The internal clock

I have a number of things I do which help me estimate time accurately, some of which I learned by timing them with a watch. I know that my pressure tank/well apparatus will fill my larger stock tanks in fifteen minutes, my smaller ones in seven. I know that it takes me about fifteen minutes to groom and tack one of my horses, assuming they are not terribly dirty, don't need any special kind of care, and that my tack is in place before beginning. I know that it takes me forty-five minutes to ride to my mailbox and back on most horses, with some variation based on length of leg, mood of the animal, and so forth. I know how long it takes each of my greyhounds to eat a bowl of food (fifteen minutes for Marcus--he's easily distracted--and five for CJ--she's quicker).

For things that you want to time without a watch or the sun, consider singing. To an average singer, three rounds of "You Are My Sunshine" lasts one minute. Good for checking your temperature with a traditional thermometer. Other songs will work for other tasks.

May I ask what you do for a living? I find my affinity for time is wrecked the more I work on a computer. Since I now spend most of every day outside, I'm better with estimating it, unless I get absorbed in a task like assembling something. I won't say that indoor professionals can't estimate time, as most experienced teachers can tell you how long a class session should be or how long it takes to do certain tasks during that session. It's a pretty amazing skill they have (amongst all the other skills they have). I will say, though, that for me, being outdoors for a career has helped me in this regard. I can still get carried away by a training session, though. I've looked at my watch and found that I've been working a horse for ninety minutes and that messes up my schedule.

As for rice, there are lots of ways to cook it. Covered, there is an old maxim shouted by every Japanese grandma, "Don't look at the rice!" In a rice cooker, well, that's a whole different matter. Uncovered, however, you get to look at it, stir, and mess with it as you like, or as Abuela tells you! So I think you just learn how to cook rice the way you cook rice. Tradition, tradition, tradition.

Zieg
 
With eggs, there is an egg to water volume ratio that if you hit will cook perfect eggs without having to keep the water boiling. It takes a bit longer, but thats an idea. Otherwise, poached would work. I think you have to use techniques that are visual (frying) or not particularly time sensitive (soup/stew) to get the best effect. Or you just sort of have to guess, like if doing any sort of foil baking. Some foods have a wider window between done and burnt, eggs are pretty narrow that way, bread, pretty wide.
 
I think it has to do more with people being more observant of what is around them. Noticing the food cooking or the weather and the position of the sun.
As for me I find it easier to tell what time of the day it is during the summer time then winter time. Never used an alarm clock but always seem to wake up on time be it going to work or get up at 3am to go fishing.
Go outside pay attention to what is going on around you and before you know it you would get a feel for it. You would also find out that you don't really need to know exactly what time it is by the min.
 
I remember my mother cooking and my grandmother cooking. They didn't use timers but they used observation. I can't tell you how many times they baked a pie, baked a cake, a chicken, or numerous other dishes, ---etc. but I know they looked at it several times to see if it was done. They would open the stove look at it and say ahhh a few more minutes, check it again a little later and say, OK its done. A hard boiled egg? Mom never timed it but it almost always always came out right. I think you get a sense of things when you're not relying on timing devices. You have to because there is just nothing else left. That's my take on it. but of course back then we cooked food not microwaved it.
 
Interesting replies here!

The recurring theme kinda sums up our modern mentality in general. We are so reliant on STUFF to do our stuff for us nowadays, we lose the inherent awarenesses we were equipped with at birth.

Use it or lose it.
 
My internal clock is pretty accurate. I just have to remember that it runs half speed at work. As far as the rice goes......it's done when it's soft. I wouldn't know what to set the timer at anyway, to many variables, type of rice, water cold or hot when you put it in, elevation etc.
 
Artificial light, or more specifically, light pollution (to much artificial light) is one of the biggest culprits in the disruption of one's circadian rhythm. An easy fix is spending multiple days camping to reset your 24-hour clock. Do a search on light pollution and health and you will find tons of information.

Sad but true, one thing on my bucket list is to camp in a "1" on the Bortle Dark Sky Scale. I hate sky glow!
 
