The Old Farmer's Almanac 2015 (18 page)

Halcyon Days (December):
This refers to about 2 weeks of calm weather that often follow the blustery winds of autumn’s end. Ancient Greeks and Romans experienced this weather around the time of the winter solstice, when the halcyon, or kingfisher, was brooding in a nest floating on the sea. The bird was said to have charmed the wind and waves so that the waters were especially calm during this period.

Beware the Pogonip (December):
The word
pogonip
refers to an uncommon occurrence—frozen fog. The word was coined by Native Americans to describe the frozen fogs of fine ice needles that occur in the mountain valleys of the western United States and Canada. According to their tradition, breathing the fog is injurious to the lungs.

A lot of time goes to just living

WE SLEEP

As any good mattress salesperson will tell you, you’re going to spend a third of your lifetime sleeping: On average, Americans sleep for 26 years; Canadians, 27 years.

WE WORK

If you work a 40-hour week from age 22 to age 65 (with a 2-week vacation each year), you’ll have spent 9 years, 10 months on the job. Surprised that this number is so low? Weekends make a big difference. A 40-hour workweek is less than a quarter of the 168 hours in the week.

WE COMMUTE

Americans and Canadians are now likely to spend a little over a year of their lives commuting to and from work, at the current average of 52 minutes per day.

In the United States, New Yorkers and Marylanders spend the most time commuting; North Dakotans, the least.

WE COOK AND CLEAN

We give over about 2 hours of every day to housework. The average American woman will spend 6 years of her life doing housework; the average American man, 3 years, 8 months.

The average Canadian woman will devote 6 years, 9 months to the task; the average Canadian man, almost exactly 4 years.

WE WATCH TV

Over a lifetime, Americans will spend 9 years, 2 months watching TV, at the current average of 2.8 hours a day. Canadians will spend 7 years, 6 months watching TV, an average of 2.2 hours a day.

Time passes ... and we underestimate how quickly.

Think supply and demand: Our demand for time is unlimited, so the supply often seems to come up short—even over short intervals. Most people underestimate time intervals by an average of 7 minutes per hour.

Our estimate of how much time has passed might be off by more than 7 minutes, depending on what we’re doing. Compare the 1-hour back massage and the 1-hour root canal.

According to research from Laval University in Quebec, time passes most quickly when we’re absorbed in an activity; time passes most slowly when we’re thinking specifically about how long something is taking—perhaps most often when we’re waiting. That’s why “the watched pot never boils,” even though the watched pot actually takes 9 1/2 minutes to boil, just the same as that pot that boiled (and then boiled dry!) while you were on the phone with your sister.

Time lags when it doesn’t match our type.

Research has shown that individuals vary widely in their personal chronotype, the daily rhythm that is most natural for their bodies to follow.

Time management advice often emphasizes early rising, and most cultures have an “early bird” saying like this one from Russia: “The early riser gathers mushrooms, the sleepy and lazy one goes later for the nettles.”

German biologist Till Roenneberg, who studies body clocks, argues that in our 24/7, industrialized world, early bird proverbs no longer hold true and that an early schedule can do more harm than good for some people. Living on a schedule that doesn’t fit your chronotype can leave you tired all the time, even if you’re getting enough sleep. Roenneberg calls this phenomenon “social jet lag.”

Time tries to keep pace.

For many modern Americans and Canadians, especially city-dwellers, living with a long to-do list makes time seem to pass more quickly. Social psychologist Robert Levine, a specialist in this topic, has quantified “pace of life” through research in cities and other areas all over the world, noting, for example, how quickly people walk and how long it takes to buy a postage stamp. The results contain some surprises:

• Boston is the fastest-paced American city, followed by Buffalo, New York City, and Salt Lake City.
  
• As a nation, due to a much slower pace in small towns and rural areas, the United States comes in 16th in pace-of-life when compared with other nations. Canada comes in 17th.
  
• Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, and Japan, in that order, were fastest.
  
• The slowest-paced nations were Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia.
  

