Taking Charge of Time

Time’s been, in a word, odd, over the last two years. When the news details some new variant or other potentially life-threatening development, it seems to slow down and then speed up; it’s rarely “just right.” Losing track of time is stressful for us as humans, so we’ve got to do whatever we can to regularize it and to keep track of it. Clocks and calendars can help us note the passage of time, but there are more sophisticated ways we can use design to deal with our time miasma.

This is the moment to commit to natural and circadian lighting: Both will help your body stay in sync with your location on the earth, which is a fancy way of saying they'll help you keep track of what time it is, and reduce your stress levels, too, all while boosting your mental performance and ability to interact positively with other people. So, open your curtains as wide as the thermal power of your windows permits.

For circadian light without fancy investments, make sure that in each room of your home there are some warmer white light bulbs and some cooler white ones. Turn on the fixtures with the warmer lights in the morning and evening and use the cooler lights during the middle part of your day. To even more closely support natural lighting with your electrical lights, it’s great if, during times when you’re using the warmer lights, light levels are, relatively, a little dimmer and if cooler lighting, when it’s turned on, is relatively brighter. Whenever possible, it’s also best to put warmer bulbs in lower fixtures/lamps, such as those that stand on the floor or are placed on tabletops, and cooler ones higher up, say, in on-ceiling fixtures.

Another way you can mark the passage of time in your home, and to live in a positive, comfortable, biophilic way, is to slightly change your décor every few weeks. Re-arranging/using what you already have is a great way to do so without spending a dime—and rearranging/reusing can do all the same things for you that buying new might.

As 2022 begins, continue to change up the experiences of being in your home every so often. Trade one air freshener for another or play different sorts of music, for example. Once the holidays have passed, look in the back of your closets, under your bed, and wherever else you might have stashed things; a few of those items can be swapped into more prominent places to change what you see as you look around your home. To keep visual clutter in check, tuck away out of sight one thing currently out on a tabletop, etc., for each one you take out from your closets, etc.

If you change up your home, then, ever so slightly, over time, you’ll have all sorts of clues that will help you keep track of when something happened. Modifying things every so often also adds a new ritual to your life, and rituals also help us note the passage of time. They create a mental latticework that helps you keep track of when things have happened.

Directly considering the graceful, controlled, and slow “evolution” of the places in which you find yourself will make it easier, short-term and long-term, to remember “when.”