It’s a sunny Saturday. I just asked my husband if he wants to go for a walk. The daylight is precious this time of year and I feel the need to grab some outdoor time while we can. Rob responds – “Sure! Let’s go now!” I’m like…“Wait a minute, I didn’t mean NOW. I have to finish writing this section, so I need 20 minutes. Or so…” Rob responds “15 minutes”. (He’s watching sports, with it’s own timetable) There’s tension in my shoulders as I feel my window of time shrink.
When Rob and I first met – he showed up for our first date 10 minutes EARLY. Who does that? “OMG” I thought. “He’s from the planet of the Chronically On Time. This Will Never Work.”
Well…time proved me wrong. But our sense of time is nonetheless, very different.
And we are not alone.
As it is the end of our year, and holiday joys (and time pressures) are multiplying, let’s look a bit closer at our own grasp of Time, and our perceived lack of it.
Across the planet, different cultures have radical variations in their relationship to time. Our Western perception may consider differences in time as broken up into “zones”, but I’ve recently discovered that this is very linear, very “Newtonian” of us.
Newtonian Time in a Bottle
From Wikipedia : “According to Newton, absolute time exists independently of any perceiver and progresses at a consistent pace throughout the universe. Unlike relative time, Newton believed absolute time was imperceptible and could only be understood mathematically.” This is the concept we were all taught in school, and it has run our lives ever since.
It turns out that if we step outside our familiar limitations… we just might discover a new way to consider Time.
Carlo Rovelli vs. Newton’s Ticking Clock
Carlo Rovelli, an Italian physicist, is a founder of loop quantum gravity theory. He tells us that our concept of time is very “naive”, and does not correspond to physical reality. He even takes issue with Newton’s “illusion” of the ticking clock. Say What???
Tell that to the multiple employees who have to punch the clock each day in order to get paid. Or all the parents trying to get their kids off to school IN TIME for multiple classes and activities. Newtonian time rules our world. But may it doesn’t have to.
Einstein Weighs In
In his Theory of Relativity, Einstein expanded the scientific understanding of time dramatically. He refuted the Newtonian idea of absolute time and space and supplanted it with the idea of time as only one dimension in special relativity, and of dynamically curved space-time in general relativity. In his Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein determined that time is relative – so the good news is that my frame of reference determined the rate at which time passes.
Back on Planet Earth
Ok, I have no business getting lost in the heady skyscape of physics, but my general grasp invites me to consider that my usual cramped and stressed relationship to time doesn’t have to run my experience. So that brings me out of the stars and a back down to earth…
Dancing in a Different Meter: Aboriginal Time
An Australian study conducted in 2003 by Aleksandar Janca and Clothilde Bullen set out to explore the Aboriginal concept of time. The results confirmed that Aboriginal time differs significantly from Newtonian time in that “Aboriginal people do not perceive time as an exclusively ‘linear’ category and often place events in a ‘circular’ pattern of time according to which an individual is in the centre of ‘time-circles’ and events are placed in time according to their relative importance for the individual and his or her respective community (i.e. the more important events are perceived as being ‘closer in time’).” This is interesting! Instead of being caught in the barbed wire of linear time, we might consider “circles of time” with important, prioritized events within those circles.
What might that look like in my everyday experience? I’m envisioning a time-map structured with the circles of a mind-map. My writing time would be a larger priority in my time circle, but a walk with my husband would make up a smaller, but still prioritized activity. Client circles would, of course, take up space in my larger time circle as well, but I would limit myself to only two of them in a day, so that I can give them my undivided attention.
To be honest, this concept of Aboriginal circle time is yet more proof that my perceived battle with time is really an issue of too many actions/commitments/activities prioritized in my own mind.
In the Positive Intelligence Mindset model, this struggle with prioritization is a key fault of the Restless saboteur. No matter how much I practice my PQ reps, Restless always claims the first or second spot in my saboteur line-up. Sigh.
Yeah well. I’m a creative and resourceful problem solver who can pivot on a dime. So there.
Time Circles and Holiday Madness
I can imagine, that if I were to experiment with time circles for the rest of the month, that the visuals could be revealing. Let’s take Christmas shopping for example. I try to begin gathering gifts for my family in October, long before the craziness begins. But in my October time circles those shopping activities would still be pretty small. Right now, however, the circles are growing in size and importance as the holiday gets closer. Socializing with friends gets a larger circle too, especially since this particular priority was forced to disappear during the shutdown.
So then, which circles can be reduced? Ah…that is the question. Work commitments, with proper planning, can shrink in size over the rest of this month, as I find myself tabling new client meetings and facilitation commitments into January timeslots.… I mean, time circles.
I invite you to sign up for a free 45 minute time circle to find out more about what Positive Intelligence might do for you – especially if you find yourself dealing with more on your plate than you feel you can handle!