Experiencing Timelessness ⏳

Timeless work comes from a place of mind, not a time in the past.

Timelessness is a term that is often used to describe works of art or design that transcend generations.

Timeless art & design feels like it will be relevant to future generations.

Timing yourself rarely brings out your best self.

Time is just a shared synchronicity to sunlight.

Why does 1 hour of low paid work feel a lot longer?

If the photon you see from a distant star hits your retina from lightyears away, what is happening to that galaxy now?

How does a dreaded Zoom call coming up in the calendar manage to destroy the entire day?

When you think back across your life, why do so many big events bunch together as points in time?

What is it about a great piece of music that can make you truly lose track of the track?

How do the days feel so long and the years feel so short?

These are the kinds of questions that linger in lots of people’s minds, but then the next email comes in and they have to get back to work. Thankfully some people in our species do not get interrupted & are able to linger on the oddities of the clock.

We apply time to so many things. When you try to free yourself from it, these questions snap you back into it:

🪦 How old are you?

⏰ How long have you been here?

🫂 How long will you stay?

👋 When will you leave?

👩‍❤️‍👩 How long have you known each other?

👨‍🏫 How much time did you spend studying that?

🏃‍♂️ What is your fastest 10 kilometer pace?

👩‍💻 How many years have you worked there?

📦 When will the delivery arrive?

📆 What time are we meeting?

💆‍♀️ When is the next available slot?

🛫 Have we missed our flight?

I now see each of these questions as a painful contraction that rip you out of the present.

Time does NOT quantify your experience, your presence in the moment, your choices, your relationships, your knowledge, your skills or future obligations.

Action does.

I know martial artists who spend very little time on the mat but have an intensity when battle comes.

I have met capital allocators who spend a month a year thinking about a single decision & then travel freely.

I see kids pick up today’s kitesurfing equipment & eclipse my skills with astonishing levels of ease.

In each case, time does not matter to me, action does.

The action-adjusted use of time is absolutely important. No video gamer of repute looks at the time they spent playing. They want to know how well they completed the levels.

Similarly, we should not use any quantum of time to separate ourselves from others when it is so obvious that some people use time so deeply while others let is scroll by.

On a practical level, what does this look like?

- Change your iOS devices’ timer language to Burmese.

- Turn off your alarm & sleep in nature to feel the sun shift you awake.

- Try removing clocks from your life on days where you have no commitments.

- Consider freelancing for a period in your life so you can set your own schedule.

- Book your travel as you move your body to each place instead of ahead of schedule.

These are just a few suggestions. I have many more.

When you try to detach from the clock & calendar, you will start to notice how much pain it is causing everyone.

How many times does someone complain about something being late or a date looming on the horizon? Turns out to be a lot.

On the positive side, you will start to experience an expansion of the present & a reduction in the perception of the future or past.

I think my mind used to be 50% in the present, 30% in the future, and 20% in the past. Now it feels more like 85% present, 5% past, 10% future.

Depression is often filled with regrets from the past.

Anxiety is usually comprised of fears for the future.

Presence can be characterised as flow in the moment.

I have often found flow in kiting, drumming, designing & fighting. Those activities expand my awareness of what is happening right now & push all thoughts of my past failures & future struggles to one side.

A lot of people use drugs for this same reason. They destroy our perception of time & help us forget ourselves.

My hope is that more people will discover ways to change their relationship to time.

It starts with working on your own terms, but it can go so much deeper.

Timing, as they say, is everything.