July 19, 2009
Posted by mike
question of the day // time
I’ve been thinking about this “question of the day” for some time now. In my parent’s house, we had a clock in every room. Sometimes we had (I think they still do have) several clocks in each room. Wall clocks. Alarm clocks. Bathroom clocks. Grandfather clocks. Oven clocks. Microwave clocks. Kitchen radio clocks. Watches. Cell phones. These things are everywhere. The thing is…all the clocks were set to different times. If you were late in one room, problem solved, just walk into the next room where the clock is 10 minutes slow.
So, what I don’t understand is why people set their clocks fast on purpose. I took a small survey of people last week and most of them set their clocks fast by 5-10 minutes. Why?! I never can understand why people create an alternate reality to live in. If you know your clock is set fast, how does that help you get ready and be on time? (Not to mention how confusing it is for you when your digital clock or phone shows one time and your programmed clock shows another!) Why not just set your clock to the real time and learn to live in reality?
Ok, so here’s the question of the day: Do you set your clock fast? If so, how much? Ready, Go.
4 Comments
July 19, 2009
alarm clock fast by 4 minutes. i like waking up and realizing i can relax for exactly one snooze. I usually don’t go back to sleep, just spend a few minutes waking up before i actually wake up. all other clock…right on time! I’m obsessively early to everything so I’m considering setting everything slow!
July 19, 2009
I have in the past, but not currently. When I use to work for UPS, I would set my alarm clock 10 minutes fast. I’d be so disoriented when it went off I would forget I had set it ahead. At least, that’s what happened some of the time.
July 20, 2009
Yep! The “lie to yourself” method works well for me. It helps me get things done on time (lie to myself about the deadline), stay under budget (lie to myself about what’s in the bank), and get places on time (car clock and watch are 10 minutes fast).
I think it’s just a personal thing — along the lines of how you exercise self control. Some people eat just one donut, some people don’t buy the donuts ’cause they know they can’t eat just one. Know what I mean?
July 20, 2009
I did an experiment on this once. I started my car clock 10 minutes fast and it sped up and by speeding up I mean got all the way to 57 minutes fast then a frequent passenger in my car decided enough was enough and they reset it. I then reset to 10 minutes fast and today it an hour and 7 minutes fast. it’s borderline ridiculous, but it’s pretty amazing.
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