If clocks disappeared from the world

Welcome to Change, Logged, a weekly newsletter offering 5 minutes of honest thoughts about life, design, and everything in between.

Whilst on the three hour flight to Japan a couple of weeks ago, I read an incredibly memorable and conceptual book: If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura. The story follows a man who is dying and makes a deal with the devil: for every item he gives up, he gains an extra day of life. Each day, something disappears.

One of those days stayed with me. It was Thursday.

What if clocks disappeared from the world?

Sundials and shadow clocks were used as early as 3,500 years ago. Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians used sundials and water clocks to divide the day. For most people, the day followed the sun: rising at dawn, working while the light lasted, and resting at sunset.

In China and Japan, incense clocks or fire clocks, measured time in a different way. Incense sticks were set to burn for specific durations, and when they burned through, a small weighted ball would drop into a metal dish, sounding a chime. You could quite literally smell what time it was.

Over time, timekeeping evolved from observing natural cycles to creating more precise mechanical systems. These shifts were driven by the needs of agriculture, rituals, trade, and religion. As societies grew, so did the need for coordination, such as planting seasons, shared workdays and train schedules.

Mechanical clocks didn’t appear in Europe until around the 13th century. Over time, they became smaller and more precise, from tower clocks to pocket watches, and eventually wristwatches worn during wartime. Time used to be experienced, but now it is measured. We have turned something natural into something structured.

In actual fact, they’ve just imposed a meaning on things, come up with a definition of what the world is all about which happens to suit them. And I just thought it might be interesting for people to see what the world would be like without that system of telling the time, which humans just made up for their own convenience.

- Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World

Today, time has become something to fill. Most of us feel the pressure to do as much as possible in a day. Hard work has become about maximising output by optimising efficiency and time. Society has trained us to wear “busy” as a badge of honour. When was the last time someone asked, “How are you?” and you answered anything other than “busy”?

We try all kinds of hacks to reclaim our minutes. Some use the Pomodoro Technique whilst others rely on apps that block distractions, schedule every task, or track “deep work” hours. Productivity blogs offer endless tips: optimise your morning, batch your meetings, automate your emails, and squeeze in microtasks wherever possible.

There are endless books and articles about hacking time and making time. Many of us, myself included, fall into the same cycle of wanting more. No matter how much time we optimise, we simply squeeze new things into the space we have freed up. The cycle repeats.

We end up trapped in a loop of constantly trying to fit in more. We have more time than our ancestors yet less control over how we spend it.

If clocks disappeared, so would our rigid structures and human-created notions of time, along with much of the self-inflicted pressure and stress. Time would still pass as it always has, but we would experience it differently, with more space to feel, to notice, and to be present.

Yutori (ゆとり) is a Japanese philosophy around ‘spaciousness’ whether it is physical, mental, emotional or temporal. It encourages leaving room to breathe in our daily lives. A simple example is arriving early and allowing yourself to move through your day in a relaxed state, rather than rushing from one scheduled moment to the next, something which most of us are guilty of. When was the last time you went for a walk between tasks or enjoyed a cup of tea without checking the time?

Time is one of the five wealths outlined in Sahil Bloom’s Five Types of Wealth, alongside social, mental, physical, and financial wealth. Its three pillars are not about the hours on the clock, but about how we experience and manage them:

1. Awareness: recognising the finite, impermanent nature of time

2. Attention: directing focus toward what truly matters

3. Control: choosing exactly how to spend your hours, instead of letting the day run you

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Prioritise the moments that are meaningful rather than urgent. As Sahil Bloom puts it:

• Family time is finite — cherish it.

• Children time is precious — be present.

• Friend time is limited — prioritise the real friends.

• Partner time is meaningful — never settle.

• Coworker time is significant — find energy.

• Alone time is abundant — love yourself.

We live in a world where we’ve learned to squeeze every second for productivity. But what if we let time return to its roots, before clocks and schedules dictated our lives? What if we ignored all time hacks and just noticed life as it happens?

If clocks disappeared, perhaps we would feel this naturally. Without rigid schedules, we could become time makers, not takers. Then, we could intentionally choose how our time is spent rather than letting the world fill it for us.

Books that inspired the thoughts on this page — and are worth a look:

• If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

• Five Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom