Do you count up or down to your goals ?

I was exercising this am, and the machine I was on was counting down towards 0:00 remaining. It did create a sense of urgency as I had a defined effort level I wanted to reach, but it got me wondering. If working towards a goal, do you look at the time (effort) invested as your metric, or the time (effort) remaining ?

I've no issue with the way this machine works and am therefore probably a 'beat the clock' goal oriented person. But equally valid would be the person who wanted to invest "X" effort in what they do, and therefore would like to see the count on that.

It's always interesting to think through the psychology of the designs all around us. Most of it isn't overtly obvious and requires us to see it, to acknowledge it. Too many of us don't I'd bet.