Picture your week ahead: is it packed full of deadlines, meetings, drinks, dinners, hobbies and sports?

If so, you might be considered as having a “higher status” than those who have plenty of time to spare, according to the findings of a new study.

And this is particularly true if you’re partial to humble bragging about how busy you are on social media.

The new research, conducted by professors at Columbia, Georgetown and Harvard universities, found that being constantly busy was viewed as the ultimate status symbol – and could even be more impressive than owning luxury products or having plenty of cash to spare.

“People who have less time are viewed as scarce resources, and therefore their time seems more valuable,” one of the study’s co-authors, Neeru Paharia, told Canvas 8.

“When busy, people are inaccessible, which makes others perceive them as being in-demand,” the assistant professor at Georgetown University added.

“This is why a full calendar is, in some contexts, now a more desirable status symbol than any material possession.”

We're more impressed by busy people, says science