Living Without Time

Another good idea is to cut out every scheduled appointment that you possibly can. You'll be amazed the difference this makes. People love to put things on your calendar: things like "lunch a week from Tuesday." But for anyone in the occupation of creating things, it's hell to end up in a calendared life that's completely interrupt driven. What if you end up in the middle of some really good work on Tuesday? Why is it your flow that gets broken and not your appointments, no matter the priorities? My advice is to challenge these appointments; make them fight for survival.<p>For the lunch example, I tell people that I'd love to do it, so please text me the morning of and I'll let you know if I can make it. That answer is (1) more realistic, and (2) more flexible.<p>You can do this for meetings, too. Rather than immediately setting up a "2pm brainstorming session," tell them that you'll email over your thoughts and ideas sometime tomorrow.<p>I really don't understand how scheduling fixed-time appointments became the natural order. Challenge that assumption and you'll be amazed at how it impacts life for the better.

I haven't worn a watch in a long time and I use my phone as a pocket watch.<p>Somehow, I only notice the time on my phone if I specifically pull it out for the purpose. I only notice the clock on my laptop when I'm curious about it.<p>I don't think banishing clocks is necessary: just care less about them.

I had to remove the clock from my Mac's menu bar to keep from watching it constantly. I've had to train myself to 'forget' (i.e. not worry) about appointments and deadlines and just let my tools do their jobs (because most of the time, they do remind me to do things - and if I have more than one to remind me [calendar on computer, calendar on phone] then I'm pretty well covered in the event one of them fails at its job.)<p>My daughter has to be at school at a particular time. She gets off the afternoon bus at a particular time. Completely living "without time" isn't possible when you have to synchronize with anything else in the world. Not having to synchronize would be great, and you can have that kind of independence - it would take work to get there, but I think it'd be worth it.

The real world problem that time tries to solve is synchronization of events. By having a standard method of measuring time, we make it easier to interact with other people and society. While I think it's a great idea to not be a slave to the clock, it really doesn't help you when you miss a train because you misread the sun.

Some books<p>Hugh Brody <i>Maps and Dreams</i> tells of land use mapping with indigenous people in Canada. They lived without time OK, adjusting activities with the length of the day, and their movement around their land by the seasons and the game available.<p>Barry Lopez <i>Arctic Dreams</i> tells the story, among other things, of the Government school teachers in a far North village who tried to get the children into school between 9 and 4 on weekdays during the summer (24 hour daylight). The children normally went to sleep when they wanted to. The community reaction was to leave the doors of the cabins unlocked and to suggest that the teachers could come and get the children if they wanted them there....<p>As this is HN, do we think that a <i>significant number</i> of people could adopt this kind of approach to time given distributed education, home working, ubiquitous computing &#38;c? Remember that my Granddad (born 1892 in UK) went from working in the fields by the light of the Sun to punching a clock in a factory, via the First World War.

This experience is quite interesting. But it would have been better if we had more context about his life. I can't imagine to live without time at work. My boss give deadlines I must meet. Sometimes I can't finish everything so I have to talk with my boss to decide if we renounce some features or we push the deadline. Everyday, people ask me for schedules: "When are you going to finish this?", "How long will it take if we want to do that?", etc.

<i>Full disclosure: I used the calendar on my phone to notify me before an appointment.</i><p>Living without time... except notifications of impending appointments. That's a fairly significant exception!

I used to be slave-to-the-clock until I found work I love doing. Turns out, when I didn't love my job, I would stare at the clock all day.<p>Looks at clock. 7:00 I should wake up 7:15 shower 7:45 do random crap at home, stressing over clock cuz I don't wanna be late 9:00 I should be at work. 9:45 I made it. 11:00, really? okay haven't done shit all day, time to do that thing. 11:15 really. I REALLY gotta do that thing. It's 12:30 but thing isn't done. However I should go to lunch. 1:30? Waiter, we've been sitting here for 30 min, our food isn't here, and I gotta get back to work by 2:00. 1:45 staring at clock while eating. If I leave the cafe at 2:00, I'll only be a little late.<p>And so on.<p>I have had jobs like that.

"Dropped my watch right into the garbage."<p>I washed mine by accident, left it in my trouser pocket. Been using the phone since.<p>"I learned how to read the sun"<p>My granddad did that, and the stars when visible. Maritime upbringing.<p>As a teacher, I need to be in the right room at the right time and it is my responsibility to manage the lesson so it finishes on time. There are other ways of organising education of course...<p><a href="http://www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk/upperschool.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk/upperschool.html</a><p>...but I don't think society at large is ready for those yet.

&#62; I don’t worry about how long things take or even bother considering how long they should take<p>I could not help but laugh at this comment, coming from the "writer" of <a href="http://www.scalingphpbook.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.scalingphpbook.com/</a>. With no significant updates or communications in months, despite promises made to the many Beta access customers, this comment made me literally laugh out loud.<p>Yeah Steve, we can tell.

Though interesting, the article should more accurately be titled "Living Without Clocks". Mr. Corona still uses time to synchronize activities with others but does not use a clock.<p>For me, a clock is invaluable. I'd much rather simply look at the clock than have reminders pinging off of events which occur at the same time daily. But I can see how one wouldn't really know which works better for them until trying each way.

The author replaced his watch with the sun (a coarser way to estimate time), and used his smartphone's calendar to alert him in time for events.<p>While its probably a good thing to minimize staring at the clock, possibly stressing yourself, it seems more like "living without constantly watching the time" instead of "living without time", which would be substantially harder (and IMHO, of doubtful benefit)

I appreciate the zen-like philosophical nugget.<p>For a more micro attempt at achieving something similar, I've recently experimented with leaving my phone at home during the day for 3-4 hour periods at a time when I go to school. A few things happen:<p>- I feel more calm and focused without the anxiety of another device to constantly check --&#62; I'm better able to focus in lectures<p>- I surprisingly frequently pat my pocket when walking on my 20-minute commute to see if my phone's there. I notice many people outside staring into their iPhones and Android devices like zombies.<p>- When I return, any calls, text messages, reminders, emails, and notifications found do not really seem all that important nor urgent. Having the ability to avoid such distractions feels like positive steps in reducing impulsive behavior.

Nice post. I don't wear a wristwatch and aren't too obsessed with time but it's interesting how small things do matter. Like the clock in the menu bar - after removing it I realize I've been looking at it quite a lot without thinking about it and without doubt adding a bit of stressful thoughts.

Earlier this year, I removed the clock from my toolbar. If I need to know the time, I can hit my iPad, or do a 'date' command in a terminal window. If I know that I have an impending appointment, I will run a clock app on the iPad.<p>I don't have a cell phone, and after I put my pocket watch through the laundry, I don't carry a watch either.<p>Unfortunately, as a software developer, pretty much every day is perforated with meetings, and as a bus commuter, I am locked to various schedules, so I can't quite go timeless.

Actually, he does not live without time, as he looks at the sun to know the time of the day and know if he's done working for the day. He might live without a clock, but then I think the clock is a human technology that has to be mastered, like a lot of other technologies like mobile phone, email,... Don't be the slave of these technologies. Master them so you don't have to ignore them.

This is such a beautiful concept - in this over-scheduled world we're not giving ourselves as much space to foster creativity and reflect.

The last sentence makes it clear that he is not living without time; he's living with time defined by organic rhythms of his body and the environment instead of time defined by the rhythms of machines. It sounds like something I would like to try.

Beautiful. Trying this starting today!<p>Easing into it, though, just removing the clock on my laptop... still have flights to catch etc.

I did this years ago. Works wonders. Watches are for suckers.