Time Poverty vs Flow State: Mastering Your Experience of Time

Ep 139. Time is one of the most powerful forces shaping human experience. Yet most people feel as though they never have enough of it. Deadlines, responsibilities, emergencies, and perceived threats create a psychological compression of time. In moments of urgency or danger, the nervous system shifts into survival mode, and our sense of time becomes intensified. Seconds feel precious, decisions feel heavier, and pressure increases.

But the human experience of time is not fixed—it is deeply influenced by our state of awareness, emotional regulation, and perception.

When we are in harmony with time, life feels different. Instead of urgency and pressure, we experience flow—a state where attention becomes fully engaged in the present moment. In this state, time can feel expansive. Minutes pass gently. Creativity increases. Gratitude and curiosity arise naturally. Rather than feeling rushed, we feel grounded, focused, and connected to what we are doing.

Psychologists sometimes describe the opposite experience as “time poverty.” When we feel time-poor, our awareness is dominated by the sense that time is slipping away too quickly. We become trapped in what could be called uptime awareness—constantly watching the clock, anticipating the next obligation, and feeling that there is never enough space to breathe.

Fortunately, our relationship with time can be trained.

Practices such as mindfulness, gratitude, present-moment awareness, and intentional focus can expand our subjective experience of time. When we cultivate appreciation and presence, the mind slows down enough to perceive more detail, more opportunity, and more possibility within each moment.

Over time, this becomes a skill.

Learning to regulate our perception of time allows us to perform better under pressure and experience greater enjoyment in daily life. This ability becomes a powerful resource for self-regulation, emotional control, and performance across many domains—including work, athletics, martial arts training, self-defense, learning environments, and academic performance.

Mastering time is not about controlling the clock. It is about mastering the state of mind that experiences it.

With awareness, intention, and practice, time can move from being a source of pressure to becoming a resource for clarity, resilience, and grace under pressure.

Take care. Walk well.

Transcript

Welcome back folks to episode 139 of the Running Man Self-Regulation Skills Project Podcast with me, your host Dr. Armando Dominguez, PhD in Health Psychology, licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at a local community college. And what we're going to be discussing today surrounds the idea of time. And this is going to be a very practical application podcast today in the sense, what do I do?

whenever I feel like I'm running out of time, what do I do whenever time seems to be running out? Because I'm so busy or in a hurry or worried that I don't have enough time. And also what do I do to make the difference where I can feel like I have comfort in time that sense I feel I have enough time. And what are the things that shift whenever I am in essence in control of time, not that time is anything that we can put our hands on, but these are very important things and self-regulatory skills,

Especially if whenever you are in a situation that is potentially dangerous to you or bothersome, time shifts in the sense of how we perceive it. And what we're going to call it is chronoception. That is not a new term I've come up with. That is something that is being passed around on the internet. It's a really cool idea. But basically our perception of time and how do we shift that to benefit us whenever it is that I have to do something, when I have to do more in less time and whenever I really need to just

slow down whenever I feel like time is running away from me and what I can do to gain the most one comfort to experience three presence that I can enjoy what it is that I'm doing and not feel like I'm running out of time and it didn't last long enough. So without further ado, we're going to step forward into time.

To start off with, whenever we feel like the song says that time is on my side, what do I mean by that? Generally speaking, that means that I am in flow, and feel like I have not so much control of time, but then I feel like I have plenty of time to do what it is that I am doing. And, being a pragmatist as I am, the reason I am so darn pragmatic, it has to do with what works and what doesn't whenever under duress. And I do a lot of drilling,

armando (02:54.563)
of hand and knife drills to maintain my...

response time and what would be literally about a quarter or a second where I have to decide and act on what to do. Now it helps to be familiar and that's part of the secret of being able to make time leverage in your direction. But also that sense of how much time you have going in. You already know in many cases how much space you have to work with and that space in quotes is what I'm talking about whenever I mean time and

If you were to look at it in the sense that it's a linear measurable sense, then we could get a clock on the wall or like I usually like to have nearby is my little stopwatch. I'm enamored of stopwatches because it really points out how we separate and divide time and how much we can divide and separate it from seconds to half seconds, tens of seconds, this sort of thing. And hundreds of seconds. If you have a digital stopwatch, which I think are really cool. I like the metal ones.

