Everyone carries a list in their head of what matters to them. The calendar often has a different one. Pick the three things that matter most to you and try to estimate how many hours you gave them last week.
Your own estimateThe result rests on the hours you estimate yourself, not on a measurement. The app doesn't judge anything as right or wrong. What you enter isn't stored or sent anywhere unless you save your result yourself.
What matters most to you in life? Pick three, in order.
In 1938 the economist Paul Samuelson suggested that what people want can be read from what they choose, not from what they say about themselves. Economics calls this revealed preference. The app above does the same with time: it puts the values you say you hold next to the hours you give them.
The biggest gap is often where you least expect it. The psychologists Anat Bardi and Shalom Schwartz (2003) compared how people rate their values with how often they do things that express them. The link came out strong for the desire for novelty and excitement and for tradition. It was only weak for caring for people close to you, achievement, security and fitting in with others. Yet across cultures, people rank caring for those close to them among the most important values, while novelty and tradition come near the bottom (Schwartz and Bardi, 2001).
What people care about most is often what shows least clearly in how they behave.
The gap isn't hypocrisy. Bardi and Schwartz explain it by the pressure of norms: we do some things because they're expected, whether or not we value them ourselves. So behaviour doesn't only show what you want, but also what pushes you. We'd add tiredness, obligations and things that remind you of themselves: your phone, tidying up, shopping.
Values don't remind you of themselves, so they often lose.
That's why it's worth taking revealed preference with a pinch of salt: behaviour isn't a clean picture of what you want.
What to take from it. Either admit the value is a wish, or give it a place in your calendar. One concrete thing for next week is enough.
Related articleDo they see you the same way? →Guess how many friends see you the way you see yourself. Then find out at a table.How it works
The areas come from the Valued Living Questionnaire (Wilson et al., 2010), which is used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The questionnaire asks how important ten areas of life are and how closely you acted on them last week, both on a scale from 1 to 10. Instead of a scale, the app uses hours and only takes the three most important areas. The area names are our own shortened wording.
The result is your estimate, not a measurement. Hours aren't the same as value: some things only need a little time, as long as it's good time. That's why the app never says “right” or “wrong”. The default hours on the sliders are only rough guides.
The sentences: the fewest hours among your choices (if there's a tie, the one ranked higher); if that's your number one, the app says so. Then the total compared with screens. The note about the Bardi and Schwartz study appears for family, partner, children, friends and work (caring for people close to you, and achievement). Helping others is closer to caring for all people (universalism), for which the study found a moderate link.
Nothing is saved or sent. The share card is created right in your browser and shows only your three values, screens and hours.
Sources
- Samuelson, P. A. (1938). A Note on the Pure Theory of Consumer's Behaviour. Economica, 5(17), 61–71.
- Bardi, A., Schwartz, S. H. (2003). Values and Behavior: Strength and Structure of Relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(10), 1207–1220.
- Schwartz, S. H., Bardi, A. (2001). Value Hierarchies Across Cultures: Taking a Similarities Perspective. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(3), 268–290.
- Wilson, K. G., Sandoz, E. K., Kitchens, J., Roberts, M. (2010). The Valued Living Questionnaire: Defining and Measuring Valued Action within a Behavioral Framework. The Psychological Record, 60, 249–272.
