Rethinking time
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“Always, time is bearing down on us, urging us to hurry up, do more, get organized. The clock is a giant admonisher, constantly ticking us off.” – Tom Hodgkinson
I didn’t have an alarm set this morning. Last night I decided to let myself sleep for as long as I wanted. I’ve been dragging a bit all week, feeling like I needed more rest.
I woke up much later than normal.
Usually, after getting out of bed, I do twenty minutes of yoga, following along with a YouTube video. This morning I decided to forgo the video and just practice yoga however I wanted, for as long as I wanted. I’d say I still ended up spending about twenty minutes on the mat.
After yoga I usually do twenty minutes of meditation, setting a countdown timer to let me know when I’m done. Today I went without the timer, just sitting and meditating for as long as I wanted to. I felt I sat there for longer than usual, and was better able to calm my mind and let go.
And now here I sit at my computer, typing all this up. I usually do an hour or so of work before breakfast, but today I’m waiting until I actually feel hungry and no longer feel like working. I hid the clock on the top right of my screen, so I’m not quite sure what time it is, or for how long I’ve been writing.
My relationship with time
This is the main question I’ve been asking myself lately: Am I slave to time?
These past few weeks, in the name of productivity and effectiveness, I’ve been scheduling lots of things for myself, setting deadlines, using countdown timers. I’m self-employed and completely autonomous, or am I? I’m no longer a slave to an organization or a weekly paycheck, but have I simply replaced those things with a clock on the wall?
Not that I think this time-bound perception of reality is evil. I think it’s necessary and advantageous in many ways. Kind of like owning material things: You don’t want to own so much that you become a slave to your possessions, but you don’t want to go too far the other way either or you’ll end up naked in the woods foraging for berries.
I want to explore my relationship with time. Today is just a mini-experiment, but I intend to try living independent of time for longer when I move to Spain.
What if I spent several weeks paying no attention to time? Would I eventually lose track of what day it was? Would that matter? What if I sleep only when I feel tired, get up only when I feel rested, eat only when I feel hungry, work only when I feel like working?
How far could I take it? Where would I cross the line? What would I learn?
What’s your relationship to time?
Do you consider yourself a slave to time? Why or why not? As you can see, I have no answers or conclusions, just a bunch of questions. Your feedback is appreciated.
No rush though, take your time 
Yes, I find getting older that time just flies. I have a theory that you change as soon as you get to 35 and your entire perception of things like time changes.
I’m out of work at the moment and each day goes from 9am-1am very fast, then 3.30pm-5pm is like nothing, then 6pm-8pm and 10.30pm to 12am are fast. I’m sure my day has non-linear time.
You’re slave to time when you spend much of your time noticing it passing.
I think I can relate to what you’re saying Simon, even though I’m only 28. I think of the six years between ages 12 and 18; they seemed to take forever. My last six years have been a blink in comparison.
I think it is great that you are in the inquiry. I think of GTD and when David Allen seemed to point out that his productivity was not about “time management” (a term often used to categorize the whole productivity movent) He, paraphrasing, said it was about action management. Managing the actions you are taking. When I think about the difficulties we face in the choices we make I think of this scene from Lord of the Rings and it reminds me of this clarity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjIJEtmKrys
I do think that there can be a relationship to something other than time that could make our experience more freeing and this is a project I am working on.
Thanks, Garfield. Great video. Stephen Covey made a similar point to David Allen in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, saying that we can’t manage time, only ourselves.
Let me know what you discover with your own experiments.
This reminds me when I was suffering with depression how time was my worst enemy. People kept telling me everyday, give it time….how crazy that concept was to me, and I totally agree with you. time should not be a factor (other than work hours which you must ad hear too) I believe we put to much emphesis on time, one day we will all wake and realize how much time was wasted thinking about it. thanks. Have a great weekend, and enjoy you TIME to you.
Looking4 Purpose: Thanks for the comment. I’m not even sure time should be a factor in work. I’d rather be paid for the value I create than the time I put in. For example, I know I can spend the same amount of time building a website as some other people, but the sites will all end up being of different value. That was one of my big problems with 9-to-5. I’d be finished all my work at 2pm on a Thursday but I’d still have to sit there and pretend to be busy until 5pm came. Seemed a bit silly.
This week I’m writing down how I spend every hour of every day. Almost the opposite of your experiment!
I definitely notice how time controls me when I’m giving massage. The difference between giving an hour massage and a 90 minute is whether or not ill have enough time to feel comfortable giving a full body massage. Sometimes I have to stop short in certain areas when I feel like giving more.
Good luck with your experiment. I feel like I get lost if I don’t use my stop watch and timer to keep me accountable, but that may just be a little fear based. There are many experiments we should all go through to see what allows us to lead a joyful, fulfilling life. As you know its different for everyone.
Hugs,
Travis
That sounds like a great experiment, Travis. Let me know how it goes. I believe Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) tracks his time like that regularly.
And I not only agree that different approaches work better for different people, I also think different approaches can work better for the same person at different times. This past week I definitely felt like I needed to break free of the schedule I’d set for myself, but I know there have been other times when I really needed to get into a routine.
Hey Niall,
Back in 1974 when I was working at a bank down in Kenner, I was also reading one of Carlos Castaneda’s books. There was a chapter on time. I decided to do what he recommended and that was to ignore the clock and do my own thing. Eat when I was hungry, stop work when I was done, etc. So I would leave for lunch when I felt hungry and come back when I felt like working. Of course that didn’t last for very long or I would have been fired. But I liked the concept even back then. Now, since I last saw you…I have opened my own business http://www.thebasicbag.com and I’m also working part time at American Eagle and West Marine and I clean 2 house every Fri. I really feel like I’m working for myself because the hours vary and right now most hours are in the evening…so I can sleep as long as I want and then go to my shop and produce till I feel like I’m done for the day…go to the boat and do some things and then go to work for a few hours. I’m really enjoying the versatility of my life lately. I don’t think I want to go back to a 9 to 5 job. Keep It Simple and enjoy
That’s great, Robin. Sounds like you’re living it on your own terms
Thank you for bringing this topic, Niall.
Recently I have been living the lifestyle you describe: eat when I am hungry (and what I find more dellightful at the moment), sleep when I’m sleepy, get up when I am awake.
It is more intuitive lifestyle to live.
It makes me less efficient though more authentic, and this way seems more enjoyable.
From one point, we are always slaves of time as it is time that defines the length of our life.
From other point, if we pay no attention to time, it has no affect on how we perceive life.
We only control the path, not the outcome, and here time is not inaviodable.
“It makes me less efficient though more authentic, and this way seems more enjoyable.”
Yeah, efficiency is often overrated. I suspect I’ll end up finding a nice balance, where I pay attention to time when it works to my advantage, and ignore it otherwise.