The temporal construal of work and leisure results in illusory daily mood patterns

In an internet survey, 349 respondents predicted that their moods for the work week ahead would be lowest in the early morning, rising steadily to a peak in the evening, but there was no obvious trend in the momentary moods they actually experienced on each day. These results suggest that, several days in the future, paid work is viewed more negatively than free time, but that there is little or no systematic pattern in the moods actually experienced throughout a work day. In other words, paid work may not be as bad as we think and free time may not be as good as we think.