Timing as a component of psychological self-regulation: relationship to subjective well-being

The problem of the imbalance in timing between different life spheres has gained popularity both in the practice of coaching and psychotherapy and in psychological research of time perspective and work-life balance. The aim of the paper is to study imbalance between subjective importance of the various life spheres and the time and effort spent to them, as well as its relationship with subjective well-being and dependence on psychological self-regulation. In two studies - one focused on personnel of Russian production company (N = 1209) and another including psychological students (N = 108) we demonstrated that the discrepancy between the subjective importance of life spheres and the time and effort spent on them usually manifests as the "lack" of time / effort. This discrepancy is minimal for work and family, and is maximal for health sphere. The discrepancy is higher in women and in people with higher education, but does not depend on marital status, age, children and financial status. There is a stable, but weak correlation between discrepancy in importance and time spent on life spheres and dissatisfaction with spheres of life, dissatisfaction with life in general, and negative emotions. Thus practical importance of timing in improving human well-being can be exaggerated. Psychological self-regulation and coping behavior are not directly related to this discrepancy but can perform a compensatory role, moderating its relationship with subjective well-being. In particular, the action orientation in failure is related lower level of negative emotions while planning is related to higher positive emotions in people with higher time-importance discrepancies.