Our Schedules, Our Selves

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Setting aside some time on your calendar for life to just unfold in its own surprising way can also nurture your soul. Carve out some nonscheduled hours (or days) once in a while and treat them as a firm commitment. And resist the temptation to turn every impulse or opportunity into another appointment. It’s neither impolite nor inefficient to simply say, “let me get back to you on that tomorrow” or “let’s check in that morning to see if it’s still a good time.” You cannot know how crammed that day may turn out to be, or how uninspired you might feel about another engagement, or how much you’ll want to be rollerblading or playing chess or doing something else at that precise time.

In our industrialized, fast-paced society, we too often view time as just another mechanical instrument to be programmed. But time possesses its own evershifting shape and rhythms, and defies our best efforts to corral it within the tidy lines of our palm pilots or datebooks. Stephan Rechtschaffen, author of Time Shifting, suggests you think back on a scary auto collision (or near miss), or spectacular night of lovemaking. Time seemed almost to stand still. You can remember everything in vivid detail. Compare that to an overcrammed week that you recall now only as a rapid-fire blur. Keeping in mind that our days expand and contract according to their own patterns is perhaps the best way to help keep time on your side.

Jay Walljasper is editor of Utne.

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