Your Workplace Needs an Analog Clock
If you’re struggling with time management at work, a clearly visible analog clock may come in handy.
Why? Because while digital clocks tell us very well what time it is, they don’t show how much time has passed, and this can be a problem for people who find it difficult to calculate the pace of their work during the day or meet noon. …
Money.com recently posted a list of expert tips to help you improve your workplace and quoted Susie Hayman, President of the National Association for Productivity and Organization Professionals, about the benefits of an analog clock:
“An analog clock helps you manage time because you can actually ‘see’ the time,” she says.
Lifehacker readers may remember we wrote about this benefit earlier in our article on Why Kids Still Need an Analog Clock . As Lifehacker’s Michelle Wu explained:
With the help of analog clocks (especially with a second hand), children can visualize the passage of time as it happens, which allows them to be more aware of this moment compared to the past and future. This can give them a sense of how long it takes to complete certain tasks – like washing dishes or writing a book report – and plan accordingly. Seeing time as an hour’s pie can also help them more intuitively break projects down into smaller tasks.
Of course, we often forget that adults can get the same benefits from analog clocks. By watching the minutes pass, we get a better understanding of how much time has passed since we started the task, as well as how much time is left, and can help us learn how to break our projects into smaller tasks.
Analog clocks have another advantage, which is their ability to keep them from being delayed “at the top of the hour”. We all did what we look at a digital clock, notice that the time is (for example) 13:43, and tell ourselves that we will start our next task at 2.
And of course, maybe we really need a break, but we also tell ourselves that there is not enough time between 1:43 and 2:00 to get anything done – even if the analog clock shows we had more than a quarter of an hour. That’s enough time to empty a mailbox, send a ream of papers, or devote seventeen minutes to your next big project.
So if you don’t have an analog clock on your desk or workspace, it might be time (pun intended) to get one. Yes, a clock can make the day slip by, but it can also show you how much time you really have and help you spend it wisely.