Prototype 2: Perception of time

I wanted to know if the ability for people to always know the time down to the minute affects their behaviour and perception of it

To test this I asked people to try and live 24-hours without minutes and see what they felt. I framed the following scenario:

FELLOW CITIZENS

The Ministry of Time has ruled that ‘minutes’ be taken out of circulation with immediate effect. This requires a mandatory censorship of only ‘minutes’ on all time-telling devices for 24-hours.

Step 1: Block out minutes from your phone lock screen, watch or laptop using paper/tape

Step 2: Send us a picture of your device with the necessary modifications

Step 3: Note differences in your behaviour, thoughts or feelings, if any. They must be reported in the form of messages to the below mentioned MoT personnel. We’re watching.

Your’s timelessly, Robert D’Clock (Ministry of Time)

Immediate sense of relief, tension release, in a world without minutes

Which means I need to wait for at least half an hour, or maybe an hour and a half.

I usually take a nap from 2:30 to 3 pm. But I don't know if it's 2:30 or 2:50 right now. And my alarm will ring at 3.

This is getting better. I've not looked at my phone in the last 2 hours because I know it's of no use. Also when the chai guy came, it was a surprise. (He comes at 5:15-5:20 pm everyday but today I forgot to keep a track, so it was pleasant to hear the knock on the door.)

Almost an hour back also it was 8:something. Even now it's 8:something. I'm not stressing that time is passing. More like I'm feeling like it's still just 8. What if it's 8:59? Is this good or bad? - the not taking stress about how much time I have and how much work I need to finish today?

Last night I decided to leave the studio because I was tired. Not because it was 10 or 11 pm. I listened to my body instead of the schedule. Did not look at the time. Just went to the barber for a champi, and slept without worrying how late I was sleeping and how much sleep am I going to get. Had a peaceful sleep as well.

checking time in itself is quite a distraction and happy to be not checking what time it is

Experience the day as segments

And plus other times when I’m working and then want to know approximately how much time has passed

So I’m a lot of times on the look out for when the number is changing, and then i approximate how much time must has passed since the hour

I had so many people asking me why i had that weird sticker on

“Feels like time is going slower cuz you see the same number whenever you go to see the time”

A little annoying.. Cos a lot of things are timed at the 30s and i cant see it.. Like leaving work is 6.30.. Basketball is 7.30..

Also i kinda inevitably cheat cos.. The meter in the rickshaw has time right.. It is relieving to know that am not late.

In progress

Someone asked what the time it was and Julius said that he needed to be at the cafe at 7 and needed to leave now.

It’s hard to act like you don’t know what time it is

“When you look at your clock and see 3.50, you think “I can’t get anything done in 10 mins.... but if I see just 3, I feel like hmmm.””

In progress

I am also less anxious about how fast time is going because I'm never absolutely sure when in the hour I am. I think that is what is helping me concentrate better on the task at hand.

First impression. It's 8 something but early 8 or late 8, I don't know

I'm running on the assumption that I'm late. Since I just woke up

It has been 10 something since fore. I did a lot of work paying very little attention to time

Hunger pangs tell me it's probably 1.30 now but I cannot be sure

For Sunday, I had way more free time and no plans. Having no minutes didn’t feel like it helped slow down the time but it drew more attention to the fact that I waste a lot of time on youtube/playing games (probably because I was thinking about how no minutes made it feel like my Friday night was longer). But this is also something that pops up whenever I waste most of a weekend day inside anyways and it wasn’t strong enough to make me actually change anything in the moment haha

I think it would be cool to see a change in my thinking about time to where I leave a little earlier to places and just hang around until the other people actually show up. Losi\ng a concern for showing up at the exact meeting time and leaving a buffer before instead. It seems like that would be a nice, slower pace of living. Don’t think your project should get in to behavioral change but I thought that was interesting

On Sunday night I found by accident if you double tap the home button on an iphone, the screen drags down and I could see the full time. I ended up doing this Monday morning too which made me pull the tape off since I wasn’t following along anymore

So.. Its a little difficult to stay true to the brief since there are just soo many sources of time you can block out from viewing. Despite that, I found it to be a mixture of relief and anxiety. Relief for it relieved my mind of the nuances brought in time by the minutes. 10 mins more, 15 mins later, 5 mins ago etc etc. To that end it made life much simpler. OK its 4 OK its 7 OK its 11. I did not find there to be any practical inconvenience but that could be contextual to the situation I was going through. On the other hand though it did cause a small sense of anxiety since I am used to knowing. Used to having the information at hand to make more micro decisions that can be based around minutes instead of something as general (in comparison to a minute) as an hour which is so spaced out. All in all I feel its highly depedant on the task at hand and what the Individual is engaged in that creates the difference. In one part favorable, in the other a nuisance. I hope that's a bit helpful to your cause

But yeah but it felt very different too in a good way. But yeah had to cheat when I had to get a metro or a tram. Felt a little free from being very time particular. I felt time was moving really fast though. Like just hours just moving very quick. Like more than usual cos I notice the minutes while working on type. But during this period I took more time to make each glyph. But it felt like I had time to make more corrections. And understand my work much better. I wonder if what would happen if there were no minutes at all. But it’s was really interesting. Though I couldn’t do it for quite long.

So far I am confused. I ordered my food but I don’t know what time that was and how much time has passed. Other than that nothing to report yet except hunger and the inevitable surprise of my food arrival since I can’t see the minutes. It’s been fun not knowing what time it is properly I’m *im relaxing more easily. I made a plan to go at past 4 for some archery. Then beach. Then 6 something swim. I can say it’s easier on holiday. But if I need things done it can be inconvenient.

