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Home / Lifestyle

Helping others can give you free time: study

Daily Mail
18 Jul, 2012 12:00 AMQuick Read

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Researchers believe giving time to help others boosts our sense of personal competence and efficiency which stretches out time in our minds. Photo / Thinkstock

Researchers believe giving time to help others boosts our sense of personal competence and efficiency which stretches out time in our minds. Photo / Thinkstock

If you're always feeling there aren't enough hours in the day, the answer could be to do a favour for someone else, say scientists.

Despite the fact it involves giving up some of that precious time, devoting a few hours or even just minutes to others can make us feel as if we actually have more free time, a study claims.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania compared the effects of 'chillaxing', or wasting time, and giving time - for example, writing a letter to a sick child.

They found that those who did the latter felt they had more time on their hands, reports the journal Psychological Science.

Study leader Cassie Mogilner believes this is because giving away time boosts one's sense of personal competence and efficiency, and this stretches out time in our minds.

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She said: 'Our results demonstrate that the way time is spent can also impact time-perception.

'When individuals feel time-constrained, they should become more generous with their time despite their inclination to be less so.'

- Daily Mail

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