I was wondering how natural of a skill mental timekeeping is. I have been blessed with the ability to mentally track the time throughout the day. If I have been wandering around without a watch, I can usually pinpoint either how much time has passed or what the current time is, usually to within 15 minutes or less, even if several hours have passed since I last checked. This happens both indoors and out, so I don’t think it’s solely natural cues such as sunlight, streetlamps, etc.
I like to play games with time, too. For instance, if I’m driving home, I’ll note that I’m at X location and will guess at exactly what time I’ll pull in the garage. Or if I’m sitting at Starbucks and I’m about to check my cell phone for the time, I predict what time it will be and see how close I got. Within 5 minutes is easy, getting within one minute but not nailing it just irritates me.
In talking with friends, it seems some have this ability but others do not and are often completely clueless about the passage of time. I’m not going to try to make connections here, but it SEEMS like my friends and family who have more awareness of the passage of time are those who are usually prompt and good with time management. Those who lack this awareness are the ones who are always late getting places and seem amazed that somehow they ended up an hour late (i.e. "where did the time go?) Hmmm, so maybe I am making a connection, but it’s purely anecdotal.
Last year I was on a long car ride with a friend. She predicted that we’d get home at something like 11:32. I predicted it would be 12:04. We pulled into her driveway at 12:04.
I’m usually pretty good, but if I’m out with friends and having a great time, I can really lose track.
I’m usually fairly good (can guess which hour and half-hour it’s closest to) as long as I don’t spend any time on the computer. For some reason, time goes a lot faster on the computer than I realize.
I’m damn good at guessing the current time. My accuracy is 2 minutes over 2 hours or 10 minutes over 5 hours. It’s from college. I knew that when I started to get bored in class it was X:22. Every class. So eventually I learned what 22 minutes felt like. Then I just guess how far after that I am. Recently, my ability has faded a little since we’re not allowed to have cell phones (my clock) at work. I never know what time it is here. It’s like a vortex I step into where all time stops and somehow it snaps to 6:00pm instantly.
I’m usually pretty good - I’m generally able to tell within 10 minutes how much time has passed (assuming it hasn’t only been a minute, of course). But my husband is awful. For him, I think that inability to tell time is a gift and a curse. He’s incredibly focused, so he forgets everything but what he’s doing, which I imagine makes him very effective at problem solving and working on one thing until it’s done and done well. Unfortunately, this also means that he gets utterly hypnotized by the television. And if he’s playing video games in the evening, I can’t count on him getting to bed before 2, when he’s ready to collapse. We actually drew up a schedule for him to follow on weeknights to make sure he’s in bed by 11. He hasn’t followed it once.
Part of my job requires me to figure out how long tasks will take a person or a group of people. I’m rarely off by even as much as 15 minutes. And I’m talking about things like “how long will it take 80 people to break down the set, stage, lighting, sound, video and rigging and put it all in trucks and watch the trucks drive away” or “how long will it take 35 people to install a lighting rig with over 4000 fixtures, cable, programming, etc.” types of activities, not “how long will it take that guy to mop the floor” type of activities.
Other things: I only wore a watch when hiking, and that was mostly for the altimeter/barometer/thermometer. It broke last year after a good 10 year run, and I haven’t replaced it yet. I don’t need a watch to know what time it is.
In my head, horribly. My stomach is extremely punctual, but that’s a completely different matter.
I’m good at figuring how long will a task take, either given a “standard group of workers” or knowing the specific workers. Given that preparing things like testing plans, training plans, start-day plans and “plans for when things aren’t working” is part of my job, being able to plan time accurately is something I better be able to do.