**i have a replacement cook for the week. And he seemed to have finished cooking preety fast so instinctively I checked how much time he had taken. But..hehe. he can at 9 hours and left at 9hours. very tough to set up meeting since people expect to meet at 3:30, 4:45, 2:15 etc. also I’ve kinda given up on the clock. The hourly thing doesn’t have much meaning while it work, it feels like it’s either minutes or bust, too early to say tho

** Sunday mornings and evening typically cause some anxiety in anticipation of the coming week. There’s a bunch of shit I want to do to feel ready for Monday.

Typically I look at the time and back calculate how much time I have to finish stuff, even when I’m not doing it. So that didn’t happen. I think it did reduce anxiety. I was kinda oblivious of time. Did get some stuff done though.

Also I've deliberately chosen a holiday when I don't have to be all that particular about time. But yeah every time I've seen the minutes it's shocked me - once it was 1: 53 and the other time it was 2: 45 and I was expecting it to be way lesser. Getting restless right now because I'm working and I need to gauge my pace. And now when I was about to make tea it was important for me to know whether I was nearer to 5 or before 4: 30 - because how in your head you tend to stick to round figures (if it's before 4: 30 I'll take a break from working at 4: 30 but if it's past 4: 30 I'll take a break at 5)

was able to perceive the time only in terms of hrs.

i mean, first i used to see how much mins are left for a particular hour, but now it was just abrupt.

Rhuturaje

More productive. I’ve understood that I’m a horrible planner. Minutes or no minutes, I’m always late.

Weirdly, very relaxing, I still have the tape on. I don’t think I have a body clock, at all but I slept on time yesterday lol. Mostly because I spend a lot of time scrolling through Instagram before sleeping and convincing myself that “it’s a weekend” so I end up sleeping right before or after sunrise. Not sure if that’s because of not looking at the phone a lot or just not looking at the time and telling myself that I have more time to waste :grimacing:. But I look at the time a lot and convert back to IST because I’m constantly speaking to Kalp or people there. But I’m very typical, I wait for for the half an hour mark or the full hour to start something. That didn’t happen today, I had to pack to go back from Sydney to Melbourne. I did it in my own time when I thought I should get to it. So that was cool

I tried only for a half of the day. It feels like hours are longer without minutes. Also I didn’t check time frequently

I used it for the whole day, few times I set alarm for certain time (like 2:20 or 4:30) as I needed to be at some locations at specific period of time. Overall it was nice experience. I felt less pressure and I didn’t check time so frequent as usual during the day. It is still hard to understand if it is 20 or 40 minutes, maybe after using it for longer period you can train your feeling of time

Yesterday I had meetings and it was hard to manage time without minutes, that is why I dropped it. At some point it was annoying, especially if you are in a hurr

Yesterday was fine because it was Sunday. I had an idea of how much time passed based on the basketball matches I was watching. I set alarms to wake up. I did not know when 8 would turn 9 so that made me anxious.

It was fun. The hourly shift vs minute-to-minute shift made me set goals like ‘when it changes to 1, I’ll sleep”

I paid attention to the church bells which gave me clues as to what time it was.

overall it was a mix of feeling more free, almost timeboxing constantly and anxiety of not noing if the hour was going to end soon or keep lasting forever

But there was always a feeling that the hour was about to end so it made me a little more productive

I have been actively not looking at the whatsapp time stamps also. Man it has been way more interesting than I imagined. Getting used to it now, initially it was tough. Morning has been intereting. I have no clue when to leave for office. I spent too much time on instagram and lost a bit of perception of how many minutes have passed. am assuming I’ll reach around 10 min late. Yesterday was good after a few hours in. Reached home and expected it to be later than it was. Thought it’ll be 8. It was 7. No clue of the minutes. That actually happens to me a few times. Otherwise too.Had a random conversation where people thought it would be more interesting if you hid the hour than the minutes.

I did it a bit yesterdayBut it was hard cause I was home. Yesterday it was actually nice not paying attention to minutes until I needed to be somewhere or meet someone at a specific time. It actually resulted in me being early though, so that was nice (unexpected) benefit. My schedule isnt extremely busy, so I think I dont feel as pressured for time, esp on the weekends.

Back to reflections: I also like this concept of taking minutes out but only because I am focusing on time in larger segments. Allowing myself to focus on my work for longer periods perhaps, rather than planning down to the minute. Its actually had a positive effective on me this wkd.

So now on day 5 of ‘no mins’ and I think Im more annoyed by the fact the tape blocks some of my screen. But occassionally I do need to see mins so I have to cheat and look. But its almost been a week... cool to be part of the experiment.

It went way smoother than I expected. It got tougher in the end. Buut i guess it was because my 24hours ended at peak productivity time- where every minute mattered.

Found myself estimating how much time has passed since last activity. Others around me and their activities helped me keep track of time. Especially since I work at a school. That helped. After 24 hours is when I realised how dependant I am on minutes. Or how much of a habit it is to look at it. (more than necessary for sure).

“Do I keep a tab on productivity or keep a tab on procrastination?”

Then I started thinking of ways how to calculate those 5 mins. I stated counting the seconds, started counting my footsteps.

Came home and started reading and thought about how many pages I can read in 5 mins.

But today while working. I finished my work faster and left half an hour early.

[4:17 PM, 11/14/2018] Pritesh Maru: There is one observation I made.

[4:19 PM, 11/14/2018] Pritesh Maru: Earlier I use to keep looking at the watch every now and then. Today I didn't feel like looking at the watch again and again.

Maybe because of this I finished my work faster and now I have enough time to read. I lost thoda sense of time. And started concentrating more on things to be done in a day. It's 8 right now and I feel that I have a lot of time to read.

If a person is working in day light his sense of time would be a bit different.

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