Escaping Time Poverty: How Micro-Novelty Changes Your Brain
Busyness isn't a give-in - because creativity can literally expand our sense of time.
Hey there,
Katina here, Daydreamers’ Co-founder and Chief Science Officer. We have a lot of new friends here this week! So, welcome to Creative Health: Our free, weekly publication where we explore what it really means to live a creatively fulfilling life in an increasingly burned out, lonely and technology-driven world.
Before we dive in today, a quick ask for all of you: If you’re picking up what we’re putting down here, can you forward this newsletter to just one friend?
As a free resource, we want to get Creative Health into the hands (and brains!) of as many people as possible - because we believe that ideas fuel, and ultimately change, the world.
And, the idea we’re exploring today is one I’m sure we’re all feeling in our bones: Our collective addiction to busyness - and how creativity can help us expand our sense of time.
This topic hits home for me. At the start of this week, I looked at the calendar and nearly gasped. April? More like - mid-April?! In my world, it feels like every day starts with the same potential - but before I blink it’s bedtime again.
I know I’m not alone in this. Nearly every conversation I have somehow comes back to the feeling that time is speeding by (and not in the good way). Suddenly, another season has passed. Another goal unmet. Another week that’s evaporated before it even started.
Somehow, despite all the tools, tech, and to-do lists promising to give us more time…we’re more stretched, distracted, and depleted than ever.
In a world that prizes speed, productivity, and constant connection, time has become the new scarcity. Even our “free time” has been consumed by the pressure to optimize, perform, or stay up to date. And no matter how hard we try to “get ahead,” we end up feeling perpetually behind.
The result? We feel busier than ever, but strangely empty. Our moments feel thin. Life feels like it’s happening around us - not with us.
This feeling actually has a name: It’s what psychologists call Time Poverty. And it’s quietly stealing our Creative Health.
When we feel time-poor, science shows that our brains register it as a literal form of scarcity. It increases our stress levels. Shrinks our sense of agency. Erodes our ability to be present. And most importantly for us here at Daydreamers: It blocks access to our creative potential.
Because creativity - true, meaningful, imaginative thinking - doesn’t thrive in urgency. It needs psychological safety. Attention. Curiosity. But our culture has normalized the opposite. We wear our busyness like a badge of honor. We glorify the hustle. And somewhere along the way, we’ve started believing that rest, play, and creativity are luxuries, instead of vital signs.
The surprising thing is that time poverty isn’t a scheduling problem. It’s a psychological and emotional one.
So, that means there’s a way out.
This week, we’re deconstructing the science behind what time poverty really is - and most importantly, how novelty and creativity are accessible ways that we can begin to take our time (and our brains) back.
Because living an enjoyable, creative life isn’t about getting more done in less time - it’s about filling it with the things that actually make you feel alive.
Time Poverty: Getting Stuck On Life’s Hamster Wheel
What would you do with your time if you only worked 4 hours…in a week?
Get this: In 1930, economist John Keynes made a massive prediction. Thanks to rising productivity and technological advancement, he said we’d eventually work just 4–15 hours a week with the same (or better) living standards.
The rest of our time? We'd spend it enjoying leisure, art, rest, and play.
He called this future state "the economic possibilities for our grandchildren.” A creative renaissance of sorts.
Fast forward nearly 100 years - and that dream couldn’t feel further away. We’re working more than ever; but, it’s not just about the literal the hours we log. It’s how much of our mental real estate work, productivity, and output occupy, even when we’re doing other things. We’ve live in a world where our hours are crammed, our attention fragmented, and our leisure time quietly consumed by side hustles, content, and pressure to self-optimize.
Instead of time abundance, we live with a chronic sense of time poverty.
Time poverty is the perception of having too many things to do and not enough time to do them. But, it’s not about the actual number of hours in your day - it’s about how you experience those hours.
And that perception is powerful.
According to scientific research, people who feel time-poor are less happy, more stressed, less physically active, and even less generous. It impacts everything from our decision-making, to narrowing our thinking, and even reduces our cognitive flexibility.
In fact, one study found that time scarcity activates the same survival-oriented brain networks as financial scarcity - and can be a stronger prediction of life satisfaction than financial struggles. When we don’t feel in control of how we spend our time, it activates a stress response that narrows our thinking, hijacks our attention, and blocks the kind of open-ended wandering that creativity needs to thrive.
The fascinating thing is that this feeling can persist even if our schedule is completely cleared. That’s because our brains don’t experience time through the clock.
We experience it through our attention.
Neuroscientists have discovered that our perception of time is actually shaped by how much novelty we experience in our daily lives. That’s because when we encounter something new, different, or surprising, it forces our brain pay attention - and creates what researchers call memory “markers.”
Essentially, the more markers we lay down, the longer and fuller time feels - both as it’s happening, and in retrospect.
When our days become repetitive and hyper-routinized, we stop forming new markers. The brain goes into a kind of automatic processing mode, filtering out details it doesn’t see as essential.
