Losing & keeping track of time

I haven't lost track of time in a while. I used to lose track of time a lot and I'd get into trouble. I didn't know that keeping track of time was a skill that one could acquire, but apparently it is, because when Little T was in the NICU, I acquired it. I had to learn it, because otherwise we'd get fined if we didn't pick up Special K in time from preschool. Sure there are clocks everywhere, but somehow you have to know that 5, 10, 15 minutes have gone by. You have to eke out each moment, because you have to divide up your time between your baby in the NICU and your child in preschool. Five minutes more of holding your baby means a lot, so you try to time things perfectly.

But yesterday I received some disturbing news (not related to me personally) and I'm coming down with a cold. I've trying somewhat successfully to stave my cold off with vitamin C, echinacea and goldenseal. What I haven't been doing is going to bed early. And so I'm rundown. So yesterday when I received this disturbing news, I lost track of time. Suddenly I looked at the clock and realised I was already supposed to be at my daughter's preschool. Oops.

Anyway it's funny because I didn't even know I had this skill until I found myself rushing to Special K's preschool. Usually I time it so I'm there right on time. I always thought that I had to solve this problem by calendars and external alarms and so on, which do also help, but that internal rhythm is vital.

One of the things I've learned is figuring out how long a task actually takes you. I realised that I consistently underestimated the time for some tasks and overestimated the time for others. That helps a lot too. I guess actually timing those tasks helped getting a better sense of time too.