What do you do with extra time? Just what IS extra time, anyway? This year is a leap year, meaning we have extra time – an entire extra day of time – to get things done. The reason we get that extra day is that the earth’s orbit interval is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds. The extra quarter-days are lumped together and inserted into February, the year’s shortest month, every four years.
Time passes, yet science can’t define exactly what time is. Isaac Newton thought that time was a constant, unvarying unit and proved it by comparing it to the speed of light, which he believed could vary. Albert Einstein put forth the idea that the speed of light is a constant, which he proved by also mathematically proving that time is a variable, based on gravity. Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna have proven that time can be slowed down, sped up, and even reversed in a quantum mechanics system.
We experience our lives inside our heads as past, present, and future, yet there is actually nothing that we can touch, hold, or enjoy that is either “past” or “future” because the act of experiencing it is happening now.
So maybe time isn’t a thing – maybe it’s just an idea. Time as we measure it is a human construct. It’s an agreement of how to organize the past, chronicle the present, and plan the future. The length of an hour, a day, a year, and a leap year are all human creations and human agreements based on observations we seem to have in common.
Here’s something to consider – if humans made up time, are you ever really late? Oops – now we’re getting into the expectations of others, and that’s where this “time” thing gets messy. Since you’ll have an entire extra day of time this week, maybe you have time to contemplate how powerful “now” truly is. Here are three episodes of the world’s second-shortest podcast – a mere 90 seconds long each – to help you wrap your mind around when your power happens.
Need help understanding when you’re doing what? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
Is your spotlight shining on you? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
Are you spending your life time-traveling? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
Is time precious? Is it fun to waste time? Is time on your side or are you living on borrowed time? Today, focus on now. But maybe it’s OK to make some plans for the 24 extra hours we all agree we’ll get on Thursday.
Wags,
Sandy Weaver
Program Director, Center for Workplace Happiness
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