That’s why a week filled with Zoom calls and emails can disappear in a blur - but a single day in a new city, surrounded by art, nature, or unfamiliar languages? It feels rich, expansive and unforgettable.
So, unlike we’ve been told - the antidote to time poverty isn’t doing less; it’s noticing more.
And, it starts with reintroducing novelty - or tiny moments of creativity - that break up the blur, wake up our brains, and help us slow time down.
The Science of Expanding Time
Unfortunately science hasn’t yet allowed us to slow the Earth’s rotation - but we can shift how time feels in our everyday lives.
The secret? Novelty.
It’s the basis of how we define creativity at Daydreamers - our capacity to be open to new experiences, ideas or ways of doing things.
Now, that doesn’t mean you need to book a last-minute trip to Japan or sell all your belongings and move across the country. Research shows tiny, low-stakes moments of novelty - what neuroscientists and our team calls micro-novelty - can expand your sense of time and re-engage your brain’s curiosity circuits.
Think of it like taking a new route on your morning walk or adding in a new ingredient to your weekly dinner. It actually doesn’t need to be complicated at all. In fact, at Daydreamers, we can actually predict that you’ll start to see changes to your Creative Biomarkers when you engage in micro-novelty, in any form, in your everyday life.
Fascinating, right?
The scientific reason why this happens is simple: Micro-novelty increases dopamine - the neurotransmitter associated with curiosity, motivation, and learning. It wakes up your default-mode network (the brain’s imagination engine), helps you form richer memories, and strengthens openness - a core pillar of Creative Health.
Additionally, novel experiences activate the hippocampus - your brain’s memory center - causing more of those “time stamps” to be laid down, which stretches your perception of time both during and after the event.
That’s why an hour of something new can feel longer than a whole day on autopilot.
And here’s the kicker: novelty doesn’t just change how we experience time. It changes how we feel about ourselves.
When we regularly encounter small doses of the unfamiliar, we become more mentally flexible, more willing to explore, and more connected to our innate creativity.
To me, it’s like giving your brain a daily breath of fresh air.
And at Daydreamers, we believe these micro-moments of novelty - i.e. creativity - are one of the most powerful ways to reclaim our sense of time, freedom, and ultimately, health. So much so that we have an entire journey within the Daydreamers platform dedicated to getting out of autopilot mode and back into that playful, open presence.
Because in a world that often feels overwhelming and completely out of our control - actively choosing micro-moments of creativity over busyness might just be the most radical act of all.
How are you going to push back against time scarcity this week and reclaim your creative brain? 🧠
- Katina
Daydreamers’ Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer
We Need Your Help: Expand The Creative Health Movement
We’re on a mission to reach 100,000 Creative Brains that receive this newsletter - because from our POV, Creative Health isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s essential for our individual and collective well-being.
If someone popped into your mind while reading this, forward it to them. They probably need it, too! Let’s build a movement where creativity isn’t an afterthought - it’s the foundation for a healthier, more vibrant world.
Creative Health Protocol 🧠
This newsletter is the what, and the Daydreamers platform is the how - your guide to turning Creative Health insights into real, tangible action. Here’s a peek.
Get Out Of Autopilot With Micro-Novelty
What it is: Modern life is optimized for routine - and while routines save energy, they also keep us on autopilot. This mental shortcut blocks creativity and shrinks our sense of time. Getting out of autopilot is about waking up to the present moment, engaging your senses, and inviting in micro-moments of change that nudge your brain back into awareness.
How you can experiment with it: Inside Daydreamers, we have an entire journey dedicated to this practice - where openness, curiosity, and playful exploration become tools to feel more energized, vital, and awake to your life again. Try it yourself today: Take a different route on your morning walk. Challenge yourself to learn (just one) new fact. Notice how these micro-moments shift your awareness - and how fulfilling the day starts to feel.
What We’re Loving This Week 🪐
We’re all about simplicity, clarity and depth - so instead of overwhelming you with a random mix of news, here’s one standout idea, read, brand or project that’s really supporting our Creative Health this week.
A Slow Time Experiment
This 10-minute New York Times interactive invites you to pause, reflect on the changing seasons, and tune into the small, beautiful moments that mark time. It’s not just a calming exercise - it’s a powerful act of micro-novelty and attention restoration. The more we notice, the slower time feels.
Try it here: The Ten-Minute Seasonal Challenge
Tell us in the comments: What are your favorite ways to incorporate micro-novelty into your day-to-day? Do you notice how it helps to expand time?! 🧠✨
When you join Daydreamers, you’re not just unlocking your own Creative Health - you’re helping us build a world where resources like this newsletter are free for everyone to access. Ready to help us make the world a more creative place?
Slowness stretches the time, and so does creativity. Yes yes yes.
A lot of my clients feel this same nervous-system response to dieting or intentional food scarcity, (i.e restricting sugar, carbs, fat, calories etc.).