GP document - Mindful Timekeeping

GRADUATION PROJECT

Mindful Timekeeping

Sponsor: Self Sponsored

Volume: 1 of 1

STUDENT: NILEENA RAJAN

PROGRAMME : Master of Design (M.Des)

GUIDE: DR. RANJIT KONKAR

2020

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN FACULTY | PRODUCT DESIGN

Copyright © 2020

Student document publication meant for private circulation only.

All rights reserved.

Master of Design, Product Design, 2015-2020

National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India.

No part of this document will be reproduced or transmitted in any

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wherever mentioned.

Written and designed by,

Nileena Rajan

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Processed at,

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The Evaluation Jury recommends NILEENA RAJAN for the

Graduation of the National Institute of Design

IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN (PRODUCT DESIGN)

here with , for the project titled “MINDFUL TIMEKEEPING”

on fulfilling further requirements by*

Chairman

Members:

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Jury Grade:

*Subsequent remarks regarding fulfilling the requirements:

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About

National Institute of Design

The establishment of NID was a result of

several forces, both global and local. The late

1950s saw a confluence of these forces, and

this time would be a significant one for Indian

culture and education. This was a time of

reappraisal and reconstruction in a newly

independent India. A young nation was

confronted with the mammoth task of nation

building, of balancing age old traditions with

modern technology and ideas. The Modern

Movement, the philosophy of Machine

Aesthetics, and revolutionary

experimentation in the arts, architecture and

design were all taking place at the same time.

There was a search for the Indian identity

across all aspects of life.

On April 7, 1958, Charles and Ray Eames

presented the India Report to the Government

of India. The Eames Report defined the

underlying spirit that would lead to the

founding of NID and beginning of design

education in India. The Report recommended

a problem-solving design consciousness that

linked learning with actual experience and

suggested that the designer could be a bridge

between tradition and modernity. The Report

called upon future designers to re-examine the

alternatives of growth available to the country

at that time.

Based on the recommendations made in the

India Report, the Government of India with the

assistance of the Ford Foundation and the

Sarabhai family established the National

Institute of Industrial Design, as it was originally

called as an autonomous all-India body in

September 1961 at Ahmedabad. Gautam

Sarabhai and his sister Gira played a major role

in the establishment and early years of NID.

Gautam Sarabhai sidestepped the accepted

wisdom and conventional method of

education. He revived the philosophy of the

Bauhaus design movement which was

learning by doing. This unique curriculum and

revolutionary educational philosophy remain

part of NID to the present day.

Today the National Institute of Design is

internationally acclaimed as one of the

finest educational and research institutions

for Industrial, Communication, Textile and

IT Integrated (Experiential) Design. It is an

autonomous institution under the aegis of the

Ministry of Commerce and Industry,

Government of India. NID has been declared

‘Institution of National Importance’ by the Act

of Parliament, by virtue of the National

Institute of Design Act 2014.

About

Product Design

Product design is concerned primarily with the

relationship between products, systems and

those who use them. The product design

programme at NID inculcates user-centric

approach and processes. Responsibility and

concern towards the social, physical and

ecological environments is emphasized in the

process of developing innovative ideas. The

product design programme assimilates inputs

in diverse domains such as human factors,

cognitive ergonomics, form studies, studio

skills, advanced CAD, research methods,

design management, materials &

manufacturing processes & social

sciences. Emphasis is on process centric

approach which shapes a student’s education

through participation and teamwork. Design

projects form the core of a product designer’s

education, with gradual increase in level of

complexity and cover broad areas that product

designers are likely to encounter in their

professional careers.

Students are actively encouraged to participate

in collaborative projects with industrial houses,

social sector, government & MNCs. Design

projects can be broadly classified into domains

of:

Design for industry

Design for quality of life

Design for healthcare

Design for social impact

Design led futures

About

Graduation Project

The end of the student’s academic tenure at

the National Institute of Design is marked by

the culmination of a substantial investigation in

the field of design on a topic closely allied to

their discipline of study. It is through the

graduation project and subsequent

documentation of the same that this

investigation takes place. This is the final

academic project for the student. The

graduation project is an opportunity for

students to demonstrate their expertise as

independent practitioners of design.