But without going too far off the path, the reason I like those is that you can reset time as well. So we have a sense of time elapsing. That's the experience that the body feels and it's not measured on the clock. And that's experienced time. And then you have time measured in the sense that we have a device that we can relate to a length of measured.

time that has gone by that we can determine and count and number and divide somehow. So these tools that we call stopwatches are helpful. Also our watches that are digital can give us an idea as to what we're working with. But precision is one of the things that falls within this sense of time. But also if we become precise and we lend what we're doing activity within that space of time to the clock or tie it to that, then it can become pressured.

armando (04:47.691)
it can become uncomfortable and much of how we see time and how we feel activity is enjoyable is tied together to what it is that our expected outcome is within that sense of time or a

patch of time that we're working within, then we can take some of the joy out of what we're doing if we're trying to do something that's enjoyable. But I was talking about pragmatic earlier. And the reason I mentioned that is that whenever I train, is with the sense of urgency that if somebody were to try to strike me, if somebody were to try to cut me or hit me with a stick or anything like that, that I would hope to one, be able to know what to do to be able to get out of the way. And three, do it in a sense of time that breaks

the timing of the person trying to strike me, which means I'm kind of ahead of time, is the goal to be able to get there before he does. Or at the very least, if I meet them in time, that means that we're moving equivalently and that means I may have set them up for another option in the sense that they may want to strike or cut me or whatever again. And my goal is to not be there ultimately, as far as wherever the impact would otherwise occur.

Now, one of the best senses of timing is to be early. So if I get there before the hand pulls back,

and starts to strike and I can move, then my timing is ahead. That means that I am faster than their timing and I've thrown their sense or expected timing off if it is an adversarial thing. But what about the pragmatic thing when it applies to work? If I'm doing something, whenever I know that I feel like I've arrived late, maybe I did arrive late, and to be as efficient as possible, I want to get to what I'm doing, organize what it is that I'm doing so I'm not losing time and getting the things that I need.

armando (06:37.669)
need to get that task done, so to speak. That kind of helps. So being familiar and being able to have what you need helps with that sense of I can more urgently do something and get it done within a shortened span of time if necessary. But once again, whenever we tie what we do to time, and then our emphasis is on the outcome in the sense of having to do with work, for instance, then there's a pressure quality that comes along and it takes the joy out of it some

Sometimes, not always, sometimes that sort of thing can be very exciting, especially if we can get it done, then there's a little bit of a payoff, so to speak, and we do get some oxytocin bonding as well as some adrenaline possibly during that. And our general sense of well-being, our serotonin, if it's at a decent level, will not be fighting us in the sense that we're not fighting against a state that could be potentially depressive if we're looking at lower levels of serotonin or disrupted levels of serotonin, mind you.

And not that you have to worry about that, but I'm just kind of giving you a little insider's view on that. But what does that have to do with time? Well, has a lot to do with self-regulation and also how we perceive time often has to do with our general state of being. Am I present? One, am I paying attention in the moment and not worried about what's coming next or what I'll be doing 30 minutes from now, or I was, let's say, maybe not enjoying my task and it's like, my God, I wish this was over.

already. And if we're fretting about it, that means I'm splitting my attention. I'm worrying about the impact of it on me at the moment, and also worrying that I have to do all of this before I go and do that. And that can diverge our sense of flow, so to speak, to where it feels like I am counting time second by second, and it's dragging. That can give you that sense, or that perception of, more correctly, of time slowing down, but not in the good sense where it's helpful. Now,

you

armando (08:37.648)
two terms. One is the time dilation, wherever time expands is something that many folks that do sports that involves speed and movement experience. People that like to surf, people that ski downhill talk a lot about that time, timing experience, wherever it feels like they're in flow and everything just moving. They're not worried about time, but they're just kind of experiencing without worrying about time. And it seems like that sense of measurement falls away.

allows for more attentiveness to what it is that one is doing, especially if it's enjoyable. But what about whenever it's something that's dangerous? Sometimes we have something called tacky psyche and that's where everything tends to slow down around you and things seem to not only move slowly, but it's like they're moving through molasses or like they're falling through a medium like water and you're in it and immersed in time. That's not always a negative thing. I've had a peak experience similar to and it was just

completely spontaneous and that is what put me on the path of perceptual psychology many years ago whenever I was still an undergrad and the thing is whenever things feel like they're taken forever it can be a non enjoyable thing but it can also be as a result of an adrenaline drop in the immediacy of stress. Many first responders, police officers and soldiers in particular speak about whenever things turn on and become dangerous in the moment and guns go off.

and there is no expectation of it. After the fact, there is no ringing in the ears. There is just whatever happened that they report. often it feels like their hands were moving slow when in actuality it was really fast. And whenever we know, let's say we go to a gun range and go shoot, and we expect, and yes, we're in air protection and all that, but you know that it's going to be gunfire and there's no surprise there.