To outsiders, the American, Canadian, Japanese, and northern European disposition to cram as much activity as possible into the day doesn’t make sense. Levine writes that in many parts of the world, “periods of nonactivity are understood to be necessary precursors to any meaningful action.” Consider the Mexican proverb Darle tiempo a tiempo: “Give time to time.” In the fastest-paced cities and nations of the world, people give time to time only grudgingly.

Time is eliminated.

In 1582, most of Europe went straight from Thursday, October 4, to Friday, October 15, eliminating the 10 days in between. Pope Gregory XIII and his team of mathematicians had devised this plan to bring the calendar back in step with the Sun.

Since Julius Caesar’s reign, the Julian calendar year had been longer than the Sun’s year by 10 minutes, 45 seconds, which added up. Gregory’s 10 deleted days and some tinkering with the rule for leap years solved the problem. Our Gregorian calendar year is now only 27 seconds longer than the Sun’s year.

Sixteenth-century people weren’t happy about losing 10 days, especially when their landlords came looking for a full month of October rent—there was widespread confusion, outrage, and even riots. The British Empire, soon to include much of eastern North America, simply ignored the Pope and kept going, out of step with the Sun and all.

Some 170 years later, the British admitted that the Pope’s “new” calendar was a good idea. By that time, they had to skip 11 days to put the calendar right, so in 1752, the British Empire went directly from September 2 to September 14.

To make the most of your time:

EAT, EXERCISE, AND SNOOZE

Lately, the buzz in business is less about “time management” and more about “energy management.” The idea is that when we feel refreshed and energetic, we can use our time to greater effect. To increase energy, snack wisely (eat nuts, fish, and whole grains, which contain magnesium), take exercise breaks periodically, and get more sleep.

STOP STOPPING

A growing body of research shows that often what looks like “multitasking” is actually “rapid task-switching,” especially when technology is involved.

One study of computer programmers showed that as they attempted to work, they interrupted themselves or were interrupted about every 3 minutes, usually to check email.

Other studies have shown that it’s now common for office workers to interrupt what they’re doing to check email 30 to 40 times an hour and that the more a worker self-interrupts, the more stress he or she experiences.

Studies of college students show that while trying to study, they lose focus every 3 minutes on average, for example, to check Facebook or text a friend. The more often they interrupt themselves to “multitask,” the worse they do on tests.

Multitasking with technology is no way to make the most of your time—those emails can wait!

SHARPEN UP!

When you concentrate on the present moment, you can enjoy it fully and remember it once it’s over. Have you ever wondered why certain memories stick and others don’t or why some memories are clear while others are fuzzy? There are many factors, but the evolving neuroscience of memory points to concentration as the most important factor: Studies show that “the sharper the attention, the sharper the memory,” summarizes writer and historian Nicholas Carr.

DO IMPORTANT THINGS FIRST

Think about how you want to spend your lifetime and then, as you can, spend your days accordingly.

Many writers on time management advise using the morning for things that are important (meaningful) but not urgent (demanding of your attention right then). President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first person to point out that “urgent” and “important” are not the same and that urgent things can take up all of your time, if you let them.

Your schedule may not allow you to use the mornings this way or your chronotype may not favor the early hours. But if you can set aside any time daily to do things that are important but not urgent, you will be fighting against “the tyranny of the urgent,” which otherwise can consume all waking hours.

Now, when you hear the question “Where does the time go?,” you have a few answers.

Andrea Curry lives in North Carolina and fights warring impulses to “get stuff done” and “give time to time.” Developing this article made her want to do more of the latter.

The best times to fish are when the fish are naturally most active. The Sun, Moon, tides, and weather all influence fish activity. For example, fish tend to feed more at sunrise and sunset, and also during a full Moon (when tides are higher than average). However, most of us go fishing when we can get the time off, not because it is the best time. But there are best times, according to fishing lore:

The Best Fishing Days for 2015, when the Moon is between new and full:

January 1–4

January 20–February 3

February 18–March 5

March 20–April 4

April 18–May 3

May 18–June 2

June 16–July 1

July 15–31

August 14–29

September 13–27

October 12–27

November 11–25