3 Ways to Track Time Without a Timer

If you’ve ever had the experience of going on a road trip with kids, you know they inevitably ask:

How much longer til we get there?

And you also know that no matter what you tell them, they’re likely to ask again in about 5 minutes. It can make for a long road trip.

The reason the kids ask repeatedly is because they have no concept of linear clock time. Children tend to live in the now. To a child, 10 minutes is no different from 30 minutes.

Time is an abstract concept; it’s theoretical. Children don’t yet have a reservoir of embodied experiences of time to comprehend what 10 minutes or 30 minutes feels like.

Frankly, most adults don’t have that sense either.

How would you give someone a measurement of “how much longer” if they didn’t understand linear time concepts?

If 5 minutes doesn’t have any practical meaning for someone, you need to give them a different reference point for “how much longer” — something that brings time into their embodied, sensory experience.

3 Ways to Measure Time Without a Clock

Here are 3 ways to measure time without a clock or timer.

I’ve found that these same units of measurement work well as alternatives to a timer when I am engaged in tasks where I can lose track of time.

(1) Songs

I often listen to music when I work and workout. In addition to helping me stay focused, music makes a natural timer.

Imagine telling your kids: we’ll be there after 3 more songs. Suddenly, they’re engaged in the music and not bothering you until the end of those songs.

If you’re having trouble getting started on a task, pick a song you like and commit to doing the task for the length of the song. For longer tasks, use an album or a playlist.

(2) Breath Counts

A ticking timer can provoke anxiety and urgency that hijacks your nervous system, which makes it harder to do a task. Counting the cycles of breath is way to measure time that soothes the nervous system.

Counting breaths also has the added benefit of helping you focus on your breathing, which keeps unwanted intrusive thoughts out of your head space.

(3) Position of the Sun

This one may take some practice. For measuring longer periods of time — at least a few hours — you can use the sun’s position in the sky, or the amount of daylight, as a point of reference. For example, you might say I’ll stop working at sunset. Using the sun’s position forces us to pay attention to what’s happening around us. It also helps us better attune to our circadian rhythms.

Time is an Experience

Time isn’t just something we track on a clock — it’s something we feel and experience.

We can experience time as the ticking away of seconds on an timer or through the enjoyment of music, focus on our breath, or appreciation of nature.

The more we tune into these markers of experience, the more we will enjoy the time we have.