Good point. The blue light from our tablets and computers
exponentially compound this effect, which is ironic, considering where we are right now.

Heh.
 
When I was going to school and working full time, I had one hour to catnap between the two. I was never late, and had some great zzzzzs. The Lord is good!
 
I rise no earlier than 8 Am and hit the sack by 1Am. Disturbing the timeline will only throw my body off leading to fatique, constipation, immune system etc. I used to do shiftwork, it may have paid the bills, but the body took its toll, we are not made to live like machines.
 
i wake the same time every day without an alarm....unless i partake in what my wife would call "too many"

does that count?
 
Vance, sounds like a buddy of mine. he gets up at 5am, even if he got to sleep at 3. but he's not a morning person, he figures its natures way of getting him woken up and functional before he has to deal with other humans, limits the body count.
 
VANCE said:
i wake the same time every day without an alarm....
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Same here. 0400 every day. Have done so for years. I never miss a sunrise. It has been nearly 20 years since I've set an alarm. No need to do so. My dog adjusted her waking to mine.
 
Like all skills there is no quick answer that is good and no good answer that is quick. Practice makes perfect is another way of saying the same thing.

When you rely upon yourself rather than a watch long enough, you will be amazed at how accurate you can become. Knowing the time within 15 minutes is easy, within 5m can be achieved. Waking without an alarm within 15m can become a regular occurance. Ask someone who has been doing this a while what time is it and they will answer without looking up, then look at the sun and say "yup". They knew from their internal clock then double checked against the sun within seconds.
 
Oh . . . cooking and stuff . . . interesting question
but
I thought you meant estimating how long the internal clock would go after the new year before the "Buy a New Knife" instruction set would pop up on the Ol" internal display.

In my case that took five days. I was practicing with the thumb stud after a week and a day.
Hope this helps. :)

PS: with rice it will bubble and spit up out from under the lid like a baby while it is cooking. When it stops spitting and just steams you better get 'er off the heat quick. That is assuming you put in the right ratio of water to grain.

PPS : and smell . . .
if you are off in the woods signing nature's guest book and you smell something like pop corn (and no body is making pop corn) that means to expect burnt rice in the bottom of your cook pot and that you have abandoned your post at a most inopportune juncture.
 
Jamesh Bond,

Heck of an interesting question by the way.

THE CHEF (my partner) . . . I asked her if she had any thing to add. She said "The best way to destroy ALL sense of time is to go to knife chatrooms."
I don't know what she means by that but the days have gotten a whole lot shorter since I been posting here. I mean I do a post or two and read a post or two and six hours have gone by.

Scary how she knows these things that completely baffle me.
 
What the heck . . . one more :
When I was a young man in a new city and lived very Zen (read no money) I used to rise on my own clock NO PROBLEM. Now I set two alarms on work days; one an iPod with pre set timers for days I work. I LOVE THAT ! and one I set manually, an iPad set five minutes earlier with a slow wake timer that starts out a single note chime very low volume and slowly increases : ting . . . ting . . . ting . . .ting . . . etc.

I LOVE THAT TOO !

I can lay down and get super deep into a sleep and KNOW it is ok to zonk out to the max.
and
because I am an old fart or what ever reason I sleep much less than I used to. Back then I ran on ten hours of sleep a night , now I am pretty darn functional on five. (some people may disagree but that's my story and I'm sticking to it).
 
Jamesh Bond said:
Can't watch rice.
Click to expand...
Time measurement or cooking rice? I suppose if you can manage to tote pot, lid, water, rice, you could also toss in a $1 wind up egg timer. Rice is not as difficult as folks like to imply. And if you're going to have the forethought to bring along rice, choose an instant rice type like minute rice. But that's just my opinion.
For rice, and granted I typically am cooking for myself rather than troop 285, I get the water boiling good, really bubbling, throw in my handful of rice, just let it roil uncovered, count to 180 and put the lid on the pot. Take the pot off the flame and let it sit covered for what you feel is about 20 minutes. viola'
 
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