Are you a clock watcher?

Ronni

Ronni

Well-known Member
Location
Nashville TN
I am ruled by time. I am a clock watcher. I dole out my time in measured amounts to each task, activity, event, chore on my list. Time tells me when to get up, when to work, when to relax, when to go to bed, when to eat. The more time that passes, the faster it seems to move. I would very much enjoy NOT being ruled by time.
But I work full time plus I have a number of weekly commitments and so most everything else is scheduled around those have-to things.

What have to things do you schedule around, or are you more like the picture? 72983
 

When I was working I made it a point to never look at the clock until I finished the job I was working on.

When you put a time limit on yourself you add additional unneeded stress.

I have a nephew who tells me he will be there in half an hour.

That could be anything up to three or four hours.

I always felt that exams and tests were unfair. Some people can write or print faster than others.
 
A benefit of retirement can be not watching the clock. Life when employed revolved around a schedule or at least it did when I worked full time.

I remember the 1st. day after I retired I woke up at the usual time without the alarm going off. I laid there awake then rolled over flipped the pillow & went back to sleep. That was a feeling of pure luxury. The next realization the clock no longer ruled was not planning for weekend jobs. Maybe even better was not needing to finish whatever the same day.

Clocks not really needed. The closest to needing a clock is to make sure I'm on time for my yearly doctor appointment. Other than that time is measured in going to sleep when sleepy, getting up when I'm rested. Meals about the same time, only because regularity helps with health. All else when I get around to it.
 

I worked for the government. So when I was working I always watched the clock. When 5 o'clock came people would vacate that building faster than when we had a fire drill. And at 5:01 the parking lot would look like the start of Le Mans.


Now that I am retired It's different. I usually have to think for a moment to even know what day of the week it is.
 
Last edited:
Trade said:
I worked for the government. So when I was working I always watched the clock. When 5 o'clock came people would vacate that building faster than when we had a fire drill. And at 5:01 the parking lot would look like the start of Le Mans.


Now that I am retired It's different. I usually have to think for a moment to even know what day of the week it is.
Click to expand...

Anyone who doesn't believe the dead will rise again should be at a government office at quitting time......
 
In my job I had to watch the clock it was part of my job..literally!!

However, now I've taken retirement, I have no need to clock watch at all.. and I try not to...
 
Yes. I always need to know what time it is. When I don't I get nervous. It's got to be some kind of psychological problem. I think partly at least it's because it can seem like you're somehow out of control somehow. Just a guess.
 
I've always had a keen sense of time, and I periodically check the clock.

I don't like it when someone says "I'll be over sometime tomorrow" No. 😒 That won't work for me. I might have plans. I might not be home, I might be in the shower, or ready to eat/watch a program on TV.
 
Personally, I can agree with not worrying about the time since retiring. I do though, as many of you still watch that clock in regards to appointments or promises to meet someone at a given time. I also don't appreciate having to wait for someone when they fail to show up at an agreed upon time. I think in these cases it's more about courtesy than "clock watching"
 
I've never been a clock watcher or a rule follower (other than grammar and spelling ;)). My approach is more "ish" and free-form. "Come over after 5, we'll start eating 6-ish and figure out the evening as we go along." It gives a general framework without making people crazy about ten minutes or a half hour either way.

When we have big parties (at least half a dozen a year), sometimes people will say that they'd love to come but will be late. My response? "You can't be late unless you arrive after everyone else has gone home. It's a party. There is no 'late' - you get here when you get here and we'll be happy to see you for however long you can stay."

Of course there are times and places in life when the clock has to be precisely respected, but things like dinner at 6 every night was not one of them. At least not for me.

My kids never had curfews - DH and I don't believe in them, having seen too many kids drive dangerously in their race home to beat that deadline. Our kids would think about their plans for the evening and tell us roughly when to expect them home (around midnight, maybe) and when to start worrying (around 1 am). We'd tell them if those times were ok with us. They didn't take advantage and called if they were going to be later.

AC, if your friends say that they'll be over sometime tomorrow, you could try this: "Roughly what time do you expect to drop by? I want to be sure that I'll be home and available to spend some time with you."

p.s. My casual relationship with time drove one of my kids batty for the first 25 years of her life.
 
I wouldn't call myself a clock watcher, but I can't ignore it completely. It may not matter when I have lunch or check the mail, but being late for appointments doesn't serve me well, and the theatre doesn't hold the curtain for latecomers.
 
For me, the greatest joy of being retired is not having to live my life regulated by the clock (except for appointments and such).

For 50+ years everything I did was regulated by the clock, and that's one thing I said I'd never do in retirement. I got up in the dark and came home in the dark and I just flat refuse to live like that anymore.

On the godawful heat of summer especially, I do things when I want to. I can many times be found doing housework (ugh) or laundry or cooking in the wee hours of the morning when it is cooler.
 
I wear a watch at all times, even when in bed. While less governed by time's tyranny than when working, I still like to know what time it is, and live by general rhythms of the day.
 
I have a strange, completely useless "talent." I can tell what time it is, almost to the minute, without having to look at a clock. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I always guess what time it probably is, and I am usually right, within 5- 10 minutes.
 

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