I am reading a decent book, "In Praise of Slowness" by Carl Honore. In the beginning of the book, he talks about "Natural Time". This is how time was processed by people before modern clocks and timepieces were created. This is how hunter-gatherers must have processed time as well, obviously.
In the book, he talks about how the invention of modern time has led to an acceleration in the pace of life and also a low-level pressure to get the most out of each minute. The rest of the book then goes on to show how people are trying to regain a sense of slowness in their modern lives.
All this got me to thinking: is it "paleo" to wear a watch? In the modern world, you have to be at certain places at certain times, yes. But this doesn't imply that you have to wear a watch and constantly be checking the time.
As an experiment, I did not wear a watch at all last week. This is a change for me as I've worn a watch for the last 25 years or more. I would say that overall this experiment had a positive impact on me.
Without a watch, I learned to build in extra time and relax. Say for example, you have to be somewhere in 10 minutues and it's roughly a 10 minute walk. With a watch, maybe you would wait and leave such that you time it out right. Without a watch, I would just leave 15 minutes early and then take my time to the destination, knowing I have extra time built in.
Here's a related example: you might have a clock on your cable TV box, but they don't put clocks in movie theaters. This is because they want you to forget about time and become immersed in the movie. And the same may hold true with life, by not constantly checking time, a person can become more immersed in life and enjoy it more.
Very interesting article. I imagine always worrying about getting places on time raises our cortisol. I don’t foresee myself getting rid of my watch (aka cell phone) any time soon though.