我有很多事情要做。我要移民到一個(gè)新的國(guó)家。我想搬到一個(gè)新的城市。我想換份新工作。

She felt as if there weren't enough hours in the days leading up to her big move, she added. In that moment, Whillans thought about her own research on how to buy time. Suddenly, she put her research findings into action.

她補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，她覺(jué)得在她大搬家之前的日子里沒(méi)有足夠的時(shí)間。在那一刻，惠蘭斯想到了她自己關(guān)于如何爭(zhēng)取時(shí)間的研究。突然，她把她的研究成果付諸行動(dòng)。

"We find that spending money on time-saving purchases promotes daily happiness and reduces negative mood, because it protects us from the time stress that we feel in our daily lives," Whillans said. "So, I definitely have used in the last few weeks time-saving services," such as grocery delivery or house cleaning services, car services like Uber or Lyft, or paying a teen in the neighborhood to mow the lawn.

惠蘭斯說(shuō):“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，把錢(qián)花在節(jié)省時(shí)間的購(gòu)物上可以促進(jìn)日常幸福感，減少負(fù)面情緒，因?yàn)樗梢宰屛覀兠馐苋粘Ｉ钪械臅r(shí)間壓力。”“所以，在過(guò)去的幾周里，我肯定使用了節(jié)省時(shí)間的服務(wù)，”比如雜貨送貨或房屋清潔服務(wù)，優(yōu)步(Uber)或Lyft等汽車(chē)服務(wù)，或者花錢(qián)請(qǐng)附近的青少年幫忙修剪草坪。

Spending discretionary dollars on time-saving purchases may protect you from the detrimental effects that a time famine can have on your happiness, suggests a new study of which Whillans served as lead author.

一項(xiàng)由威蘭斯擔(dān)任主要作者的新研究表明，把可自由支配的錢(qián)花在節(jié)省時(shí)間的購(gòu)物上，可能會(huì)讓你免受時(shí)間匱乏對(duì)幸福感的有害影響。

How so? Buying time could provide a buffer against such time famine, thereby promoting overall well-being and happiness, according to the study, which published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

怎么會(huì)這樣?根據(jù)周一發(fā)表在“美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)院院刊”上的這項(xiàng)研究，購(gòu)物的時(shí)間可以為此類(lèi)時(shí)間饑荒提供緩沖，從而提升整體幸福感和幸福感。

The new study included self-reported data on 6,271 adults from the United States, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands. The data were collected through questionnaire-based studies and an experiment.

這項(xiàng)新研究包括來(lái)自美國(guó)、加拿大、丹麥和荷蘭的6271名成年人的自我報(bào)告數(shù)據(jù)。這些數(shù)據(jù)是通過(guò)問(wèn)卷調(diào)查和實(shí)驗(yàn)收集的。

The adults, of various income levels, all shared information about whether they tend to spend money -- and how much -- on time-saving purchases, as well as how satisfied they feel with their lives.

不同收入水平的成年人都分享了關(guān)于他們是否傾向于在節(jié)省時(shí)間的購(gòu)物上花錢(qián)——以及花了多少錢(qián)——以及他們對(duì)生活的滿(mǎn)意度的信息。

The researchers found that, regardless of income level, spending money to buy time was associated with greater life satisfaction. They also found that the negative effects of feeling stressed for time were reduced among those who reported making time-saving purchases, such as paying others to clean their home or run errands, for instance.

研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，無(wú)論收入水平如何，花錢(qián)買(mǎi)時(shí)間與更高的生活滿(mǎn)意度有關(guān)。他們還發(fā)現(xiàn)，時(shí)間緊張的負(fù)面影響在那些表示購(gòu)買(mǎi)省時(shí)物品的人身上有所減輕，比如花錢(qián)請(qǐng)別人打掃房間或跑腿。

"What we actually find in our data is that the role of time-saving purchases is independent from the role of income in predicting happiness," Whillans said.

“我們實(shí)際上在我們的數(shù)據(jù)中發(fā)現(xiàn)，省時(shí)購(gòu)物的作用與收入在預(yù)測(cè)幸福方面的作用是獨(dú)立的，”惠蘭斯說(shuō)。

"Across studies we find that people who spend money in ways that allow them to have more free time report greater life satisfaction," she said. "The way that people are spending money, and in this case, spending money to buy themselves free time, has a similar positive association with happiness as how much money people make."

“通過(guò)研究，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)那些花錢(qián)讓他們有更多空閑時(shí)間的人報(bào)告說(shuō)他們的生活滿(mǎn)意度更高，”她說(shuō)。“人們花錢(qián)的方式，在這種情況下，花錢(qián)買(mǎi)自己的空閑時(shí)間，與人們賺多少錢(qián)與幸福有著相似的正相關(guān)。”