Reflections on my "Day Without Time"

First, a recap:  Yesterday I endeavored to ignore the time and live each moment without the label of hours and minutes.  It seemed an interesting exploration of how the rigid construct of time affects the human psyche. 

Now, an admission: Staying completely ignorant of the time proved impossible.  For one thing, the ubiquitous presence of clocks in the corners of devices made it difficult to stay aloof.  To avoid an inopportune glance at the clock required constant vigilance, and every so often I slipped up.  Also, so well-ingrained is the habit checking the time that I did it a few times as a sort of reflex before I could stop myself.  What's more, the fact that I had to consciously will myself not to check the time meant that the time was constantly on my mind.  It's a bit like the "don't think of a pink elephant" phenomenon: the more I focused on ignoring the time, the more I wondered what time it was.  

All the same, my little experiment was not a total failure.  I did succeed in living a less rigidly-structured day, and I enjoyed the sense of freedom this change afforded me.  While reading a short story in the evening, it was liberating to know I could finish whenever and then eat dinner, even if I was still only half way through the story when "dinner time" arrived.  It was nice to move from one activity to the next, without the arbitrary segmentation of time forcing adherence to an unnecessary schedule.

I'll try to learn from this experience and carry it forward into my daily life.  Covering clocks with masking tape or refusing to check the time when my fiancee asks (like I did yesterday) is just silly, and with certain activities (especially those like work and writing that I'm liable to skip) a schedule instills necessary discipline.  But there's no reason I have to eat my mid-morning snack at exactly 11 AM each day, and to feel a sense of guilt or anxiety to finish my work quickly because "snack time" is approaching is an unnecessary source of manufactured stress.  

So, once again, the middle way is the path best-traveled.  No surprises there.

I think I'm hungry now, so I'll go eat some Coco Crispies.    And I won't avoid the clock before shutting my computer, but won't let it determine my behavior either.