How To Reclaim Your Free Time huffingtonpost.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
A new system in Elk River Keeps Closer Track of Employees' Hours startribune.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
How to Grab More Time cnn.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
July 28, 2008
I exchanged emails with a friend recently who said he was so involved in a project he didn't have time for much else. Which got me thinking about the totally overwhelming subect of time. And what I could say about it.
You’ll be relieved to know I rejected the line, “A humbling metronome of life.” And pithy sayings like, “Time heals all wounds.” (I much prefer Time wounds all heels…anyway.)
Going into the subjects of over programming and time management I decided are quite boring, and frankly, I’ve never had the time to learn anything about them.
I consulted Ambrose Bierce, one of my foremost authority on practically everything, and found to my dismay he didn’t even attempt to tackle the subject. However, he did come close, in defining a day: A period of 24 hours, mostly misspent.
I would define a good day as well misspent.
However, I fear in perusing what I’ve written so far I am stalling for time and probably wasting yours. So I will get on with it.
Every time you think you are probably smarter than you are, you should spend some on the Space-Time-Matter (STM) theory, which is how Albert Einstein dealt with time. Trying to win a Nobel Prize on the subject.
H. G. Wells dealt with present time in trying to remove himself from it in “The Time Machine.” His theory had something to do with four dimensional geometry that allowed you to go forward or backward in time if you had a decent gear shift.
The ancient Egyptians dealt with time, by largely ignoring it— since they never knew actually what time it was. The Sundial, although a brilliant invention, didn’t exactly provide an accurate reading. So if you agreed to meet at, say, a certain spot along the Nile, you could be waiting for hours. Days, if it were overcast.
The Europeans (who it is not known) started the modern obsession with time by inventing the mechanical clock in the 14th century. But we do know who’s to blame for the first mechanical alarm clock— An Ottoman engineer by the name of Taqi al-Din.
From there, it could only get worse, and it did. The invention of the portable timepiece in 1504 by Peter Henlein, in Nuremberg Germany, meant you could now take your obsession with you.
But the real culprit was French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal who, with a piece of string, attached a pocket watch to his wrist.
Now, of course, we can tell time to the exact millisecond, with quartz oscillators, atomic clocks and the most accurate yet in NAVSTAR- GPS. Which is extremely important considering the mind-numbing amount of planes in the air at one time.
But, in getting back to how we wrestle with time, clearly, I have no answers.
And you? Only if you have, well, the time.
Share the Eye:
The World Clock Time Zones timeanddate.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
HG Well's The Time Machine online-literature.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Sundial History accuratesundials.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Okay, gang, we have covered the philosophical aspects of time, the poetic aspects, and the practi...
Jul. 28, 2008 5:07 PM
A time machine can take you anywhere for the weekend. Where do you go?
88% 13%
I'll be the first to state the obvious: I just don't have the time to properly comment. Shoot, I only scanned the article. To work I go!!
Gia said...
Me neither, I'm heading for the 14th century, the Italian Rennaisance, while humming my favorite time song, "Time after Time."
The most carefully wrought schedule
Will inevitably fail
Because time is like water
And I'm a leaky pail
You know how flies live their whole lives in a day and move really fast?
To them we appear to be moving slow.
I think that time is just an illusion set up by our brains so that everything doesn't appear to be happening at once.
Dutchman said...
It's amazing that probably the most essential concept around is difficult to get your arms around. So why try? Me, it might be nice, or scary, to take a time trip to the future and see what man has wrought. Might also be nice to visit a library and check on what to invest in today. But I don't know if that's in the spirit of the question...
I would also vote for "Time after Time" as best time song. Followed by "I didn't know what time it was."
Time is for those movers and shakers, those ambitious, industrious folk, who "get things done" For them, it's how much can you get done in the least amount of time.
A famous cinematographer once told me, you can have any two of the following things, but you can't have all three. Good, Fast, Cheap.
Today our mentality is fast and cheap. Too bad. Quality has always been important to me, but the older I get the more important it becomes - and not just in products. I find myself caring less and less about time, and more and more about my quality.
There you go Expat.
You know how flies live their whole lives in a day and move really fast? To them we appear to be moving slow.
Try looking at the world through rock's eyes: http://tinyurl.com/dasrad
Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
English novelist (1775 - 1817)
Ah! Time! The great equaliser - though it seems everything is, these days. But Time really is. We're all given a Time on this earth, and ultimately, Time is the basis on which everyone can compare themselves to everyone else: how they spend their Time, or how much Time they spend. We sit on Time and we watch it go by and it's nothing to us; it's our most important asset and yet - we don't give it the slightest hoot! Time is cruel: Time gives us too much when we don't want it; it takes Time away when we do want it. It strolls by slowly, it stops to have tea with us when we want it to run, and when it's sprinting at full speed, we wish it would stop for us.
Time is the one infinite resource. Time is what everyone has, all in equality. Time is great for some people, and terrible for others. Time is opportunity knocking; Time is the Reaper around every corner. Time is all things and nothing. We live in Time. We're not given a choice.
