Want to stay motivated? Think about time, not money

Have you ever started a diet, but failed to lose the desired weight within a specific timeframe? What about struggling to assemble a new piece of furniture you ordered online?

And who hasn’t set a New Year’s resolution that fizzled out after a few weeks?

When struggling to achieve our goals, it’s easy to give up if things don’t go as planned. However, the results of involving �������� School of Management researchers show that thinking about the time you’ve invested, instead of the money you’ve spent, can more effectively boost your motivation.

The study was built upon previous research that argued people perform at their best when they feel a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness; failure, meanwhile, can erode a person’s self-determination. Researchers believe this recent study’s findings could especially help advertisers improve their marketing approaches, notably for customers interested in do-it-yourself (DIY) products.

“You can go to coaching classes, you can buy books, you can buy videos. But when you do that, you expect to accomplish your goal. And when you don’t, you get extremely demotivated. But on the other hand, if you spend less money, but more time, and think about how you’re doing this to improve yourself, that gets you into a more persistent mindset,” said SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Subimal Chatterjee, who co-authored the study.

Researchers conducted two studies that used feedback from a combined 600 working professionals and a third that used 75 undergraduate students from a public university in Taiwan.

The studies involved:

• Examining how focusing on time, rather than money, encourages goal persistence by indirectly strengthening self-determination
• Investigating whether failing twice, rather than once, weakens the time/money idea
• Exploring whether the time/money difference extends to emotional responses, such as college students unhappy with failing a test

Researchers found that failing to meet an objective twice in a row diminished a person’s persistence and self-determination to meet a goal when viewed through the lens of monetary investment, but not when it came to thinking about the time spent.

The study involving university students showed that they weren’t as likely to feel bad about failing a test if they focused on the amount of time spent in preparation and the knowledge gained along the way. Interestingly, researchers noted that the difference became negligible after three or more attempts to pass a test.

Why did it pan out this way? According to the study, consumers often feel more controlled by the outcome when they spend money to achieve a goal. Failing twice, rather than once, could reinforce a perception that the money spent was essentially wasted by not accomplishing the desired results.

“Think about how, with any sort of health rehabilitation program, after you get hurt and have to get help from a chiropractor or other healthcare professional, there’s a monetary cost that goes along with obtaining that help. But you could also think of it as spending time improving and taking better care of yourself,” said Debjit Gupta, an assistant professor of marketing who co-authored the study. “You might not get better in a week; you might not achieve your objectives right away. But, if it’s viewed as time to get better by yourself and reconnect with others, our studies demonstrate that you’ll be more likely to persevere.”

How the study can help businesses

The study’s findings also demonstrated that workers with greater autonomy are more likely to experience job satisfaction and stay motivated. Time-affluent workers could exhibit greater resilience in the face of setbacks like missing out on a promotion, according to the study, and show a greater ability to “bounce back.”

“It’s all about intrinsic motivation, something that comes from within,” Chatterjee said, “and if you really decide to learn, then this notion of time versus money becomes especially important.”

Chatterjee and Gupta also said their findings demonstrated how providing consumers with a plan to help manage setbacks, while emphasizing autonomy, competence and skills development, could better position marketers’ brands as essential tools and reinforce a sense of self-determination among their customers.

“By including subtle, positively-framed messages along with whatever marketers are selling can allow people to experience a greater level of persistence,” Gupta said. “Having to try again after it didn’t work the first time wouldn’t mean a wasted effort. It would just be that you’re more likely to have a better handle on things the second time around.”

The paper, “Trying but failing: the role of time and money in enhancing self-determination, increasing goal persistence, and reducing unhappiness,” was published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing. Chien-Wei (Wilson) Lin from the State University of New York at Oneonta and Jinfeng (Jenny) Jiao from Amazon.com Inc. also authored the paper.