Time, like nature, abhors a vacuum. So something will happen today at five o'clock. Either that thing that you've planned - a yoga class, an hour of conversational French with Mrs. Bouvier, a visit with your sister in the hospital - or something else. If you have nothing planned, then maybe around 5:00 or so your buddy will drop by with a bag of Doritos and a John Mayer CD, and ask if you want to hang out.
Do and Be and Have
And I'll see you next week and say something like "So, how you been? What've you been up to?" And you might tell me that you've listened to a lot of John Mayer and eaten a lot of chips. Which is fine, unless you've got this feeling - deep down - that you're here to do and be and have somthing that you've just not been getting around to. Many people do feel that they are here to have a particular set of experiences, manifest some specific qualities, and enjoy a depth of relationship with people around them.
And from that perspective, "time management" has nothing to do with how much you get done, nor your efficiency. Rather, managing our time means taking seriously the business of considering what we're here to do and be. And looking at our daily schedule and our calendar with exactly that in mind.
A Canteloupe and a Watermelon
Time is not a real thing, it's a psychological experience. If you learn that you have 20 minutes to complete a task, there's a certain felt sense to that. And if you look at the clock again and realize "Oh, wait, no actually I've got 90 minutes to finish this," well that's a different felt sense.
Imagine you're holding a canteloupe close to your body, with a hand on each side of the melon. Feel that? Now imagine that you're holding a watermelon instead, right up close to your body. Feel how different that is? That is the distinction that good managers of time are making. They "feel" the difference between 15 and 30 and 45 minutes. And they have a felt sense of how much they can do in that span of "time."
This ability to feel time gets better with chronological maturity, and is impaired in certain neurological conditions. Russell Barkley has written in particular about the impact of ADHD on time perception. If you teach or parent young children, or if you are an adult with disorganization and executive impairment, then you've likely already noticed the heartbreaking and frustrating impact of inefficiently perceiving and "getting" and managing time.
So What's Happening Today at 5:00?
What are you specifically and uniquely here to be, or experience? And looking ahead at your schedule for the next couple of days, how does your calendar reflect that? There is something you could do today at 5:00 that would be your best thing. The best next-thing you could do. Either that, or, well....something else will happen.
photo: clock