What is Time?
Heavens, such a question isn't answerable.
Time is wild, Time is unrestrained. Time chooses to do what you don't want it to do. So we build watches to try and what? Harness Time? No, all we did is put together a measurement of how unharnessed Time is. We punish ourselves by displaying, proudly, on screens and behind glass, how badly we are at managing Time. So we put it in agendas, we write it down on paper or we use computer applications and Internet sites to wrap our fingers around it and try and successfully control Time, put it where we wish. But all we manage to do is put ourselves in Time. We leave Time to be king, queen, emperor and empress while we force ourselves to be restrained in Time's hands and minutes and delude ourselves by pretending that we have some control over where Time goes and what it does.
And why bother? We try and reduce Time to a measurement but it just kills us, to put us in our place - our ultimate place: our grave.
And Time travel - don't even get me started. I figure Time is a solid stream, something unalterable - that things happen whether we've gone back to try and change them or not. That things are how they are right now because essentially, everything has already happened, and we're just travelling through the movie, through the film about ourselves and for ourselves unto the infinity of Time. We don't influence Time - I've said it already - Time influences us. We're just watching.
drdgscott said...
The Greeks had a helpful insight -- they felt there were two kinds of time: chronos, which was the passage of hours and days, and kairos, significant time. Blessedly, my life has consisted of many monets of kairos while I note the ever rapid passing of chronos.
zackchange said...
I don't know for sure, but maybe "Time Management" is the most important tool/skill there is. The clock is ticking for us all. If you think about it, TIME = LIFE.
Time and time management are two totally different things. We all have the same 24 hours in a day...it's just that we utilize this approximate 86,000 seconds very differently. Time just is! Time management is what we make it. No matter how you gernalize it...there is never enough of it. Now I think it's time for a piece of a co-workers birthday cake. I wonder how much time it will take me to eat it (about 1 minute)? That will leave me with about 31,000 seconds to finish working, go to the grocery store, cook dinner, clean it up, take my grandsons swimming, take them home, pay a few bills, check out the lastest copies of Cosmo and Southern Living, water the flowers, take a bubble bath, ok...you have the idea. Some of this is quality time...some is just wasted time, but it is MY time.
JillyBean said...
I really like the concepts of Mother Earth and Father Time. (So much so, I once wrote a screenplay about a love story between the two. Might be worth revisiting...)
Could it be so simple? That all it comes down to, the very parents of existence, are the natural world, a.k.a. star-stuff, (thank you Carl Sagan), and the time that passes it all by? I think it just might be.
Otherwise, I'll share what I think are the two most valuable insights in regard to time management:
1. Live in every moment.
2. It's always cocktail hour somewhere.
I think that my time, our time, is right now, this very instant, with no promise of another instant. Each instant is only as precious as one makes it; whether it is being constructive and creative, or just woolgathering and resting. There must be an infinite number of really profound statements that have already been made that attempt to characterize "time" so I'll not waste either yours or my time, for it's clearly out of my limited grasp.
As to "when and where" I would choose to spend some time; my mode of transportation would have to be Mr. Peabody's "Way Back Machine"
I have often felt a certain pull, affection, perhaps even a sense of belonging to the late 19th century New York which for me is best described by a quote from my favorite novel "Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin. "Engines had come alive, and they lighted every corner, crowning themselves in plumes of smoke and steam . . . the city itself became a machine, millions worked day and night . . .. in a fury to attend the birth". It was also a time when great bridges and tall buildings where imagined to meet the sky.
But since I only have a ticket good for the weekend and couldn't stay, this is where and when I'd like to go.
My actual memories of this time and place are nothing more that the flickering black and white images projected from our trusty, then state of the art, 8mm movie projector. It was 1952, I was almost three years old, and we were on our first real summer vacation; in the Black Hills of North Dakota. There were scenes of driving through tunnels of solid rock, black bears begging for food on the side of the road, and my older brothers and sisters, Mom and Dad, all acting silly and really enjoying the experience. For some reason, whoever had camera duty one day, used a lot of film of me running up and down the stairs of a very tall scenic view tower. I've watched that film so many times but I just don't remember doing it, what it felt like.
I've always wished I could go back to that trip, that day in particular so I could experience it again, remember what it was like. I was diagnosed with polio (my left leg and hip) shortly after that wonderful trip. I've been so very fortunate, especially thanks to the efforts, encouragement and unconditional live I received from my mother and father and the skills of my doctor. I am very grateful that I can still exercise and do most everyday activities without the help of a brace or crutches (Celebrex and cortisone shots are, however, very good friends). I just can't remember what it felt like to be able to run like I did that day; up and down that tower. I would just like to do it one more time and remember. I wouldn't change a thing.
Spinner said...
Okay, gang, we have covered the philosophical aspects of time, the poetic aspects, and the practical problems of keeping up with it in the every day world. Now we must acknowledge the scientific...
Two recent articles in Discover Magazine talk about this and I rushed down and retrieved them from the stack we never seem to be able to throw out... or have the time to.
