Live outside of time
A post describing something which is (1) one of my favourite things to do, (2) practiced by nobody else I know, (3) a killer nootropic.
Time has been there since the day you were born. Tick tick ticking. What’s the longest you’ve gone in your adult life without knowing the time?
How do you do escape time?
Easy - avoid knowing the time.
When to do it?
Half a day is good for me. From waking until mid or later afternoon. I’ve done this 30ish times in my life.
Why escape time?
Living outside of time has cool psychological effects. In that sense it's like a drug. What happens for me:
- Time passes slower. There are many times I’ve thought 6 hours passed and it was 3. This effect is reliable: every time it’s felt somewhere between much or a little slower, never faster. So you are creating extra time, slowing it down
- I can read more than usual and find it way more interesting. I once read 2 nonfiction books, thought through and wrote up my reflections in a single morning, and it never felt trying, I was in complete flow
- Have much clearer thoughts
Time passing slower is the holy grail. A form of lifespan extension.
Living outside of time seems to particularly benefit thinking. Why do I think this happens? To speculate... It may be a good chunk of my mental horsepower is taken up with something like anxious planning and checking and rechecking, and this softens that demand. All I know is that it works.
Like any trip, living outside of time requires planning:
- Have a backpack of things you'll want in case you decide to go out. Water, books and paper to write with are my top items.
- Decide when it will end, and have something with an alarm in the bottom of the backpack. This saves you fretting whether it's over
- Turn all devices which show time in your house face down or around
- If you go out keep your head down for fear of seeing a clock face
- In a coffee shop or crowded space, beware someone around you saying what time is it
- If you want to use a laptop, you can hide the clock and avoid websites which tell you the time
- Does cut off some sources of comfort (friends, phone calls, social media, music if your phone is your source of that). Plan for this. The best mitigation is to not do it for too long.
I personally find time a useful cue for when to eat, so end up eating very early if going on instinct. I once was convinced it was bedtime and ready to sleep, dinner being far behind me, and decided to check the time. It was 5.30pm.
It’s easier to step outside of time alone. Subject to any responsibilities you hold, you can just do it! Of course it can be done with others. Whatever you’re doing it makes your immediate environment your whole world. When alone my immediate environment is largely my mind. It's a delightful cognitive time in this shrunken world.
For the ideal life I would prescribe a half day a week out of time. It could be part of a Sabbath.