Unless your employer is Lumon Industries where the Severance workday never ends, a canceled meeting can feel like a gift of limitless time.
A Rutgers University study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research explains why: Unexpectedly gaining time alters our perception of how that time passes, which in turn affects how we spend it.
"An hour gained feels longer than 60 minutes, and that deviation from expectation creates a unique sense of opportunity," said Gabriela Tonietto , an associate professor of marketing at the Rutgers Business School and lead author of the study.
In business, time management is a critical ingredient of productivity, and for Tonietto, that fact has become a rich area of study. Her past work has examined the hidden costs of over-scheduling, "time famine" – a perpetual sense of insufficient time – and the benefits of having nothing to do.
For this study, Tonietto and colleagues at Ohio State University, the University of Toronto and Peking University asked whether gained time (what they call "windfall time") feels subjectively longer and whether that changes how people use unexpected free time.
They created and conducted seven surveys measuring psychological and behavioral responses to gaining time. Respondents were recruited on the researchers' campuses and through online platforms such as Prolific. More than 2,300 people participated.
In the first four surveys, respondents compared gained time with other equal-length periods of free time. Statistical analysis showed that gained intervals feel subjectively expanded: A gained hour feels longer than an hour that was always free.
"Gained intervals of time are uniquely judged against the implicit reference point of having no free time, leading to a contrast effect for subjective magnitude," the researchers wrote. "As a result, equivalent intervals of time feel perceptually longer when gained versus expected to be free."
The researchers then examined how people spend windfall time. In the remaining three surveys, participants reported intended and actual behavior when they had expanded time. Across these studies, people typically chose longer activities than they otherwise would.
For example, an office worker with an unexpected free hour might opt for a 45-minute task over a 30-minute task, in part because time feels more abundant. Similarly, an employee with a surprise gap in their schedule might opt to walk to the coffee shop rather than grab a hurried cup in the breakroom.
"Participants who gained time chose longer activities, whether the activity was productive or time-wasting," the researchers wrote.
The bottom line: The sense of abundance made more feel possible.
The findings help explain how people think about and spend their day, insights that may guide organizations to design schedules that enable flexibility without unintentionally encouraging procrastination or drift during newly opened moments, Tonietto said.
Still, don't expect bosses to start canceling meetings at random. Tonietto said doing so could backfire and hurt worker output.
"The more unexpected the gain is, the more likely you are to be unproductive," she said. "Canceling something at the very last minute can guide people toward leisure."
In other words, the next time a meeting is canceled, "take the gift and make the most of it" – however you define it, Tonietto said.
