How to Create Time: For Anyone Not a Time Lord

I know. Not a clock. But time flies no matter how you gauge it.

 I'd like to point you to this rather creepy but apt nursery rhyme from one of my favourite tv shows. You know, that one with the time-traveling alien who can regenerate and has a time machine stuck in the form of a 1960's police box from London. Not for nothing has it said to be a "hide-behind the sofa" sort of show:

Tick Tock Goes the Clock (From Doctor Who S6.9)


So time. It's scary. Even without peg dolls and whispery background music.

Then again, I'd say it rather scared of humans, seeing as it tends to run away from us, leaving a lot of shock and confusion when the sun is down and you're yawning and thinking back over what the flip you actually did that day.

I have one piece of advice for you which I found worked a million times better than even the best of lists; which if your curious, can be found here on another amazing twenty-something help site: Milk the Pigeon. For those of you who are not twenty-something, but another something-age, I believe advice aimed at one age (even advice for kids can be valuable, depending on the topic), is just as valuable for any age. After all, if you've hit a point where you believe you are too old or definitely old enough to not learn anything more, well, sorry, but you can. It might me it'll take you a bit longer and a bit more effort and motivation, but you'll get there, eventually. Eventually is the key. 

So all that said: My advice for those of you who want to create more time and don't have the fortune of being a secret Time Lord or owning a time travel machine like the TARDIS, well, use a clock.

Specifically, use the alarm function of whatever clock you choose.

Yes, alarms are loud, obnoxious and all around hateful objects but that's the point. They'll jog you out of your happy scrolling of Twitter, reading a book, re-runs of your favourite sit-com or hours releasing stress via a video game. They'll help you fit in everything you want to do in a single day. Everything.

So what if you don't read all fifty pages of a self-help book, or get that work project due next week entirely finished? Did you get a little bit of both in? Did you even keep up your contacts and connections with friends, collegues, potential business or creative partners?

You did. You'll notice I refrained from mentioning "down-time." Why? Well, simply because we have deluded ourselves into thinking letting our brains go, as we watch a show or jump from cool link to cool link on the internet, we are just avoiding what we actually love doing and what will not only make us happy but make us productive and therefore successful.

That doesn't mean you have to forgo silly sitcoms or digging around the interwebs. Go and do it to your heart content. Just make sure you do it with a goal in mind.

I, for example, don't watch a single t.v. show, movie or read a single book without a pad of notepaper nearby where I actively scribble phrases, character traits, plot points and structures or random facts like what the International Phonetic Alphabet for Aviation is (from my beloved radio drama Cabin Pressure), which has since then found a spot in an airship adventure tale I'm drafting. I make my entertainment time active learning for my own writing.

So I challenge you. Set those alarms! Make those goals. You don't need to be a Time Lord to mould time to your desires.

Happy alarm-setting!
Moony.