Time Will Tell

TIME WILL TELL

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

We pay an amazing amount of attention to time.  It seems to go by at a steady pace, like clockwork so to speak, but we like to think its speed varies, depending on what we are doing and our attitudes. 

Theoretically, Einstein and his successors would have us believe that time does uniquely vary by individual, and as we approach the speed of light, time actually slows down.  Putting time travel aside, every day we quantify this peculiar entity.  We may save or waste it, but we always measure it.

I confess to having a temporal obsession.  I have 20 different wrist watches.  All of them adjust differently, which causes a lot of frustration when directions get lost and we switch to daylight savings.  Plus I have several wall clocks, alarm clocks, sundry calendars, a weather station, an all-knowing exercise monitor, and a smart phone that broadcasts every changing moment.  So armed, I try to keep track of appointments, due dates, deadlines, and tv programming.

Given our preoccupation with time, no wonder we bestow upon it almost magical powers.  We claim that time heals all wounds, waits for no one, and really is of the essence.  When angry, we may insist that time steals from us and is a thief.  Eternity becomes a place where we can luxuriate in timelessness.  

The Greek philosopher Pericles advised that time is the wisest counselor of all, while War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy pointed out that patience and time are the two greatest warriors in the world.  The best paradoxical explanation comes from business columnist Harvey Mackay: “Time is free, but it’s priceless.  You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it.  Once you have lost it, you can never get it back.”

Despite these profound notions, time has no altogether separate powers of its own.  When it gauges or directs our lives, mostly it is because we let it.  Therein lies an important lesson.  The better we understand our relationship to time – how it affects our daily patterns of thinking, behavior, moods and attitudes – the more self-aware we become.  This helps us shape our viewpoints, habits, and destinies.

Some of the most recent revelations about time can be found in a current best seller by Daniel Pink.  Aptly titled “When”, Pink’s research highlights a dominant pattern in our moods and performance throughout the day.  In the morning we seem to be more alert, perceptive, focused and emotionally balanced.  By afternoon, a dip in mood occurs and we drift into negative feelings, becoming more frustrated or less resolute. 

Yet the afternoon does have virtues.  With our guard down, and inhibitions loosening, afternoons promote creativity and innovative thinking.  “Aha” moments are more frequent.  Then by evening, the morning’s emotional assets rebound, making us more productive and logical.    

Before you dismiss this pattern of peak, trough, and rebound, consider certain mitigating factors.  For one, roughly one of every five of us operates in reverse:  recovery, trough, and peak.  In other words, most of us may be larks, but a substantial minority are owls.  Also, much depends on the nature of our tasks, as well as our genetic predisposition, which experts call our unique chronotype.

If you still doubt the dominant pattern, some “big data” research by two Cornell sociologists is convincing.  After analyzing more than 500 million tweets by 2.4 million users worldwide, the researchers found that the peak-trough-rebound pattern prevails consistently.

  It is reassuring that millions of us use language suggesting we feel hopeful, engaged, and positive typically in the morning.  In addition, evidence suggests the importance of taking a timely lunch break away from our desks, enjoying short breaks throughout the day, and offsetting the afternoon “Bermuda Triangle” of our days with a short afternoon nap.  Pink calls these naps “Zambonis for our brains”.

 Pink and many other researchers highlight the untimely ironies of typical school schedules.  Grades and test scores can be dramatically improved by starting high school classes later (after 8:30 a.m.), and scheduling science and math courses in the morning, with English, social studies, art, and music following in the afternoon. 

It behooves us to make institutional schedules fit the peak-trough-rebound model more closely.  It is shocking to learn that, in the afternoon, much more so than in the morning, doctors make more mistakes in the operating room, judges issue more severe sentences, and parole boards grant fewer paroles.  

Bureaucracy, convenience, and tradition explain why resetting our time is like removing the stakes holding up circus tents.  Just bear in mind Daniel Pink’s admonition that today’s timing is everything, but tomorrow we may fully realize that everything is timing.

1/10/20