Research Insight | Didn’t "Have" Time or Didn’t "Make" Time? Using the Right Language to Boost Consumer Motivation
The fitness tracker that sits in a drawer. The language app that remains unopened. The book you were eager to read that gathers dust. When asked why we fail to meet such personal goals, the answer is nearly universal: “I just didn’t have time.” But what if the key to regaining motivation isn’t about finding more hours, but about reframing how we talk about time? This study shows that a simple linguistic shift—from “I didn’t have time” to “I didn’t make time”—can significantly increase motivation to reengage after failure.
Across studies in fitness, finance, learning, and social media, people who said “I didn’t make time” were far more motivated to try again. This is because “didn’t have time” treats time as an external, uncontrollable force. It suggests the failure was inevitable. In contrast, “didn’t make time” acknowledges choice—it implies that time was available but priorities differed. This subtle change boosts perceived control, restoring a sense of agency and drive. The effects extend beyond mindset. In one field study, participants using the “make-time” framing were 12 percentage points more likely to complete a real-world goal within a week (51% vs. 39%) and did so faster.
For marketers and designers, the research shows that carefully crafting the words in a notification or post can help consumers feel capable, motivated, and loyal—without extra incentives.
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What You Need to Know
- Describing time as something consumers make (rather than have) increases their perceived control and motivation.
- Encouraging “make time” framing in post-performance messages, app notifications, or follow-up prompts can help maintain engagement and perceived agency.
- Users who adopt “make-time” framing view fitness or budgeting apps as more effective and are more willing to recommend them. Exposure to others’ “make time” posts on social media also increases viewers’ motivation and interest in related products.
Abstract
Goal failure is an important problem that is costly for both companies and consumers. Consumers often purchase products, subscribe to services, and download apps in support of valued goals, yet fail to use these tools as much as intended. But might the language consumers use to describe such goal failures affect how they subsequently pursue those goals? Nine experiments demonstrate that, compared to saying “didn’t have time”, saying “didn’t make time” increases subsequent motivation. This is driven by perceived control over time. Specifically, saying “didn’t make” (vs. “didn’t have”) time makes consumers feel more in control of their time, which increases their subsequent motivation to reengage with the goal. Notably, such make-time framing has downstream implications for consumer evaluations of goal-related products and services. Further, it can be manipulated directly, as well as through firms’ promotional activities (i.e., featuring make-time language on social media). Importantly, make-time (vs. have-time) framing may be particularly beneficial in the context of goal failure, when consumers are less inclined to adopt this perspective naturally. Together, the findings shed light on how language shapes motivation, deepen understanding of time’s role in goal pursuit, and have important implications for how companies manage consumer goal failure.
Luis Abreu, Jordan Etkin, and Holly Howe, “Didn’t Have Time or Didn’t Make Time? How Language Shapes Perceived Control over Time and Motivation,” Journal of Marketing Research. doi:10.1177/00222437251394122.