Marking the Passage of Time

I recently had dinner with a good friend of mine, who just purchased a fitness watch of sorts that tracks his daily activity (number of steps, sedentary time, etc). He told me that, according to his perception, when he is engrossed in one activity or another, the watch beeps every 15 minutes to remind him to get up and move around, whereas, in reality, the watch is actually beeping every hour. I can relate to this perceived versus actual passage of time, and it occurs to me that the difference can be very useful, in terms of maximizing or minimizing the passage of time, all depending on the objective. For example, during the day, when I am working, I take a sip of water every 15 minutes to create an awareness of the passage of time, thereby maximizing my use of it. On the other hand, at the gym, on the treadmill, I take a sip of water every 5 minutes to convert my own internal accounting of time from seconds or minutes to 5 minute intervals to minimize how long it 'feels' like I am walking. This is just a restatement of several old adages - specifically, preserving time, as in "time lost is never found" from Benjamin Franklin, and preserving experience, as in "the time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time" by Bertrand Russell - but I wonder how many of us actually devise appropriate, self-directed units of time to either slow things down or speed things up. You can be present in the moment to savor every second, or you can track broader milestones to fold the time in between. In The Thin Red Line, Private Witt (Jim Caviezel's character) lives in the second-by-second beauty of nature (flowers, birds, etc) that surrounds him on the battlefield; in Cast Away, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks' character) lives in the day-by-day activity required to feed his body and stay alive; in The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins' character) lives in the month-by-month activity to feed his soul and truly live. There is a case for savoring every second no matter what your circumstance, so I am not suggesting an outright folding of time, ala the movie Click, where Michael Newman (Adam Sandler's character) transports himself into the future through a magical remote control, and ends up missing the majority of his life. That being said, being aware of and influencing your perception of time can be a great way to be savor beautiful seconds or withstand challenging moments, which can offer a modicum of comfort where there is none.