When getting ready to leave the house, I have mini-milestones in my routine to stay on track and to ensure that I am out the door at the right time, to ensure I am at my destination on time.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a weekend activity, a work day or just going out to run errands, the “fun” is the same. Have you ever had things go like this?…
One Saturday morning, I finished my workout at 9:10, according to the clock in the basement, which I know runs a little fast. I thought I was off to a good start and that I must be a little ahead of schedule.
According to the bathroom clock, I was out of the shower at 9:25, meaning I was still five minutes ahead of schedule.
On my way to the bedroom, the cat stops me for a morning belly-rub.
But by the time I finished picking my clothes and laying them on the bed, slathering on some face moisturizer and applying my anti-perspirant, according to the bedroom clock, it was suddenly 9:40, which meant I was five minutes behind.
I wondered to myself if I had briefly dozed off while offering the cat some attention. Time to speed it up!
By the time I scurried downstairs for breakfast, the microwave clock said it was 9:37, so I had magically made up a few minutes.
When I finished eating, the microwave said 10:00… right on time!… but by the time I was back in the bedroom to get dressed, the time jumped ahead to 10:05, which meant I was suddenly running late again.
But when I returned to the bathroom to brush my teeth again, somehow, it was only 10:06, which meant I was back on time.
How does this happen?
As much as people grumble over the disruption caused by Daylight Savings Time and having to switch the clocks back and forth twice per year, to me they represent an ideal opportunity to synchronize every clock in the house.
I’m sure some readers must be thinking, “Why wait until the time change to fix the clocks?”, which is a valid question indeed.
What I find is that once I have synchronized all of the clocks in the house to the correct time on my iPhone, things tend to stay that way for several weeks. It is perhaps a couple of months later when I start noticing the clocks drifting off correct time, but ever so slowly.
At first it may only be one minute, which is barely perceptible. When the drift hits two minutes, that is when each room in the house seems to inherit a distinct time zone like Bathroom Standard Time or Dining Daylight Savings Time.
But a few weeks later, when some clocks get to three minutes ahead while others are three minutes behind, that’s when my routine starts feeling like a car’s GPS in frantic “recalculating!” mode after missing an off-ramp.
The mental gymnastics of keeping track of which clocks drift ahead versus the ones that drift behind (and by how much) is one way of waking up the brain cells before the morning coffee has time to kick in.
But it’s a little exhausting when glancing over at a clock and having to take out the mental slide rule to figure out again and again if that means I’m ahead or behind schedule, and whether to speed it up or slow it down to be out the door on time.
Just when I get to that point where I’m so exasperated that I want to do something about it, it’s time to reset all the clocks for Daylight Savings Time or to return to Standard Time.
I certainly do not want to open a debate on the merits versus the challenges of the time change. I believe both sides present compelling arguments:
While I hate that sleep-deprived feeling following the spring time change, the extra hour of daylight in the evening makes outdoor activities more accessible and more enjoyable through the summer months.
While I enjoy the perception of sleeping in following the fall time change, there is no convincing my cat that it’s not actually breakfast time yet. Plus returning home from work in complete darkness is a bit of a drag.
To me, if there is a bright side to be found in the Daylight Savings debate, it is the opportunity to synchronize every clock in the house twice per year and to shave valuable seconds off my routine from all of the pausing and recalculating as I move from room to room.
It also frees up my mind for other important morning priorities like making sure I’m not wearing navy socks with black pants (or vice versa) and making sure I’ve brought the right cutlery to go with my lunch… (i.e., soup… fork… you get the picture!) It’s those little successes that make life sweeter.
As long as Daylight Savings Time remains with us, I’ll just look at every time change as an ideal opportunity to set aside the time to synchronize each and every clock in the house and to restore some calm in my morning routine.
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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André
It's the Journey 
When I set a digital clock to a particular time it usually shows that time for exactly one minute. But occasionally it shows that time for less than one minute. You would think being digital it would be always consistent.