A colleague forwarded to me a video on YouTube, “The Secret Powers of Time,” which is a talk by Philip Zimbardo accompanied by animation. There is much I found provocative in the talk, and there are two points that particularly struck me.
One of Professor Zimbardo’s premises is that people relate to different types of time, and that leaves us doing different things. An example he gives is that in Sicily, where his family is from, there is no future tense verb in the local dialect – there is “was”, “is”, but there’s no “will be.” Someone he met told him that explained why they never accomplish anything – they never plan! I was left with the impact of how we speak on what we accomplish – and time being an aspect of how we talk.
I also began to consider the impact on me – what language do I have for what I am engaged in, particularly those things that are important to me? There are some things that are in my calendar and I am reliable for doing. And, there are some things that are either in my calendar that I don’t do or that aren’t in my calendar. What I noticed is with those things I am reliable for doing, how I talk to myself and others about those things is clearly tied to areas of greatest interest and importance to me – it is evident to me that they matter. For those things I am not reliable for doing, the connection to what is important to me is not as present in how I talk about them.
While I still don’t get to all the things I would like (and, never will), I am becoming more aware of how I talk about them and my relationship to them. Out of that, I have been more at peace about choosing to not do them.
The second aspect of the article I found slightly more disturbing. Professor Zimbardo pointed to what he described as a disaster recipe developing among boys in America dropping out of high school and college. He put forward the idea that technology is rewiring young people’s brains in ways that has them be both more oriented around instant gratification (my term, not his) and also being somewhat disconnected socially.
What I found disturbing is that I could see myself subject to some of the same effects of technology.
I have begun to notice more often how I can disappear into some technology – email, text messages, YouTube, Facebook, etc. I have seen more clearly the impact in terms of not being as effective in getting done what I want to get done. I have also been more aware of the impact on my state of mind – more frazzled, fuzzy and spinning to find the next piece of information that will spark my attention.
Armed with this awareness I have been altering my habits regarding technology. I have been shutting off my PC and PDA in the evening and spending some time unplugged before going to bed. When on conference calls I don’t also do email (at least most of the time). I have been devoting more time to non-digital activities that I enjoy. I even went away for a weekend and left my PC at home! It is still early in this exploration, but I have found myself at least slightly more present, more focused, more productive and more peaceful.
As always, I invite you to see what’s relevant for you and let me know what you are finding. Thanks for reading!
Thank you so much for the article on time. My adjustment is to reduce multi-tasking so I am more present to what I am doing in the moment. I no longer talk on my cell phone while driving and have just about stopped doing it while walking my dog. As a result, I am a safer driver, and I am noticing the clouds and my neighborhood much more!