And if you're not wearing any protection, you will get ringing in the ears. Whereas if you're not expecting it, often the body does not get that ringing. And that's a physiological, interesting change that occurs, it's reported whenever it's a surprising, dangerous situation, all of a sudden that wasn't expected. Other things go along, but I'm just pointing this out as one of the little details that may pop up as a result of a sudden experience. And the suddenness may lend itself to how we

armando (11:03.323)
either positively or negatively experience time elapsing. And that also determines how well we may be doing at our task. If it's getting out of here or climbing a rock to make sure we don't get eaten by a mountain lion. Definitely, we're not worrying about time at that point, more so just about what I'm doing in the moment. And that's immersion of sorts. Now the next part, what I'd like to talk about as far as time, what can I do to consciously control what it is that I consider my perception of time? Well, there are

couple of things. One of the first things that you can do is going to be if you have a set time, let's say, and you have a timer on the clock, on the wall rather, and let's say it has a second hand, don't pay attention to it. But let's say you have to get done by 1.30 and it's one o'clock and you have a number of things to do. Let's say you're cooking something and you have a number of things to do.

you have to do the veg prep, you have to start chopping vegetables, have to start boiling some water so you can, let's say, make a soup, for instance, and you have to get the pieces of meat and whatever else you're going to be putting in there. And you do things in an orderly fashion, but you also do them efficiently. And you realize that you want to get this done within five minutes so you can get done by 130. And that way can get everything in by about 110 and into the pot. And you're getting that hot water to get

boiling, so you have to get it to a certain point. So you have to watch that. You kind of have an idea that takes about eight to ten minutes, so that way this soup that you're making will be fully cooked by 130, or at least in the pot and almost completely cooked by 130. So we have a goal, but

Let's start chopping the garlic, then you start chopping the onions, then you start chopping carrots in a certain way, then you start doing celery and whatnot, and pretty soon you get all of that dumping in the water as it starts to boil, then you start getting your pieces of meat cutting into cubes or sizes that you want. do that and maybe you need to do some potatoes. So you have to go and wash potatoes and you don't necessarily want to peel them. You want to leave them with the peel on. So now you slice them in a certain way. You're chopping them certain way, but you're doing them in an order, but you compress

armando (13:12.457)
all that within to a set time frame. And the more activity you put into, let's say, a one minute to three minute time frame, just for the point of argument to this point, is that I'd like you to understand that the more things you can do within that short span of time, the more attention is required.

the less attentive it is to watching the clock, but rather having an idea as to a goal. Keep it in the back of your mind, yes, but the more that you do and compress into a point of time, the faster our perception of time goes. The more engaged you are in what you're doing, and the more activity you're compressing into a frame of time, will make your perception of time go faster. might go smoother, could be enjoyable if you have some music in the background to help you flow and get into the groove. That's helpful too.

But the idea is the more that you do within a time frame.

the faster it will go. And you may even experience senses of flow to where it feels like, wow, I just started, now I'm done. And you may even get done a little more efficiently and a little faster than expected. So that is one technique. The more you can squeeze in to a timeframe, the faster time will go. But also, if you are attentive enough, you might actually trigger an experience flow, which is a really cool thing. Now, the second thing is that if you want to experience time differently, where you feel like you

have more time. Whenever you don't want to have that sense of, I'm running out of time, versus immersing yourself into a timeframe intentionally that I only have so much time. Not that you feel like you're running out of time, but you know that there's a sense of urgency with this other one. It's getting rid of that sense of urgency and having a sense of presence instead. And the focus is being able to get into what you're doing. I will give a couple of quick examples. One is whenever you're, let's say, looking at a lovely flower,

armando (15:06.947)
and you take time to take in the details. Sometimes it's just one of those beautiful things that just captures your attention. There's no time to it, but there's an appreciation. There's a sense of gratitude that goes with this, and these are some key terms, appreciative and gratitude. So whenever you have these two senses of appreciation and gratitude going on, then you earn that sense of experience, immersive experience, and it's not deep necessarily. That makes it sound like you're jumping into this huge

ocean of experience. not that it can become that it can become rather immersive. If your mind is trained or not once in a while we get into something that's like, my goodness, look at that. That's so beautiful. That's amazing. You see the color. Do you see the details? And these aren't things you may be saying in words. It could be if you're with somebody and somebody may be trying to tell you that if they're taken aback by something that is so lovely, but appreciation of beauty, appreciation, appreciation of novelty, something new, something out of your ordinary, maybe

the instance I was speaking to a co-worker that does very specific beadwork and I was just immersed in the description of what it is that they were doing that was artwork having to do with Lord of the Rings for you specialty folks out there and these are things that this individual is hanging in the

room they showed me pictures it was really cool but the size of the little colored beads they call them jewels or gems and that's cool but the the meticulous nature of the job requires that you take each little individual one and you set it on the sticky medium and eventually get this beautiful picture but

the amount of time, months required, certainly was one thing that told me there's a time quality there, but there's also a sense of enjoyment of doing that. Some would say, and in the common colloquial, but not in the clinical sense, that's OCD type work. And it is a detailed orientation, but it's not one where it is uncomfortable necessarily if you immerse yourself intentionally, but it can become one if it doesn't go well. And the thing is there's a sense of time immersion.

