Editorial Review:Product Description:Your every significant choice -- every important decision you make -- is determined by a force operating deep inside your mind: your perspective on time -- your internal, personal time zone. This is the most influential force in your life, yet you are virtually unaware of it. Once you become aware of your personal time zone, you can begin to see and manage your life in exciting new ways.
In
The Time Paradox, Drs. Zimbardo and Boyd draw on thirty years of pioneering research to reveal, for the first time, how your individual time perspective shapes your life and is shaped by the world around you. Further, they demonstrate that your and every other individual's time zones interact to create national cultures, economics, and personal destinies.
You will discover what time zone you live in through Drs. Zimbardo and Boyd's revolutionary tests. Ask yourself:
• Does the smell of fresh-baked cookies bring you back to your childhood?
• Do you believe that nothing will ever change in your world?
• Do you believe that the present encompasses all and the future and past are mere abstractions?
• Do you wear a watch, balance your checkbook, and make to-do lists -- every day?
• Do you believe that life on earth is merely preparation for life after death?
• Do you ruminate over failed relationships?
• Are you the life of every party -- always late, always laughing, and always broke?These statements are representative of the seven most common ways people relate to time, each of which, in its extreme, creates benefits and pitfalls.
The Time Paradox is a practical plan for optimizing your blend of time perspectives so you get the utmost out of every minute in your personal and professional life as well as a fascinating commentary about the power and paradoxes of time in the modern world.
No matter your time perspective, you experience these paradoxes. Only by understanding this new psychological science of time zones will you be able to overcome the mental biases that keep you too attached to the past, too focused on immediate gratification, or unhealthily obsessed with future goals. Time passes no matter what you do -- it's up to you to spend it wisely and enjoy it well. Here's how.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Have Hammer, Find Nails
Psychology mumbo-jumbo. Authors confuse Causal and Correlation effects. The authors have a hammer, and they search and find nails to pound with it. They attribute nearly everything in life to their concept. It is poor science.
Rating: -
Interesting premise
About: Boyd and Zimbardo put forth that one's perspective of time (how one views the past, present and future) affects most all of a person's life. Includes Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory to measure your time perspectives
Pros: Interesting premise, easy to read, neat asides like lists of fairy tales and songs about time, sources cited.
Cons: I'm wary of single theories that try to explain all aspects of a person's life. Some sections seem a bit out of place, like the long list of what you should do when you retire, as well as the chapter on suicide bombers.
Rating: 
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Well worth the time . . .
I highly recommend this book! The Time Paradox is a great read and contains interesting stats and suggestions for gaining a "healthier time perspective". In addition to giving me new eyes with which I view and use my time, it answers questions about mine & my husband's differences. I am able to better understand why he does or doesn't do some things, and I understand why it's so instinctive for me to do or not do just about the opposite of that.
Every type-A personality who is married to, works with or has contact with non-type-A personalities (& vice versa) can benefit from doing these exercises. This book would be great in HR settings, and can help people better understand others' actions.
Take the quick test, and if you are willing to DO what's necessary to modify your time perspective even a little, you will see BIG changes in the way you relate to others, in the way you use your time, and in the amount of time you have to use.
One caution: my young kids aren't happy I read this book - I'm much more selective about how they (and I) use their time now.
Rating: 
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A Big, Rousing "Eh"
Nothing at all earth-shattering here -- might be useful for the less-than-introspective among us. It's not bad, it's just not anything special.
Rating: -
time paradox
I doubt this book will change your life, but it is an interesting read all the same.
The authors discuss the way in which we find ourselves obsessed with time. Interestingly, they point out that 3 of the most common nouns in the English language involve time (namely time, year, and day.....among the other common nouns are person, way, thing, man, world, life, and hand).
Zimbardo and Boyd also discuss the way in which our time orientation guides our choices and overall orientation. He divides people into 7 time-related categories that basically boil down to those who are (1) past oriented (2) present oriented or (3) future oriented. Zimbardo offers up an anecdote involving pre-school aged children, and demonstrates how, even at a young age, our time orientation can guide our behavior. Basically the children are offered either (1) one treat now or (2) two treats later if they practice delayed gratification. When they were interviewed years later, the psychologists discovered that "the third of children who were able to control their impulses at age four scored 210 points higher on verbal and math SAT scores than the impulse-driven four year olds....The ability to delay gratification at age four is twice as good a predictor of later SAT score as IQ. Poor impulse control is also a better predictor of juvenile delinquency than IQ" (p. 216).
Overall, it was a good read. Somewhat pedantic at times but generally engaging.
Zimbardo's other book, The Lucifer Effect, is outstanding. Skip the first few chapters and go straight to his account of the Stanford Prison Experiment. It's the type of book that grabs your attention and really leaves you thinking.
