<aside> 💭 Prompt: Time went and got all screwed up. Our normal schedules have been tossed out the window and we're having to structure our days differently. Upending our routine this way does oddball things to our sense of time. Days melt together and it's a three-hour-nap-slippery-slope into midnightly pancakes.

Write about your current experience of time. Have you found yourself keeping weird hours? Invented any new ways of marking time? Or maybe you've avoided the time melt completely - what's your secret?

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⏲ Time melt

By Dave Gorum

Fairly recently I realized my conception of time is a hair off normal. Part of this is due to living a good portion of my life outside of big, chronologically oriented systems. But mostly it's a temperament thing.

All kids have streak of rebellion when it comes to time. If only to protest bedtimes or wake ups. I remember having a much more antagonistic approach to the having my day chopped up into arbitrary chunks. Bedtimes were an affront — there was so much to do and explore and create, why would you shut that down well before you’re tired?! Mornings were hell — it made less than sense anyone would wake up early when it felt like having all your teeth pulled out by a drowsy sloth.

So, that’s the mix I was working with in both the education system and job market. We weren’t a great match.

It wasn’t until I met Kristen that I realized how feral my sense of time had become. I’d routinely stay up for days or switch to a nocturnal schedule. Live like this long enough and time deobjectifies and you lose the understanding of why it’s necessary. I mean, I still have to concentrate extra hard when looking at calendars. The whole thing feels arbitrary. Which wildly unprepares you for dealing with the high-paced calendar-driven biz world.

The fortunate (now) byproduct of my aversion to rationally segmented time, was figuring out how to play with time in a way which could pay my bills. Thank god for the internet and its weird money making schemes.

Living this way requires occasional experimentation with mishmashing healthy habiting and blocking off time. It’s a unending project creating the right mix of creative, deep work, fun, social, business, and intimate time. And I’m sorta feeling my way into the whole thing, slowly building a system. (He said hopefully.)

This is all to say, it feels a lot like folks are starting to go through the same kind of experiment. I know how unsettling it is, trying to find a rhythm of living that makes sense to the way you are. The good news is, getting a little feral with your schedule is a great way to make interesting work.

🕰 Sitting with fuzziness

By Salman Ansari

The couple days I work on my part time job, the days are very clear. I actually have to get up early for these, and there's a very structured format to my day.

The rest of the days...are more flexible. I wake up at different times, do different things, sleep at different times. I'm giving myself a break on having a fixed routine (though I know it would be good)...because, well, the fact that I'm productive at all is good enough right now.

I do feel like the "leisure" aspect of my life gives me more spontaneity. I have found myself playing with more artistic tools. On the other hand having a morning routine can go a long way to help give you a sense of time, day, week.