is everything being on a precise time schedule causing our unhappiness?

i have to site that book again. Sapiens. really opened by brain up to a lot of #.

so lets talk about time. im talking precise time down to the minute.

a few hundred years ago people were in a schedule but not as precise as this. they had to be out in the morning tending to their crops . things like that.
when the bell rang it was time to smash.
when the rooster clucks or the sun shines in its time to get up. pretty close to the same time every day but there is some leeway there.

then # started changing.
industrialization happened and then production started and now we are on a schedule.

today i have to be at work by 7am. if i punch in even 1 minute late i get docked or written up or whatever.
lunch is fro 12:30-1. thats it.
i get off at 3:30

if you have to take a bus you need to be at the stop by this time.
get to school by that time
picked up at this time

that is some stressful #.

i think this is just one more artificial thing we have constructed to help but it is making things more miserable.

of course people have been keeping time for ages but it was not precise and not like it is now.

time would vary from city to city a few hundred years ago. 2 cities 20 miles apart are also 20 minutes off each other as far as time.

i just read that most average people have more time keeping devices in their home than an entire midieval city

thats nuts.

a reply to: TinySickTears

Yep, it’s definitely more stressful. Things also move a lot faster than a hundred years ago, and there’s a lot more stimulus. I imagine if someone from back then time traveled to now, they’d have a stroke trying to keep up.

a reply to: TinySickTears
Yes it is more stressful, it is why I've been self employed for years now, I sometimes do only 2 day weeks of work, just enough to cover my bills, then chill out.
I'm not sure I could even cope with being an employee again with set times...I guess I would if I had to.
EDIT
Nah, I never want to be an employee again.

I only really feel stressed about it when something happens that takes me out of the rhythm of the schedule.

For example, our morning typically proceeds with kid eating breakfast, kid and I practicing his martial arts for 20 minutes or so (exercise and stretching included which helps get me going), kid and I getting dressed for day. There's about 30 minutes for each of those things before kid heads over to across street the neighbor's house to wait for bus with next door neighbor's kids. Bus arrives about 8:45.

He heads to school. I head to work. Nice rhythm.

But this morning, the bus arrived about 5 minutes early and nearly every kid in the neighborhood got left behind because no one expected the bus to be there that early! That sort of thing creates stress, not the schedule.

So I guess for me, it's not the schedule but lack of adherence to it that causes the problems.

And yeah, everyone has those days when you just don't want to take care of your obligations and the schedule is the most inconvenient thing ever, but because I'm such a champion procrastinator, if I didn't have a schedule, I'd never get anything done.

a reply to: TinySickTears

Concepts of Time are drilled into our minds, from childhood.
You're right: it wasn't always so.
Folks used other ways to observe the passage of time.

"Going-off to sow my wild oats pa. Will be back in the fall".

Now we can't be 5 minutes late, or folks get upset.

It's one of the first big concepts we teach our children. Time.
Then: sometimes a day comes, where some figure-out that time isn't real. It's just an invented construct.

Then: seem to have gone further, to where nothing is real. But there may perhaps be a little meaning to Time.
Not that one unique, flash of an instant, immediate moment of the now.
But the sliding between the past moment, the now, and the moment that comes.
Maybe there"s something real to that?

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: TinySickTears

Yep, it’s definitely more stressful. Things also move a lot faster than a hundred years ago, and there’s a lot more stimulus. I imagine if someone from back then time traveled to now, they’d have a stroke trying to keep up.

for sure
just that little gem of having to be on a precise time schedule is enough to cause even a little bit of stress and agitation. it would be different if you had to be someplace and you did not have to depend on traffic being awesome. no accident. hopefully no snow storm. thats gonna slow you down.

and you HAVE to be at a certain place by a certain time.
its #ing chaos

a reply to: TinySickTears
Totally get you mate, I haven't worked for nearly two weeks and I've nearly ran out of money so I absolutely have to work tomorrow.
I don't want to but I have to so 8:25 tomorrow I'm leaving my house to face that bull# of earning money again.
Maybe see how it goes by the end of the week though, if I can cover my outgoings then a few long lay in beds may be in order.

