Nature's rhythms don't fit the clock: How a measurement tool shapes our relationship with nature.

Do we use the clock to control our time? Or do we let the clock control us more than time itself ever could?

In this article I talk about time and how our obsession with measuring it (via the clock) defines our relationship with nature and explains why we are losing touch with it. I also discuss how public provision of universal basic needs can reconnect us to natural rhythms of time, helping to tackle climate change and burnout.

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In nature, nothing exists alone, not even time. Time is relative, varied, changing and immeasurable. It's boundless. We constantly experience how it adapts to the changing rhythms of day and night, summer and winter, growth and decay, speed and pause, fun and boredom, coming and going. Yet we accept to live by the clock, a highly limited and purely quantitative measure of it. If we are to overcome climate catastrophe and collective burnout, we must relearn to live by the rhythms of nature, not the cadence of clocks.

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We want more

Everything, everywhere, all at once. Higher, faster, more. That is what we are striving for at present.

The capitalist economic system has blessed us with amazing advances in living standards but also led to severe climate catastrophe. We have more information and more choices in every aspect of life than ever before, by far. And through technology, we carry it with us all the time. Yet we want more.

Collectively, we want more because economic growth remains the primary policy objective around the world, even though most developed countries could provide all their citizens with everything they need to meet their basic needs.

And we want more individually, as we are taught and mostly voluntarily adhere to principles of self-optimisation and professional success, often with a focus on maximising material wealth.?

Is this sustainable? No.

Collectively, we are depleting the natural world of its resources at a rate from which nature can't recover. We are destroying entire ecosystems, literally burning the earth to the ground and creating a catastrophe that we and all other species are paying for with deadly consequences. We take and take and take and don't give nature time to breathe.

And individually, we cram as many activities as possible into our calendars to get things done. We strive to be better, to do more, to achieve our best potential. We do and do and do and don't leave ourselves time to breathe.

In essence, we have all succumbed to the capitalist principles of quantitative growth and utility maximisation in our collective and individual lives.

A limited understanding of time

Underlying this is an understanding of time as a resource that can be efficiently managed to produce maximum output from a given input. An understanding of time as a quantifiable unit, with clocks as the ultimate measurement tool. And we’re eager to exploit time to get the maximum out of it.

And sure enough, the capitalist economy has turned this understanding into one of the most famous maxims of all: 'Time is money'.

Time is more than money or the clock

But it isn't. Yes, we can use the clock to manage our lives, trying to cram as much of ourselves into it as possible in the hope of squeezing the most out at the other end. And that is what we are currently doing. But look where it has got us: A natural world in full catastrophe mode and societies with skyrocketing numbers of people with burnout, depression, anxiety and stress.

Because we try to live to the cadence of the evenly ticking clock, not to the rhythms of life. Life and nature don't work that way. Only the clock does. The clock is the cadence, but life works in rhythms.

Time is not just a resource

Time is not just a resource. If we only understand it as something we can measure, manage, save and make the most of, we miss most of what it really is: diverse, fast and slow, acceleration and slowdown, delay, dynamic, cyclical, malleable, relative, rhythmic.?

We experience all this when we are having fun and say 'time went by so fast', or the opposite when we are sitting in a dull meeting. Or when we feel that we need a pause after a stressful couple of hours. And we observe how soil turns barren if it’s not given time to regenerate after intense agricultural use. But we ignore all these rhythms of life and nature by subscribing to the 'time is money' logic. Instead, we follow the one true path of acceleration. With disastrous consequences for our planet and our individual wellbeing.

Time is more than just the clock. Until the invention of the ticking clock in the 16th century (coincidence that this preceded and coincided with the beginning of industrialisation...?), which we all use today to systematically structure our lives, people were much more attached to natural rhythms of time. The changing times of the sun, moon and stars, the growth cycles of plants, our own biological cycles of sleep and wakefulness, work, play and rest, animal migrations, community gatherings, the time it took for a candle to burn out.

With the invention of the clock, that changed and we started to measure everything we do. And soon the measurement of time was monetised and exploited by capitalists.?

But we cannot quantify and squeeze time because we have no power over it. We can't grasp it because it's all around us and immune to human activity. So while it feels like we are trying to make the most effective use of time, what we are really doing is squeezing as much of ourselves into it as we can. Running from appointment to appointment, from project to project, from activity to activity. Usually well-intentioned, but driven by our society's mindset of growth and maximisation.?

Overcoming the 'time is money' paradigm

But this is not the way of natural life. By imposing our obsession with growth and maximisation on our environment, and living only at our own artificial human-made pace, we deprive it of its own rhythms. Nature, including our own bodies, can't always accelerate and go full speed ahead. It also needs to slow down, pause, wait, recover, regenerate, renew and go through cycles. This is what sustainability is, and what makes life enjoyable and worthwhile.

If we want to protect our planet and health, we must change our goals from maximising individual and collective wealth to individual and collective wellbeing. Then we should strive an economic system that allow us to rediscover and connect to our natural rhythms.

At present, and within our system of capital and profit-driven, growth-maximising wage labour, this seems impossible. Often we are simply forced into wage labour to pay our bills, where we have no choice but to live by the clock and the logic of 'time is money'. And businesses have the pressure to compete in the market economy, where ruthlessness and ignorance often beat nice intentions and environmental care.

Public proivision of universal basic needs

This is why new economic thinking proposals for a public provision of universal basic needs, such as universal basic income and universal basic services, are more than just an update of our current social welfare systems.

It is a revolution in what it means to deserve a livelihood. By collectively ensuring that everyone's basic needs are met - from healthcare, childcare and education to housing, energy and food - and thus removing the need for people to earn an income in order to have a sustainable livelihood, we make room for a re-naturalisation of what it means to live well - that is, in accordance with the natural rhythms of time. And we invite ideas of sufficiency and post-growth into our economy, so that those businesses can thrive, that really mean well for the people and the planet.

At the same time, by reducing the need for everyone to earn an income and therefore to work, we can potentially free ourselves from the damaging cycle of ever-increasing consumption and production. We can focus on the things that really matter, without fear of financial instability and social degradation. And instead of providing everything for ourselves through income and individual consumption, public provision of things like transport and care could eliminate huge amounts of emissions and help tackle climate change.

Dreaming

Imagine if we shared wealth more equally. Imagine that currently unpaid or poorly paid work such as housework, caring, volunteering and teaching were finally recognised as worthy of a secure livelihood. Imagine that we no longer have to engage in environmentally and socially damaging activities and 'bullshit jobs' because we are not forced to earn an income from them. Imagine that working conditions for jobs improve because employers can't exploit the poor and unfortunate. Imagine that working hours are no longer so standardised and the average working week is reduced from 40 to 30 hours. Imagine that we are free to spend our time in balance with natural rhythms, focusing on increasing our personal and collective wellbeing.?

Sounds utopian? Yes, it is. Is it feasible? Yes, it is. Is it necessary? Yes, it is.

It's time for a shift from economic speed based on resource extraction and time efficiency to a focus on living in balance with natural rhythms and the pursuit of wellbeing for people and the planet.

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• Inspired by the book “Alles eine Frage der Zeit: Warum die ‘Zeit ist Geld’-Logik Mensch und Natur teuer zu stehen kommt” by Harald Lesch, Karlheinz A. Gei?ler und Jonas Gei?ler.
• Vote for parties that reject the growth paradigm in the EU elections!