Exploring past and future fluency of temporal landmarks under reduced agency

Significant temporal landmarks often involve high emotionality, thereby deeply imprinting within one's autobiographical memory. In this study we explore the connection between anticipation, temporal landmarks, subjective passage of time and perceived wellbeing. We do this by conducting a three-stage mixed method study including qualitative thematic analysis, AI-assisted coding and analysis, and quantitative negative binomial multivariate analysis of the Past Fluency and Future Fluency reported events (n = 73,244) provided by n = 1,113 participants across the six reported (future and past) temporal horizons (One Week, One Month, One Year) in the Blursday Database during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings show that participants state more past Temporal Landmarks compared with future, while the opposite is true for Utilitarian Activities. Key sex differences exist in men's vs. women's identification of Utilitarian Activities (greater future fluency), Temporal Landmarks (greater past fluency) and fewer Discretionary Activities listed for both past and future fluency. Statistically significant relationships are found with responses about stringency of lockdown restrictions and subjective assessments of confinement. Our study provides novel methodology and findings that demonstrate how engagement in anticipatory behaviour can be considered a type of time work, where an individual intentionally alters or customizes temporal experiences during times of reduced agency.