Stop the Clock: Claim Back Your Time

In the modern world being busy is a sign of a full, productive and successful life.

Our weekly routines are often written in concrete, with each day parcelled out into hours dedicated to work, exercise, family, relaxation and sleep. The complex dance that is modern life is carefully choreographed and we perform it with perfect timing – up until the moment that we finally hang up our ballet shoes…

Unless we choose to stop the clock…

Stopping the clock is viewed by some with the same frustration as a power blackout. All those hours lost! All those jobs that weren’t done! All that ironing, emailing, gardening, research, cleaning etc that could have been completed! For some of us it is as if we carry a gigantic score board around over our heads, our current productivity flashing in neon for all to see.

In the workplace, emails have brought clock-worshipping to a new level of addiction. In many offices I’ve roved through, people return from annual leave with wild eyes and heart palpitations at the thought of all the emails that await them. Rather than catching up on what’s new in the office or people’s lives, they leap at the laptop like it is a Rubik’s Cube and furiously start slogging through their correspondence.

So why do we do it? Why do we allow a little thing we wear on our wrist to dictate our days?

Time is precious. It is also limited. Everything around us points to exactly how precious and limited – all the best things are available now, all the sales are never to be repeated, all of the opportunities are one time only.

And of course we now have so many choices that time seems to be our enemy. We can be everything, do everything, experience everything, but all within the original constraints of a twenty-four-hour day. And it doesn’t seem to work if we try and do a deal with time – I want to be a little bit of a mother, a quarter of a scientist, a smidge of a friend, a glimmer of a lover, a nanosecond of a homemaker… The scoreboard never reflects the truth of our commitment or achievements.

But is time really the enemy or is this a self-imposed affliction? Have we been so indoctrinated with the need to make the most of our time that we have forgotten how to do things simply for the pleasure they give us or for their intrinsic worth?

A friend who recently went on an extended vacation with her family to “get away from it all”, still managed to put together an impressive itinerary and proudly reported in her first email on their ability to stick to it. Determined that her family would benefit from the freedom of the road and an alternative experience, the heavy hands of the clock still managed to get their hands on her agenda.

The reality is we cannot smash the clock. All we can do is stop it for a while by reducing its influence on our lives.
This means taking time out – literally. It means taking time out of your frame of reference. To do this you have to put aside the mental stopwatch and accept that the only factor at play is the experience – not how long it takes, or when you can do it or if it is worth your time to do!

No doubt you are imagining your busy life and trying to fit this concept around it. It is clearly not a realistic thing to do all of the time - see how time manages to wriggle back into the picture? - but there are ways we can stop the clock without losing track of time altogether.…

The reality is we have to plan to stop the clock. Unless we are free of the broader constraints of work hours, school times, family schedules and so on, we have to fit taking time out around these other commitments. But the important thing is to remember that it is about the experience, not its value in terms of time out of your day.

Here are some “Stop the Clock” techniques:

1. Ban clocks on Sundays – agree to a time-free Sunday and then remove all references to time. Sleep when you want, stay in and play or go out and explore. Listen to music, enjoy pottering around and be governed by the sun when it is time to go to bed.
2. Have a movie marathon – this doesn’t have to be a day spent watching endless DVDs unless you want it to be. The point is to do something you enjoy for as long as you want to do it.
3. Enjoy doing nothing – call this conserving your energy if you’d prefer, but the essence of this is to remove any feelings of guilt at not being productive. Go to the beach without a book, sit at the traffic lights without looking at your mobile phone, watch the kids play without interjecting with words of advice or encouragement.
4. Observe energetic activity – this is a form of meditation that can be really soothing and refreshing. Look for a busy pattern, like storm clouds, traffic, feeding birds or rolling waves and observe it. Enjoy the busy activity, but stay removed from it.
5. Take a break outside time – on your next vacation, look for a place where time has little relevance. A lot of busy people go to “wellness retreats” to get away from their daily demands, only to find that every moment of their day is structured around activity. Instead, consider a self-catered holiday where the only rules are those you make.
6. Volunteer your time – there is nothing like giving your time away for free to discover its real worth.
7. Make waiting valuable – we all hate waiting in line, because it is such a waste of time! But put this imposed activity to work, by using it to achieve other things. This could be as simple as meditating or daydreaming, or it could be structured, like list-making or letter writing. The number of families who stand mutely in line is amazing – use this time to talk, to joke with the kids or to meet the people around you.

For a quick fix, begin by banning these phrases from your “Stop the Clock” commitment:

• “When… (anything!)?”
• “I’ll be there in a second.”
• “Give me a minute.”
• “How long will it take?
• “Where did the time go?”
• “What time shall we meet?”
• “Can you hurry up?”
• “What took you so long?”
• “If only there was another hour in the day…”
• “So much to do, so little time.”

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