Time Perspective
Do you live in the past, the present or the future?
Free, no account needed.
Every choice you make is quietly shaped by how you relate to time: how you hold your past, how you live the present and how far ahead you look. This test measures the five time perspectives described by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd and compares your profile with the balance they considered healthiest.
Rate each statement by how characteristic it is of you in general, not just this week. There are no right answers, and every perspective has its gifts.
What it measures
Past-negative
A focus on the painful, regretted or unresolved parts of your past, and how often they return to color the present.
Low: Old hurts and regrets rarely pull you back; your past feels mostly settled.
High: Past mistakes, losses or wrongs come back to you often and still carry an emotional charge.
Past-positive
A warm, nostalgic and grateful relationship with your past: memories, roots, family stories and traditions.
Low: You draw little comfort or identity from your past, and nostalgia holds little appeal.
High: You treasure good memories, family stories and rituals, and they give you a sense of roots.
Present-hedonistic
An orientation toward pleasure, excitement and spontaneity in the here and now.
Low: You rarely chase thrills or act on impulse; enjoyment for its own sake comes second.
High: You live for the moment, seek fun and novelty, and follow your mood.
Present-fatalistic
A sense that life is steered by fate, luck or forces beyond your control, so that planning matters little.
Low: You feel that your choices shape your life, and you take ownership of where it goes.
High: You feel carried by circumstance; plans seem pointless when so much is out of your hands.
Future
An orientation toward goals, plans and consequences, giving up present pleasures for later rewards.
Low: You rarely plan far ahead and prefer to take things as they come.
High: You set goals, plan carefully and keep an eye on consequences and long-term rewards.
Possible results
About this test
In the 1990s the psychologists Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd argued that people habitually divide the flow of experience into time frames, and that most of us lean on some frames much more than others. Their research, summarized in the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (1999) and the book The Time Paradox (2008), identified five main perspectives: past-negative (a focus on regret, hurt and what went wrong), past-positive (a warm, nostalgic view of the past), present-hedonistic (pleasure, novelty and spontaneity), present-fatalistic (the sense that fate or luck decides) and future (goals, planning and delayed gratification).
They later proposed that no single perspective is best, but a balance is: high past-positive, fairly high future and present-hedonistic, and low past-negative and present-fatalistic. Researchers have since measured how far people deviate from that ideal, and smaller deviations tend to go with greater life satisfaction and better mood.
This test uses original statements and scenarios, not the ZTPI items. Each perspective is scored from 0 to 100, and your result is the nearest of six profiles: one for each dominant perspective, plus the balanced profile. The insights compare each of your scores with the balanced one.
Caveats: time perspective is partly a stable disposition and partly shaped by circumstances such as stress, hardship, loss or culture, so your profile can change. Scores are relative to the range of possible answers, not to population norms. This is a tool for self-reflection, not a clinical instrument.
References
- Zimbardo, P. G. & Boyd, J. N. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1271-1288.
- Zimbardo, P. G. & Boyd, J. N. (2008). The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life. Free Press.
- Boniwell, I. & Zimbardo, P. G. (2004). Balancing time perspective in pursuit of optimal functioning. In P. A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice. Wiley.
- Stolarski, M., Bitner, J. & Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Time perspective, emotional intelligence and discounting of delayed awards. Time & Society, 20(3), 346-363.
- Zhang, J. W., Howell, R. T. & Stolarski, M. (2013). Comparing three methods to measure a balanced time perspective: The relationship between a balanced time perspective and subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 14, 169-184.
For self-reflection and curiosity, not diagnosis. Scores describe how you answered, relative to the possible range; they are not compared with population norms.
Time Perspective
About 5 minutes · 35 questions
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