Saturday morning coffee is a mental marker. Like post-it notes stuck on the Calendar, at equal intervals, every week on Saturday - at approximately 10.30 am each day. Every time I sip this coffee, I'm reminded of the events of the week that went by. So I count weeks like this, coffee to coffee, every Saturday.
Ever since the lock-down began, I realize I'm sipping Saturday coffees in quick succession. And since Saturday coffees can be had only on Saturdays, I can only conclude that Saturdays are coming and going faster than they used to in the past.
I've asked family and friends if they feel this way too, to identify if this is a feeling that is solely mine or if it is shared by members of the community. I've been told that many people share this feeling: time flies in 2020.
I don't love this year any more than the last, but it hasn't given me any reason to dislike it either. So, I don't particularly wish to alter my perception of the speed of time now; I wouldn't really care if it moved any faster or slower. I do, however, wish to understand why our shared experience tells us now that time is flying past.
One significant shift in our behaviour during the pandemic is the abandonment or lack of focused, time-bound pursuit of medium-term goals. Most immediate goals (eating, sleeping, tomorrow's deadline for work, shopping for groceries, etc) haven't changed, and they are repetitive; neither have the long-term goals (career progress goals, family goals, monetary goals, etc).
But the medium term is hazier than before. When is our next vacation? Do we plan to buy a new house in the next 4-6 months? A new car? Can we go out for a movie this month? Many of these goals fall into the "want" bucket, as opposed to the "need" bucket. And in the face of ambiguity created by COVID-19, we have sacrificed these goals.
The presence of immediate, repetitive, short-term goals and absence of medium-term objectives present us with a strange situation: the present seems to be in a loop, and there are fewer things to look-forward to. We can no longer get through a monotonous week eagerly anticipating a weekend movie, or work through the month while planning the upcoming international trip. We are relegated to working on what is important here and now, in this present moment; future-plans are a lot less tangible than they used to be before the pandemic.
Therefore, we are limited to counting time by our Saturday morning coffees. The anticipation and longing for a future to come sooner was possibly what made us think time wasn't moving fast enough. Today, that longing for a medium-term future is less intense, and the clock is ticking on faster than we would "expect".
The writing of this post sufficiently slowed down time for me. I realize that variety of experience and a stubborn belief in a definite medium-term future is important to balance my perception of time.
Ever since the lock-down began, I realize I'm sipping Saturday coffees in quick succession. And since Saturday coffees can be had only on Saturdays, I can only conclude that Saturdays are coming and going faster than they used to in the past.
I've asked family and friends if they feel this way too, to identify if this is a feeling that is solely mine or if it is shared by members of the community. I've been told that many people share this feeling: time flies in 2020.
I don't love this year any more than the last, but it hasn't given me any reason to dislike it either. So, I don't particularly wish to alter my perception of the speed of time now; I wouldn't really care if it moved any faster or slower. I do, however, wish to understand why our shared experience tells us now that time is flying past.
One significant shift in our behaviour during the pandemic is the abandonment or lack of focused, time-bound pursuit of medium-term goals. Most immediate goals (eating, sleeping, tomorrow's deadline for work, shopping for groceries, etc) haven't changed, and they are repetitive; neither have the long-term goals (career progress goals, family goals, monetary goals, etc).
But the medium term is hazier than before. When is our next vacation? Do we plan to buy a new house in the next 4-6 months? A new car? Can we go out for a movie this month? Many of these goals fall into the "want" bucket, as opposed to the "need" bucket. And in the face of ambiguity created by COVID-19, we have sacrificed these goals.
The presence of immediate, repetitive, short-term goals and absence of medium-term objectives present us with a strange situation: the present seems to be in a loop, and there are fewer things to look-forward to. We can no longer get through a monotonous week eagerly anticipating a weekend movie, or work through the month while planning the upcoming international trip. We are relegated to working on what is important here and now, in this present moment; future-plans are a lot less tangible than they used to be before the pandemic.
Therefore, we are limited to counting time by our Saturday morning coffees. The anticipation and longing for a future to come sooner was possibly what made us think time wasn't moving fast enough. Today, that longing for a medium-term future is less intense, and the clock is ticking on faster than we would "expect".
The writing of this post sufficiently slowed down time for me. I realize that variety of experience and a stubborn belief in a definite medium-term future is important to balance my perception of time.