In the June 2008 issue, they talk about the work of Itzhak Bars who has come up with the answer to some of the problems with M-Theory, the theory that is replacing the String Theory. He proposes a fourth dimension of space and a second dimension of time. He has shown a new symmetry "that treats an object's position and its momentum as interchangable at any given instant." Interesting thought...
Then in the August 2008 issue, there is an article on the brain and how it preceives time. It seems that the brain does indeed comprehend time as passing either slower or faster depending upon how much we are engaged in the circumstances of the moment. And this reaction difference is biochemical. When you think about it, this is not really much of a surprise. They have just now gotten around to figuring out what really happens to make this so.
Thus, I will close so that you all can get your brains back to moving at a more normal pace.
more on the honor rollWhat makes a person think of and about time?
When your young time is seemingly plentiful, you don' think what you have of it will end.
It seems that its not until someone you know & love is given a few months or is suddenly taken out of your life that you realize if their time is/has ended so will yours.
It always seems that when someone has run out of it, the regrets are many in the fact that you did not take the time to do many activites when you had the time & the chances to in do so.
No matter how you try you cannot get time back, yet sometimes as much as I wish I could get some time back with certain people who no longer have it, I wonder if the trade off would be worth it. The old short horror story of the Monkeys Claw always comes into my mind when I get to the point of swearing that I would do anything for some time back.
I'm not that old yet in my medium aged life I have learned that it really does not matter how much time you have, but what you DO with the time you have.
As for the Question of the Weekend Time Machine ~ I'm sorry Mr. Peterman but a Weekend is just NOT ENOUGH TIME!!!!
I would LOVE to go back to see Anne Boleyns date with the ax man, meet a few of the Romanovs, see the dedication of the Brooklyn Bridge, See Sir Olivier & Vivian Leigh perform on the London stage, meet Robert E. Lee, meet Anias Nin, See Picasso, Matisse, Seurat & Da Vinci Paint, Meet Catherine De Medici, Meet Lucretia Borga, Protest with Alice Paul, See Queen Victoria & Albert, Hang around with Fred, Ginger & Hermes Pan, Spend a month or more at San Simeon, Be invited to one of Francis Hodgeson Burnetts Salons and an Oscar Wildes one also.....
As you can see there's just WAY too much I woud like to go back & actually see & experience already that I would need a longer time than a weekend maybe every weekend for the next few years...
In third grade, the teachers always told us to "use our time wisely".
I think we even got points off at the end of the nine weeks for how wisely [in their opinion] we used our time...
[I think it's appropriate to share with this community that I went to my first afternoon tea today at the Carolina Inn and had a lovely time.
It all seems a tad too dainty for me, not really sophisticated.
I guess that's what you get when you start drinking bone-dry espresso in tiny coffee shops at the age of twelve.]
Spinner said...
Lovey! How wonderful! In the small town from which we moved nearly 6 years ago, afternoon teas were the social thing. You have now been given a taste (pun-pun) of the traditional Southern social culture, but you may walk away from it now that you have broadened your horizons. No need to make your debute when you turn 18.
If I could travel back in time, I would go back to the 1920's and ride the Orient Express.
But I can't, of course. Isaac Asimov pointed out the problem with the notion of time travel:
Suppose I invented a machine through which I could travel back in time and proceeded to travel to Russia in 1918. There, in the park, I see my father. I pull out a pistol and shoot him. Consequently, I am never born and I never went back and shot my father. But, because I never did so, I am born, so I did go back and shoot... etc.
Other favorite quotes about time include:
"Let us use time as a tool, not a couch." -- John F. Kennedy
"Time is a system of measurement. Therefore, it must have something to measure. Time is in the universe, the universe is not in time." -- Dr. Nathaniel Branden
"What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook." -- James Helvick
"How do you measure a year? In daylights? In sunsets? In midnights? In cups of coffee? 525,600 minutes." -- Jonathan Larson
To: Mr. Peterman,
The quality of time is the essence of life. There will always be just enough work to fill up the time you have to complete it. Tell a person they have 8 hours to do the work and it will surely be done in 8 hours. Tell him he has 4 hours and it will be done in 4 hours. Unless its a union job, then nothing is done till overtime.
But quality time with family, with friends, even at work is important. So many people waste their time at work, with family, and with friends. People often say they don't have enough time. Well, I don't think it's an issue of "time management", I think it's an issue of finding meaningful moments in life, especially moments with loved ones. Every moment is a "now" moment....anything less is a waste of the most precious resource we have. A resource that is really not renewable.
Spinner said...
Mr. P:
I am humbled.
Greetings: My father always had a respect for Native American Indians and the way they lived in harmony with the earth. When European man came to North America they seemed to have an agenda and a schedule.
My dad said, "White eye watches Time....Time watches the Indians.
Gia said...
Might be time to say goodnight.
DPR: DO NOT QUOTE THAT SONG. My friends are all obsessed with Rent and insist on singing that one line over and over and over and over...