First Tickings

Quarter 1 : Five Temporal Takeaways

This is the first of four sneak previews of what’s inside my forthcoming book, Managing Time Mindfully, being published on the 11th December

Temporal Takeaway #1:
It is thought that space and time were formed from the seed of the Big Bang. It took many billions of years though before time-as-we-know-it really got going. What we now refer to days and years only started when 3rd generation stars with rocky planets formed.

Temporal Takeaway #2:
On planet Earth, at least, time-as-we-know-it only started ticking when life formed around 3 billion years ago. The clock of time only ticks with the presence of an observer.

Temporal Takeaway #3:
The first pocket watches were only created in the 1675 by Christiaan Huygens. They were accurate to about 10 minutes a day. The accuracy of an Apple Watch is around 50 milliseconds.

Temporal Takeaway #4:
The need for global harmonisation of time came about from an increase in international travel by steamship and cross-continental travel with the railways. Time zones were created at International Meridian Conference in 1884.

Temporal Takeaway #5:
Seconds, minutes, hours, weeks and months are man-made and do not exist in nature. Although they allow us to run our modern world, some of us have become enslaved by the ticking of self-imposed clocks.

p.s. this blog was posted live exactly at 6:27 GMT on the 19th November, the 1st quarter of the Moon Phase