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The Economies of “Time” Management

© Stephen Weistling

For some time now, we have been engaged in the pursuit for equilibrium in a world that operates out of synch with much of modern society. Of course, there would be no shiftworkers if not for the need of public services in matters of safety and health. But it is also true that many shiftwork professions exist to maximize profits. Why operate a factory or plant only 8 hours per day, leaving it idle at least 67 percent of the time? It makes perfect economic sense to engage the workforce in round the clock operations. And we know that old Tom Edison accommodated our needs very nicely.

Before the electric light, there was candle power, and later the oil lamp. They were not always cheap, and in some cases were taxed, levied, and embargoed as political and social climates dictated.

Another American icon, Benjamin Franklin, wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay that addressed the economics of time management. In 18th century Paris, Franklin observed that most Parisians (including himself) had developed the habit, thanks to candle and oil power, of staying up late into the evening playing chess, socializing, or general carousing. Rising around noon naturally followed going to bed at 3:00 a.m. Franklin humorously noted that one morning he awoke when the sun rose and was astonished to learn that he had been "wasting" free light for up to six hours per day. He then continued with a lengthy discourse on how much money was being wasted by his fellow night owls in candles and oil throughout the country.

"I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day towards the end of June; and that no time during the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any sign of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this.

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