Different squids for different kids. It works for many people I know, and that’s how they account for sufficient lead time in their plan.
So what doesit do? Seems like everyone’s arguing that it works really well, at the same time as not making any difference
My alarm clock is 7 minutes fast. It allows me the illusion of not getting up before 6 am, although I do. If I ever decided I needed more time in the morning I would set my clock ahead a bit more and still sleep until it said 6.
None of my other clocks, including the one in the bathroom where I get ready, are fast. Just my alarm clock.
It comforts me. Isn’t that enough? I mean, how many things do we do solely for the sake of comforting ourselves? I don’t really understand the people that are somehow offended by this trait.
None of my other clocks are fast - just my car clock and my watch. So I wake up at the same time, but when I am showered and dressed and eating breakfast I can look at my watch and it motivates me to keep moving on time.
I don’t do it. I don’t see the point. For me, I would always just know. I can’t fool myself.
I’m not offended by it. I just find it ridiculous.
I don’t do this much anymore, though I did grow up in a house where the only wall clock was 7 minutes fast. You have to understand it as people cleverly manipulating the non-rational parts of their brains to get the desired result: maximum punctuality with minimal stress.
Our cerebral cortices generating our rational thoughts rest on the less rational, evolutionarily older parts of our brains. Those more primitive parts are influenced by emotions, instincts, habits, imprinting, physiology, etc. We have very imperfect access and little control of those workings.
So the rational part of our brain does the best it can. It does little science experiments on how to get desired results in behavior by tapping into that underlying seething mass of irrationality. People in this thread have found a way to do that for punctuality. They don’t really know why it works, but for them it does.
I think we function best when we find ways to use the non-rational brain in service of our more cerebral goals, instead of ignoring it because it’s so strange. It’s a big part of us and we might as well use it however we can for our higher purposes.
Well, OK, but is there any evidence, beyond the kind of anecdotes in this thread, that this activity really IS effective
Depends on what your definition of IS is.
Does effective mean: On time more often?
I tend to be overly punctual. I’ve found that it actually irritates or surprises some people. They seem to have a lateness factor built into their lives.
For me–although I don’t really do this anymore–it’s like the clocks with different time zones you used to see in movies about newspapers.
The different time zone is just really really close-by.
But if we’re already in the car on the way to work or school or whatever function, that moment of panic won’t magicaly make the travel time less or the distance shorter (unless it makes you drive like a maniac). And the thing is, it would be making you rush for no reason. So, no point in it.
My spouse sets her alarm clock and car clock fast, and is the most consistently, elaborately late person I know. She seems to plan her travel time as if she will be able to drive 80 mph the whole way and hit green lights.
She has two personality quirks which exacerbate the problem:
[ul]
[li]She doesn’t start getting ready very far in advance (possibly because her father was an alcoholic control freak who forced her to wait long periods of time)[/li]
[li]She thinks it’s important to take elaborately-prepared food to a lot of events[/li][/ul]
This unfortunate combination frequently means we are supposed to be somewhere at 7:00, but at 7:30 we are instead going back to the grocery store a second time for some specialty ingredient for a dish that will require another hour to bake. We make a lot of apologies.
I was going to say that ‘effective’ would mean "do these clock-tweaking folks arrive on time more often (or more closely on time in total) with their advanced clocks than they would if they had to rely on clocks that tell only the correct time.
But on reflection, I don’t think that would be a fair yardstick - because an affirmative answer would only require a small, possibly useless improvement, plus, punctuality just isn’t rocket science - if it takes ten minutes to get to a place, then in order to get there, you need ten minutes.
So I think the question is: are people who deliberately advance their clocks at least as punctual as people who do not? That’s fair, isn’t it? The purpose of advancing the clocks is to bring about punctuality, so does it work?
You can’t win that scenario - all bets are off.
I don’t think that’s fair either since it’s not clear that the people who set their clocks ahead are the same with respect to being late. Clearly, the people who set their clocks ahead have recognized that they have a problem and are trying to deal with it. They are looking for improvement measured against their previous behavior, not to achieve parity with the norm. It’s a coping mechanism for an underlying problem.
If it works for you, more power to you, but I don’t see the point.
I like to be punctual, and one of the tools I need to be punctual is to know what time it really is. The notion of fooling yourself by setting the clock wrong is unnecessary complication. If I need to be somewhere at 8:00 I would rather say “I need fifteen minutes to get ready, it’s a twenty minute drive, so I will set the alarm for 7:40 and have a bit of leeway”.
I tried something similar with chronically late people, by telling them “It starts at 8:00” when it started at 8:30, but that doesn’t work. Somehow or other they wound up irritated at me for wasting their time.
I get twitchy if the clocks are off, so I set my watch by http://www.time.gov and set everything else by my watch.
Regards,
Shodan
That’s why I don’t understand why my Wife does it to her bedside clock. She and I are both VERY punctual people, the only time she uses her bedside clock is to get up, and neither one of us really even needs an alarm. I doubt she ever sees it again during the day.
In the 14 years we have been married, I don’t believe she has made me late, or ever been late meeting me. She just likes to set her clock fast I guess (really doesn’t bother me much, just don’t understand)
This was exactly my point in the OP.
If setting your clock or watch ahead by X minutes works for you, then that’s great.
It doesn’t work for me.
Sounds more like it’s a method of planning properly.
No. I lead a very active life and although I love tv, I don’t watch a lot of it. I plan ahead for the shows I want to watch, and the 10 minute lead time allows me to take care of the last minute stuff and not miss the start of a show.
See post #53. 
Yeah, I wouldn’t think that would work for the car - although it may make you think twice about swinging through to grab milk.
It works for the bedroom - even after 30 years.