Sign in
Join

Time Perspective Inventory

Assessing your orientation toward time
Hosted By Aphantasia Network
RedditLinkedInThreads

"*" indicates required fields

This field is hidden when viewing the form

How do you perceive and interact with time?

The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) is used to assess your orientation towards time. This inventory explores how you view and relate to the past, present, and future.

The ZTPI explores five different time perspectives:

  • Past-Negative: How much you focus on negative past experiences
  • Present-Hedonistic: How much you seek present pleasures with little concern for future consequences
  • Future: How much you plan for and strive to meet future goals
  • Past-Positive: How much you reflect nostalgically and positively on your past
  • Present-Fatalistic: How much you feel powerless about the future and resigned to fate

Note: This survey is not a diagnostic tool. It is designed to help understand your personal time perspective, which can influence decision-making, goal-setting, and overall well-being.

Instructions: Please read each statement carefully and indicate how characteristic or true it is of you. There are no right or wrong answers, so please be as honest as possible in your responses.

How characteristic or true is this of you?

It gives me pleasure to think about my past.*
I often follow my heart more than my head.*
Meeting tomorrow’s deadlines and doing other necessary work comes before tonight’s play.*
I am able to resist temptations when I know that there is work to be done.*
I often think of what I should have done differently in my life.*
I keep working at difficult, uninteresting tasks if they will help me get ahead.*
Ideally, I would live each day as if it were my last.*
Even when I am enjoying the present, I am drawn back to comparisons with similar past experiences.*
Spending what I earn on pleasures today is better than saving for tomorrow’s security.*
I’ve made mistakes in the past that I wish I could undo.*
I feel that it’s more important to enjoy what you’re doing than to get work done on time.*
Painful past experiences keep being replayed in my mind.*
I believe that getting together with one’s friends to party is one of life’s important pleasures.*
I’ve taken my share of abuse and rejection in the past.*
When listening to my favorite music, I often lose all track of time.*
I believe that a person’s day should be planned ahead each morning.*
I complete projects on time by making steady progress.*
I think about the good things that I have missed out on in my life.*
It upsets me to be late for appointments.*
I like family rituals and traditions that are regularly repeated.*
It doesn’t make sense to worry about the future, since there is nothing that I can do about it anyway.*
I like my close relationships to be passionate.*
Since whatever will be will be, it doesn’t really matter what I do.*
Life today is too complicated; I would prefer the simpler life of the past.*
I try to live my life as fully as possible, one day at a time.*
Life today is too complicated; I would prefer the simpler life of the past.*
I do things impulsively.*
It’s hard for me to forget unpleasant images of my youth.*
It is important to put excitement in my life.*
My decisions are mostly influenced by people and things around me.*
Before making a decision, I weigh the costs against the benefits.*
The past has too many unpleasant memories that I prefer not to think about.*
I get nostalgic about my childhood.*
I take risks to put excitement in my life.*
On balance, there is much more good to recall than bad in my past.*
If things don’t get done on time, I don’t worry about it.*
It takes joy out of the process and flow of my activities, if I have to think about goals, outcomes, and products.*
I find myself tuning out when family members talk about the way things used to be.*
I enjoy stories about how things used to be in the “good old times.”*
It is more important for me to enjoy life’s journey than to focus only on the destination.*
There will always be time to catch up on my work.*
Familiar childhood sights, sounds, and smells often bring back a flood of wonderful memories.*
You can’t really plan for the future because things change so much.*
I take each day as it is rather than try to plan it out.*
Things rarely work out as I expected.*
Fate determines much in my life.*
When I want to achieve something, I set goals and consider specific means for reaching those goals.*
I find myself getting swept up in the excitement of the moment.*
My life path is controlled by forces I cannot influence.*
I make decisions on the spur of the moment.*
I prefer friends who are spontaneous rather than predictable.*
Happy memories of good times spring readily to mind.*
I make lists of things to do.*
I meet my obligations to friends and authorities on time.*
Often luck pays off better than hard work.*
Taking risks keeps my life from becoming boring.*
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. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1271

Contribute to Our Research

"*" indicates required fields

Help advance our studies by participating in our surveys.

Whether you're a returning contributor or joining us for the first time, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a quick confirmation code to get you started on your research journey with us!
Name
Consent*