The importance of being “on time” is one of the first things children learn, and we’re rarely out of reach of some form of clock. Yet time itself seems scarcer than ever. Psychologists have identified the rise of “time famine”, where the more efficient and productive we try to be – the more precisely we measure time, and the more we try to pack into our busy schedules – the less time we actually feel we have. This has a big impact on quality of life: studies show that people experiencing time famine are less likely to do things they enjoy, eat healthily, seek medical attention when they need it or help each other. We can become stuck chasing seconds in a vicious cycle of ever-decreasing time.