armando (17:23.863)
and enjoyment that we move into where time is no longer the issue, but rather the experience of it that's that immersion or that presence. But there's also a gratitude for the opportunity because it is a skillful thing, but it's also one wherever you have an outcome, an expectation of beauty that will come as a result of the effort. So there's an appreciation. Those two senses actually help with that presence and also where time falls away.

and this is where now the task is not time dependent it is not tied to time so therefore it becomes something that is generally more enjoyable and it doesn't mean if you time to tie something to time it's not like if you're doing a fast shooting or using a bow and arrow trying to get so many hits on a target with under a certain time frame and it's a race that's very enjoyable that's fun so there the point i'm making is that there are two ways of

dealing with a task and this is one wherever you're doing fewer things within a time frame, wherever you can immerse yourself in the experience of doing, being present and being attentive without focusing hard in the sense that you're intending to, I can only do this, but rather allowing yourself to enjoy the process and that

can actually lend itself to what we call a dilation of time, wherever time seems to expand and go on forever, but not in the sense that this is never going to be over. But sometimes it can even lead itself to flow where it feels like you just started and wow, how many hours went by. But this will also give you a sense, once again, of enjoyment, immersion, the experience. Now there is a sense.

and I remember when I was very young and we were driving, I was not driving, my parents were, to a certain place out in Texas, South Texas, and I'd never enjoyed the ride because, well, being a kid, you don't have a whole lot of things to do other than just be aware and attentive, and everything is novel, yes, but there are some things that get very boring very quickly, such as being seated in the back seat of a car and expecting

armando (20:21.107)
and I would still kind of do that so we do have an internal sense of

Cronoception or time perception or how long time is and we've trained ourselves to that so that that is definitely a skill that can be built even if it's indirectly by just experiencing five more minutes and Not knowing what five minutes is but then we arrive and realize our body does what that five minutes is as an experience So these are some important things and I want to share them today because they're useful tools to self-regulation How so well whenever we self-regulate?

and that means to be able to maintain our emotional state and our physical sense of awareness and readiness without it getting out of hand if it's a stressful or dangerous event or also one that could be stressful in the sense that it has to do with work and feeling behind being able to keep ourselves at an even calm and unperturbed level of arousal or awareness is nothing but beneficial to us especially when we're speaking with people who are about to and

never stop serving you, but understand that everything that we do is intertwined with our concept of time and much of what we experience as time elapsed is very biologically based our experience of time that we learned and how that feels like and it's relatively accurate. Now there's some important things once again paying attention and noticing small details such as wonderful little elements of nature like songs birds and how they sing spring blossoms help us immerse

and also not worry about time, but sometimes being able to just have a sense of gratitude and appreciation helps. Learning how to meditate can help sharpen how we experience time and be able to feel like we have more grace in the moment without necessarily feeling hurried. On top of that, learning how to breathe to match what it is that we're doing whenever our breath becomes dysregulated that can disrupt our sense of flow or time and can also put us into a level of stress

armando (22:29.847)
where feels like we're running out of time. And we may touch upon those particular aspects relative to a sense of time later on. And I have covered different methods of regulating stress in the moment that kind of helped, but I didn't tie it necessarily to the concept of time, but it is very, very much important to keep our breath regulated whenever we're experiencing levels of eustress, enjoyment, distress when things aren't feeling so good. And also when we're just

and in Angelo, Texas, where I live. And I woke up to thunder and rain. thought it was lovely. I love the rain. It's awesome when it's warm. I don't like it when it's freezing, but I certainly have enjoyed hearing the rain this morning and sharing a little bit about time, time perception, and also how we can affect how we perceive time to make stress lessen our lives and to make life more enjoyable when we

are enjoying life out there doing stuff, seeing things that we enjoy and doing things that we like to do. So for now, I want to tell you, thank you for listening along and also pay attention, have gratitude, be appreciative. Those are the things that helped you get into that sense of flow and grace in your life that makes things much more enjoyable. When we're doing those things that we call our lives. And if you have any feedback for me or any comments or would like to reach out and ask me to talk about something in particular, please do. You can send it.

to the email at running man get skills project at Gmail. I'd love to hear from you. And for now, take care control that time or if not just flow with it or whatever you do. Take care. Walk well.