Focalism occurs when, as a result of directing a great deal of attention to some event, a person overestimates the impact of that event on his/her future emotional reactions. In the present study, we compared the effectiveness of using a past or future temporal focus as a means to reduce both focalism and inaccurate affective forecasting. Participants' were asked to focus on different events and periods of time before they predicted their emotional reactions to the outcome of the 2004 Presidential Election. Following the election, the participants' predicted ratings were compared with their actual ratings. Evidence of the durability bias was found, but focalism was not reduced by directing thoughts to the past or future.