The Nature of Time I

Have you ever taken a step back from your life, and really taken stock of how you spend your time every day? Without going too far out on a limb, I’d be willing to guess it looks a little something like this:

But wait a second. What about that coder down the street, who somehow manages to have his light on all night, every night?

I apologize. That coder isn’t hardcore enough

Or perhaps the contractor who embraces the flexibility of their schedule as much as possible?

Certainly there are many more schedules.

All of these folks spent the same amount of time on the same basic tasks (work, sleep, and other stuff), they just happened to distribute their time differently. Can you imagine spending a day in each of these distributions? Which one seems most natural to you? Which make you cringe in your chair? Personally, the idea of having my workday broken up into 30 minute chunks sends shivers up my spine. I like to reach a state of flow with my work, but that’s a conversation for another day. Take a moment to reflect on how you would ideally distribute your activites throughout the day…

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Of course there’s no right answer. Different people gravitate towards different natural states. And of course, the above is a mere sampling of different possible ways to hack up your day. Consider folks not constrained by having to spend 1/3 of their time working, sleeping, and recreating:

The student who lives and dies by the motto “if you wait until the last minute, it only takes one minute.”

Don’t forget the rare soul who has successfully embraced a polyphasic sleep schedule.

Maybe the hardcore coder above STILL wasn’t hardcore enough for you.

You get the idea

In a moment, we’re going to layer a great deal of complexity on top of this relatively simplistic model. But let’s take a second to pause and reflect. Most people fall into the first bucket, with a standard 9-5 job, a standard sleep schedule from 12-8, and a quiver of evening activities to fill in the hole. How do people choose when to do different activities?

Draconian enforcement of working hours aside, I suspect a lot of the reason has to do with people aligning their schedules to others. After all, humans are social creatures. So for most people, matching one’s time distribution to other folks (work or play) is darn important. Perhaps more important than one’s natural sleep cycle. Perhaps synching one’s schedule with the rest of humanity leads to incredibly inefficient uses of time. Anyone who’s ever sat in rush hour (you know who you are) knows what I’m talking about. Not to mention baseball game traffic… eeesh.

Ultimately, the question I’d like to explore: How can I spend my time efficiently, doing the things I want to do?

Where we’re headed: Spending time to increase efficiency of doing other things… Considering the week as one long block of time… The utility of spending time on different activities… The utility of spending time on different activities, at different times… Introvert/extrovert tendencies, and impact on perception of time… Perception of time based on the flexibility of your schedule…