Time in the context of a human life is finite and short.  Most of the forces that govern our lives demand time from us, and split our time blocks into tiny pieces. “Just give us 15 minutes of your time a day!” That may be all the free time we have.

We get interrupted. Priority issues take precedence. We get distracted.

We try taking back control by shortcutting our sleep, working while eating, or unfortunately, phone and drive simultaneously. To fit more into the day, we rush through our tasks as fast as possible. Our judgement on what is important to us determines where we spend our time.

In the 21st Century, the pressure on us for our time have only increased. To gain balance and mastery of our lives, it is helpful to reflect on the aspects of time that have been the same for all human existence.

More on ancient calendars

The perpetual cycles

Day: Earth rotation: 23 hours 56 minutes. Divided into periods of light and darkness, active periods and inactive

Meal cycle: Varies by culture, but consistently 2 – 3 times a day to eat, along with the requisite food preparation and cleanup.

Sleep cycle: 1 or 2 periods during the day to rest. Most people of any age need 8 hours of sleep (1/3 day). Quick naps and siestas especially in pre-air conditioned hot climates extend the useful part of the day into the early morning and late evening.

Month: Loosely coupled to the moon’s orbit around the Earth; in ancient times, a priest would declare the start of a new month when they saw the new crescent moon. Now we know it mostly as the 12x yearly billing cycle. Ovulation cycle approximates the moon cycle.

Tides: As the Earth rotates on its axis, the pull of the moon causes ocean tides to rise and fall twice a day — As the moon moves around the Earth, the timing of both moonrise and the tides is later by about 50 minutes. When the moon lines up with the sun, larger tides occur, twice a month, at new moon and full. Eclipses occur when the sun and the moon line up exactly. Early astronomers were tasked with predicting eclipses due to their awe-inspiring universal effect.

Seasons: Essential knowledge for growing food and preparing for the dark cold time. Spring to plant, Summer to grow, Autumn to harvest and prepare for Winter. Winter to rest. Tribes that failed to grasp these unbending realities could easily starve or freeze to death, although knowledge of fire and hunting skills would be necessary. Nomadic people would move further south in winter, although seeds from their familiar plants might not adjust to changes in latitude. Animal migratory patterns follow the seasons.

Year: One trip around the sun, for planet Earth 365.25 rotations. The seasonal cycle is the result of the Earth’s tilt. The Sun is high in the sky during the summer, low in the sky in the winter. The moon is the opposite, because the moon’s path around the earth is in nearly the same plane as the earth’s path around the sun. In non-tropical areas, seasons are critical to food production.

Planets ( Wanderers): Spend any time outdoors at night looking up where the sky is mostly clear, and you see:

- the yearly procession of stars marching across the sky, 4 minutes later each night, but no discernable movement of each star relative to the others. They move at the same speed as the sun, since that speed is actually the speed of the earth rotating.

- the cyclical but odd movement of wandering lights of the planets – some moving forward and backward a little or a lot, depending on whether they are moving faster or slower than Earth around the Sun. Venus’ 225 day orbit or Mercury’s 88 day orbit means sometimes we see these planets before dawn or after sunset for a few weeks or months before they disappear near the sun.

Week: This is a relatively new invention, perhaps only 2500 years, as it is not directly tied to any astronomical standard. 5 weeks of 6 days would come closer to a month, but 7 days is closer to the length of each phase of the moon. Business and time-dependent businesses dictated the spread of the current 7-day week during the British Empire.

Discretionary Time:

Discretionary time is what is left after completing all your compulsory activities. In Ancient Times, discretionary time was often more plentiful for many tribal cultures.

Early 21st Century Examples:

Workers: 15 min – 2 hours / day

Worker/Housekeeper: 1 hour a day.

Working Single Moms: negative 2 hours a day or less.

Kids: Household chores minimized. Healthy kid life should have lots of discretionary time:  pre-school: 8 hours, in school: 4 hours / day.

Retired people: More discretionary time, perhaps 8 – 12 hours, depending on housekeeping chores, hired help, helpful grown offspring and siblings.

Rich people: all waking hours could be discretionary time, especially if all chores are delegated to servants, including managing them. Although sleeping dressing, bathing, and eating will take some slice, perhaps 9 hours, leaving 15.

Your Discretionary Time Calculator

Most of us need more discretionary time. What you do with it determines how you spend your life. Just having discretionary time that is unplanned is a wonderful help to balance your life with the thing you need right then.

Your discretionary time is precious. Do not waste it.
Do not give it away easily.

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Astronomical Clock built in the 15th Century based on the Ptolemaic System (Earth at center of the universe) :30 sec video. Note Skeleton keeping time to right of dial; Jesus and the Apostles wave to the townspeople every hour.

40,000 years of a continuous culture with plenty of discretionary time

Aboriginal communities in Australia, men and women worked an average of less than 4 hours a day on plant collecting, weapons repair, and food preparation.

In Africa, Dobe Bushmen worked and average of less than 3 hours a day; only 65% of the population worked at all — one person’s labor supported 4 – 5 people. The rhythm of steady work and steady leisure was maintained throughout the year.

Both groups survived comfortably on about 2100 calories a day.

These groups practiced deliberate underproduction and deliberate population control to keep the ratio of people to resources low. Rather than engage in activities  that would grow the tribe or the number of possessions that would create future unsustainability, they deliberately chose to hang out, dance, flirt, sleep, and engage in rituals and relationships that had meaning within their society.

- from Stone Age Economics. Marshall Sahlins, Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1972