I was at a meeting recently. It was in the South and I spent a good 2.5 hours on the road getting to the meeting -- watching the clock the entire way as I wanted to arrive on time. The meeting lasted 25 minutes and it took another 1.75 hours to make it to the office.
Quite a fun morning.
For the entire morning, I was aware of the time. I was aware that it was an important meeting and I needed to be there on time (I ended up being 20 minutes early) and I was aware of how long we were deliberating for during the meeting. Time meant a lot.
At one point during the meeting, I looked over at the watch of a peer and noticed that it was about 15 minutes later than I guessed it should have been. I was right. His watch was 13 minutes fast. When we went back out to the parking lot, I hung around outside his car until he turned it on. Sure enough... the clock inside his car was 13 minutes fast.
He is obviously one of those people that sets their clocks ahead of time thinking it will help them be on time. I beg to differ.
This is a mentality that I just do not understand. I will look at it logically... as I always do. When muh wife and I started hanging out, I quickly learned that she was one of these people. The clock was never right and I would have to do the addition or subtraction in order to figure out the right time in order to leave or whatever. It was especially frustrating when I was working on something and I needed the few extra minutes to finish but when I looked at the clock with the incorrect time, I would rush when it wasn't necessary.
Regardless of my own lack of desire to do the calculations, I still don't get it. You know the clock is 13 minutes fast. You actively set all the clocks in your world to be 13 minutes fast... how the hell does it help you? I BET that when you look at the clock and see that it says 1:00 and you plan on leaving... you immediately say to yourself... it is 12:47, I still have time. Why even do it when you KNOW exactly what time it is anyway? How does that really help you not be late?
Aside from the just not getting it, I have another thought about this. It is stupid purely because it requires that you do math. When I look at a clock of mine... I see that it is 1:00... I accept that and I move on. When this peer of mine looks at his clock and he sees that it is 1:00, he thinks... hrm... 1:00 minus thirteen minutes is ... carry the one... remove the nine...convert to minutes.... 12:47! I still have 13 minutes to get there! Let me sit around some more!
I digress... I challenge anyone ... including muh honey... who does this with their clocks to make a coherent explanation about how it is helpful to you. I just don't get it and I will probably have questions for you.
P.S. My peer was 10 minutes late for the meeting.
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Even though I've modified this behavior, and the snoozing-the-alarm thing (except for the last week or so) in the last few years, a couple of things:
1. It's psychologically more appealing to see the clock read 6:07 than 5:45 when you wake up in the morning. Before my brain has time to process what time it REALLY is, I have a happy feeling of waking up at what doesn't seem like a wholly indecent hour.
2. The math part helps to alleviate the desire to hit the snooze button. Seriously. By the time I've had to subtract 17 from whatever, I'm generally awake enough not to bother the extra 9 minutes of sleep.
3. All of this backfires when you spend the night somewhere where the clocks are set to the correct time (or, god forbid, run slow!), and you are totally screwed.
4. None of this accounts for why the clock in my car is 9 minutes fast. It somehow makes me less anxious when I'm cutting it a little closer than I'd like to get somewhere on time.
Sorry; I inadvertently published without signing. This and the previous are courtesy of Yuh Honey, offspring of Yuh Father-in-Law, who also sets the clock in his car 9 minutes fast, and probably is the main reason I do it. Which is the dumbest reason ever, but I can't help feeling like I'm genetically programmed to do it.
-- yh
My clock in my car is about 5 minutes fast. And the reason - cause i made an error setting it. But I like it, cause since it is only 5 minutes fast, I know the real time but J doesn't so I can get him to rush, even thought I know we have a few minute buffer.
For me, I like the 5 minute fast thing because I don't actually do the math, but it gives me a few minutes to actually get my but moving. Although I know it's fast when I really need that extra 5, for the most part I believe the clock.
Then there is our office phones which for some reason are 18 minutes fast. Now that's annoying when one clock says it's 5:00 but it's really not!
G
I don't understand this logic either. My parents have their bedroom clock set 20 minutes ahead -- apparently so that they can trick themselves into getting up on time or something. But they both know it, and so every weekend when my dad asks mom "what should I set the alarm for?" and mom responds "9 o'clock" dad ALWAYS has to ask, "The real 9 o'clock???" This seems ridiculouly silly to me.
Of course, I do set my alarm 20 minutes early and reset it every morning. But those 20 minutes that seem like "stolen" sleep are the best 20 minutes in the world. Keep in mind, though, that I'm half unconscious when I do it. Otherwise, I'd realize how silly it is.
I like to think I'm a very logical person (some would also say "anal").....but I am also in total agreement....setting the clock ahead on purpose in an effort to trick yourself into being on time is rediculous.
You're an adult.....be on time, how hard is that? I grew up in a house where "on time" meant 20 minutes early for everything.
I was in the habit of setting my clock ahead all sorts of strange times, not to get places early or sleep extra. Just because I enjoyed the math and I'm lazy! I once went 4 months without changing my clocks to daylight savings time just to be stubborn. Did the same thing for a month and a half after a power outage (believe me, the math on that was crazy!) Anyway, there's nothing like a good simple addition or subtraction problem to make your day and get your mind off the billion other things that won't stop buzzing in your head. It's like playing Tetris for a week and then finding that you're still playing it in your head long after.
-DB
Wy wife Chris does the same thing to bedroom clock. I, like you, think Time Delusion Theory is retarded. So much so, I put my clock in the room, too, set to REAL time. I hoped the resulting confusion would get her to end this silly practice, but alas.....
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