Everywhere, we are reminded of time. In the car. On our computer. Why we even wear a watch to keep track of it. Our stop watch says 8.3 seconds. The game clock says there is one minute and nineteen seconds left. In the kitchen, our microwave says that is is 8:45. While texting we see the current time on our phone.
Yet, time passes slowly these days as we shelter at home. It speeds up when we binge watch our favorite show or read a book that we enjoy. Slows down again when we decide to cook a meal. Speeds up again when we are on three video calls in a row for work. Or when we FaceTime our friends for the next hour.
Being busy, as we were before, made us time starved. There was never enough time to do our work, take care of our family, exercise, and volunteer at a non-profit. Time was our enemy.
Our focus was how to save time. Many times we bought it. Other times, we downloaded the next app to help us organize our day. Before sheltering at home, time was our enemy. Deadlines and milestones were too big and bold in our lives to be missed. Causing stress and exhaustion.
Sheltering at home has introduced a different dimension to our confusing relationship with time. There now is an abundance of it. Without enough to fill each passing hour. Things taken away from us has left us stranded. It has now slowed time down. A phenomenon we are not used to.
Without as many outside demands, an interesting awareness has revealed itself. Only our attention can throttle time by either speeding it up or slowing it down. What we miss, is that we do control what we focus on at any given moment.
The better the focus, as well as the interest to focus, speeds time up. Without a reason or interest to focus, and time slows down. Our mind wanders making minutes feel more like hours.
We can control things more than we believe. Bringing clarity to how to control our time to minimize our confusion with time, is just another example of how we can do this. Even when our lives become busy once again.