I have a feeling that while people back in the day didn't live as long as we do now, they "lived" a lot more. Schedules and the workload we have today puts us in autopilot mode a lot of the time, being robots accomplishing the task given to us and we really lose a lot of time because of it.

Everything is moving so fast that we don't have time to sit and appreciate the time we're given, if that makes sense. We've got to feed the system in order to feed ourselves and in the process we spend less time with loved ones and that in the end is bad for society in my opinion. I think the reason things are so messed up around the world is because we are pretty much forced to ditch those we love in favor of school/work, otherwise we'll be living in the streets. Not having as much family time because of our schedules has really hurt us in my opinion.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Yes and no.

Grandpa was a farmer, and he was often out working from dawn to dusk. He could be there in an emergency, but the needs of the animals and fields kept him out from the family.

a reply to: dug88
???

I don't regret leaving the corporate, commuter frenzy and working on my own projects at all. I'd much rather be the master of my destiny than some board of directors that don't even know I exist.

I thought I might fit in with the Academic world for a short time. Big mistake!!

I'm much happier starting a business and losing my ass than working to increase someone else's bottom line.

a reply to: ketsuko
That's the weird thing, I like working at home, cleaning, maintenance etc, but working for money only inspires me for the money so I only do enough to raise the money I need for whatever life essentials.
I'd rather fix up my own car than work for someone who is paying me for the job, strange maybe, just a psychological thing I guess.

a reply to: TinySickTears

Think about this--before alarm clocks and electric light and whatnot, things still got accomplished. When people actually allowed the natural cycle of the day (circadian rhythm) to dictate their daily timelines, people were healthier (mentally and physically, even if they worked their bodies to the grave often times).

I feel that there is something natural about having shorter summer nights and longer winter nights and sleeping accordingly--the winter nights allow the human body to slowly recharge over time, and the shorter summer nights allow the necessary prep work for the winter to take place. We not only had changing daily timeframes, but weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Now we just do the same sh*t day in and day out, staying up later than we should staring at falsely lit screens in falsely lit room, and then getting up earlier than we should just so that most of us can go do mind-numbing, repetitive job that does not change.

No effing-hell we're stressing ourselves out. We're not allowing ourselves to recharge...ever. What happens to a cellphone battery when you use it too much and charge it too often and too quickly? It craps out sooner than it should. The only reason that we have longer lifespans right now is because, just like the light that is on in our house at 11:30pm, we have artificial life-saving and life-prolonging agents available to use, but that doesn't mean that we're giving ourselves an increased life span that is full of good-quality living.

Stop pissing me off with all of this talk about false, stressful schedules and cramped cities...I'm about to move out to the country and eat me a lot of peaches.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
Stop pissing me off with all of this talk about false, stressful schedules and cramped cities...I'm about to move out to the country and eat me a lot of peaches.

Lol

Life is 100% less stressful than it was 100 years ago. 200% less stressful than 200 years ago.

You all make bad decisions which is what leads to your unhappiness.

originally posted by: SR1TX
Life is 100% less stressful than it was 100 years ago. 200% less stressful than 200 years ago.

You all make bad decisions which is what leads to your unhappiness.

Were you around 200 years ago to make that assertive observation?

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

lot of truth to this post.
everything moves too fast including us

dude most people are only spending a couple hours a day with their kids.
people have to work. we're part of the machine now and we have to keep moving

originally posted by: SR1TX
Life is 100% less stressful than it was 100 years ago. 200% less stressful than 200 years ago.

You all make bad decisions which is what leads to your unhappiness.

what i have been reading says otherwise but i dont know for sure.
workload and safety and such is not what i am talking about.

dudes sure seemed to have lots of time for the saloons and # and local watering holes back in the day

originally posted by: TinySickTears
a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

lot of truth to this post.
everything moves too fast including us

dude most people are only spending a couple hours a day with their kids.
people have to work. we're part of the machine now and we have to keep moving

As a business owner - I can tell you everything moves the same.

As a kid I did not want to spend time with parents - Nature/Nurture gtfo

What machine?