If it is Tuesday, you luckily think it is not Monday already, but still, most of the week is yet to come. When it comes to the weekend you will hardly believe it because Tuesday seems endless. You may hope naively it’s Thursday already. But no. There is no mistake, judging by the calendar. There are four days until the weekend. Monday was eons of time ago, it should be at least Wednesday. Seemingly. We closed our eyes, opened our eyes – no, it’s Tuesday again. Damn, how did we let it come like this again? Why does this day ruin our lives week after week?
There is a suspicion that only the one who created the world in all its strangeness knows the answer. Or Ruth Ogden, a psychologist from Liverpool John Moores University, who studies time perception. She believes that the reason we get bored on Tuesday has to do with Mondays.
“For most working people, Monday is the hardest day,” explains Dr. Ogden. – “The day when you need to sort the mail received over the weekend, finish the work postponed on Friday, determine the plan for the week, process a lot of information… As a result, Mondays are long and tiring – after a Monday, it would be nice to have a day off again. Therefore, the first thought when you wake up in the morning is “My God, is it Tuesday?!”
According to Ogden, one of the main factors in the perception of time is the emotions experienced. On Monday, we are usually busy, and tasks are hardly done – additional mobilization of resources after the weekend takes more time. On Tuesday, Monday fatigue is complemented by a bleak acknowledgment of the endlessness of workdays, adding a note of disappointment to the general tension.
The situation will get easier with age, but definitely not on Tuesdays. “Older people often say that time seems to speed up for them, and each New Year comes faster,” confirms Ogden. Sounds like good news, but we know – January is inexorably coming after each New Year, and then it is February overnight! Comparing months to days of the week, what is Tuesday if not February? Holidays or weekends, which everyone is looking forward to, will slip by unnoticed, and February and Tuesday will never end. The question is, where is justice? Why does time speed up, but then it invariably stops on Tuesday? Can you tell me, by the way, what time is it? No, seriously?!
There was a hope that Dr. Ogden would provide a scientific tip or suggest a way to come to terms with Tuesdays so that we would not all wither during our prime years. Alas, instead of radical techniques or a magic pill she (what a surprise!) suggests being aware and mindful.
According to Ogden, mindfulness is a very beneficial practice as it reduces the real-time distortion that the brain is capable of. The main thing here is to relax, in any usual way, to reduce the number of actions performed and to slow down breathing. A moderate pace of inhalation and exhalation creates the impression that time is moving faster than it actually is.
This is an interesting tactic, which, unfortunately, is only appropriate in certain situations. For example, during relatively short and unpleasant medical procedures rather than during an eight-hour working day.