How to Master Time

szsocute (35)in #productivity • yesterday

It has nothing to do with productivity.

Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli repeatedly assures us that time does not exist throughout his beautifully crafted books. He explains that what we experience as time is actually entropy. We are witnessing the movement from order to disorder. Your sensation of the passage of time is your brain making sense of your gradual decay into disorder. Some people find this idea disturbing.

I find it liberating.

Metaphysically speaking, whether time exists or not is irrelevant to our everyday life because we are finite beings. There will come a point when we will cease to exist in the same form as we are now. What happens after that point is the great mystery.

Because time is not real, it cannot be saved. It also cannot be wasted. All we can do with the time before we succumb to entropy is to be. The secret to solving the problem of time is to be ever-present.

Nostalgia is to live in a past that didn't exist, and anxiety is to live in a future that will not exist. Being present is to exist.

With our wonderful, powerful minds, we often futilely attempt to defy the laws of the universe by traveling back and forth through time. Nostalgia and anxiety are our feeble attempts at time travel.

We can free ourselves from the tyranny of time, because it exists only in our minds. However, we cannot escape the inevitability of entropy.

You are going to die. And so am I.

'Being present is often the most difficult thing we can do. It also happens to be the most important if you are interested in making the most of your finite life.'

What are we to do with our lives? The clock is ticking, isn't it? That's the great paradox. Even if we accept that time is a construct of our feeble mortal minds, it still influences how we understand the world.

As a younger man, I was distraught by the idea that the most enjoyable hours went by in a flash while the tedious hours doing menial chores seemed interminable. It was unjust! A cruel joke God or the Universe was playing on us powerless mortals.

A few years ago, I discovered that time is elastic. I have learned that there are ways to make the most joyful hours and minutes almost freeze while speeding through some of the more monotonous periods.

I am not a wizard or a time lord. I am not a new age guru. I'm just a fat, bald, middle-aged man who has stumbled into the sublime a few times. I have found a few perfect moments in life.

There are three parts to mastering time.

Become mindful
The secret to mastering time is slippery. When you think you have learned it, you will forget it. If you think too hard about it, the secret will not work. But if you lack mental discipline, this secret will never work for you.

Mastering time requires mindfulness. It's something you have to intentionally cultivate, but the moment you say to yourself, I need to be mindful, or I am being mindful, you lose your ability to conquer time. You have to be mindful, not try to be mindful.

Your personal philosophy of time
You also need to develop a philosophy of time. You need a mental construct that helps you place the concept of time into your life.

Time is my currency. I can always make more money, but I can never make more time. Time is the ultimate scarce resource. I show people respect by arriving at events on time. I will not tolerate anyone wasting my time because they are really stealing moments of my life.

Finding flow
You are the master of your perception. Since time is artificial, you can exert absolute control over how you spend it and how you perceive its passing. If you believe you can master time, you can. If you do not believe you can master time, you cannot.

The most important secret to mastering time is learning how to enter The Flow. What is The Flow?

Have you ever heard a pro athlete talk about being in the zone? That's the same thing as The Flow.

It's a magical-seeming place where your concentration is so centered on something outside of yourself that time slows down. Elite football and basketball players often talk about the game slowing down. They are talking about The Flow.

Runners, cyclists, and surfers often experience it as well. But you don't have to be doing something physical like that to enter The Flow.

Art can often help you find this transcendental state.

If art has a higher purpose, it is to help us be present. What is a song, a book, a poem, a dance, or a painting if not an invitation to notice this moment and to live in the now?

If you want to escape the tyranny of time, make some art. It doesn't need to be for anyone else's eyes. Write a haiku about one moment you witnessed today. Draw a picture with the abandon you had as a young child. Dance or sing as you once did before the world taught you there was a "right" way to do such things.

I'm a working writer and illustrator. That's how I pay my bills. When I am working on a project, I often fall into a kind of trance.

If art has a higher purpose, it is to help us be present. What is a song, a book, a poem, a dance, or a painting if not an invitation to notice this moment and to live in the now?

I'm a working writer and illustrator. That's how I pay my bills. When I am working on a project, I often fall into a kind of trance.

I am no longer typing away on my computer, trying to think of what to write or draw. The keyboard and monitor disappear from my conscious perception. I am taking dictation from the Universe. This is The Flow.

It's bliss.

In experimenting with The Flow, I have found that I can enter into it if I am willing to be absolutely present in the moment. Sometimes reading does this for me.

But my most sublime experiences are when I enter The Flow with my children.

Going into "The Flow" with others
This last trick, getting into The Flow with other people, takes preparation and dedication to mindfulness.

One Sunday afternoon, I had a life-altering moment that lasted hours. The kids and I spent the morning taking care of everything we needed to do to prepare for the next day. We made lunches, finished homework, and picked out clothes for school.

Then we went outside, and none of us took our electronics. My children and I ran around with our dog Loki. He was still a puppy back then. All of us were zooming around the lawn, laughing and cheering.

Eventually, Loki wore us all out.

The kids and I collapsed on the grass, panting and giggling.

In a flash, I realized time had stopped during our play and was now moving again. We had been in The Flow.

During the chase, all I was thinking about was that moment. I was not thinking about future tasks or past mistakes. Even now, almost three years later, I vividly remember the freedom and contentment of being with the dog and the kids that afternoon.

This memory is like a mug of hot chocolate on a freezing winter day. It warms my soul and makes me smile every time.

I had managed to stop time, not with magic or technology, but by letting go of everything.

Time stopped because we had done the work of removing all of the distractions. While on the lawn with the kids and Loki, my complete focus was on them. I gave them all of me.

Time stopped, and we just existed with each other.

That moment is now mine forever. Next week, next month, and as long as my cognitive abilities holdout, I will be able to remember that transcendental moment. More importantly, that transcendental moment is now part of my children's lives.

I have created a life where moments like this are not unusual, even if they are not common enough.

My children know what it is like to be seen and to have their full focus of their father, at least for a few perfect moments. That is the best gift I can give them. This is the legacy I care about the most.

Conquering the tyranny of time is simple, but never easy. You can master time by focusing entirely on the present moment.

That's all there is to it. That is the secret.

What are you going to do with it?