The graduation project should reflect the

thought leadership manifested through

creativity and innovation. The project should

lead to new knowledge creation and should

align with broader objectives of the institute.

It encourages evaluation/ reflection upon the

creative processes she has followed.

While the last point above represents a higher

order of inquiry usually expected in research,

its significance in design cannot be

understated if the designer is also to be viewed

as a ‘reflective practitioner’. The graduation

project reflects the student’s competence to

excel in their chosen profession. This project

orients the students to the needs and

demands of the industry; it also helps students

to make an informed decision about which

career path they would like to follow upon

graduation.

The graduation project facilitate application of

learning to current practices in the process of

creating new forms of products, processes,

services, and systems. The process involves

analysis and refinement of ideas of the student

in an iterative manner on the basis of critique.

Preface

A Tryst with timekeeping

The startpoint of this project is something

personal. I have perceived timekeeping as a

problem since time, I dont remember. I was

slow in almost everything I did from basic

activities like- walking, talking, bathing, eating,

reading, writing etc as a child. Though I

constantly got reminders to change it, it hardly

bothered me . It only struck to me as a problem

when I could not complete writing my exams in

the given time though I loved and enjoyed the

experience of writing the exam.

Thanks to one great teacher, I tackled this

problem. And tada, I was able to complete all

exams! She was a math teacher who focused

on speed. In her way of teaching she made her

students function from a state of urgency. Her

tactic was to set highly difficult to acheive

targets like finishing a 3 hour exam (a really

tough paper) in an hour and practicing 1000

integration sums in a month or two. She created

a sense of urgency in me which I probably had

never experienced before. I subconcsciously

found ways to get the maximum done with the

time I had. This helped me navigate through

the crucial years of school life relatively easily.

I did not realise when the skill of efficiently

dealing with time I had developed vanished.

The unease of timekeeping once again caught

up, when I started to pursue design education

for undergraduation. I do not know when and

how urgency created by deadlines and tasks

to be done made me feel timepressed and

became a reason for the mind to not

function impeding the creative work. This

battle against mind and time became habitual.

And the learned helplessness that came along

with it plagued me ever since. Struggle with

time keeping became a major contributor to

the generalised anxiety I experienced.

After graduation and during my time at NID, my

journey of self reflection and problem solving

from inside-out started. I reached out to

people to help me figure out this issue with

timekeeping. Many of them repeatedly told

that everyone has a pace that they are wired

to function with - which implied someone who

is slow is slow and all one can do is to find out

techniques that would help them work around

them. All of this still did not help me figure it

out.

So when I discovered the concept of

mindfulness, I decided to delve deep into

understanding both timekeeping and

mindfulness. And create something out of it.

The idea of mindful timekeeping

It was the book “The Science of Meditation” by

Daniel Goleman and Richard J Davidson that

introduced me to the concept of mindfulness. It

was introduced as a concept derived from

ancient buddhist meditation traditions that

finds application in psychotherapy as a

treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,

Chronic pain etc.

The book explains- “Mindfulness, part of an

ancient tradition, was not intented to be such

a cure; this method was only recently adapted

as a balm for our modern forms of angst. The

original aim embraced in some circles to this

day, focuses on a deep exploration of the mind

toward a profound alteration of our very being.

But the pragmatic application of meditation

appeal widely and do not go so deep.” It

explored and explained different levels of

application of the concept.

The concept of mindfulness and its

applications were so intriguing that I wanted to

explore possibilities of its application in

timekeeping.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops

- Henry Adams

Dedicated to all the great teachers who made a difference in my life.

mindful

timekeeping

Getting started with a brain dumping session

18

Nileena Rajan | Product Design | M.Des

1. Timekeeping &

products

A glance through the history and

evolution of timekeeping and

devices used.

Where are we today?

2. Mindfulness

Indepth understanding of

mindfulness

Scope of its application in

timekeeping

Primary Research

It was carried out in two phases.

Phase I

The first phase was carried forward for-

• Indepth understanding of mindfulness inorder

to explore the possibility of its application in

timekeeping

• Understand human behaviour- their

motivation, environment, problems, solutions,

ideas and perception with regards to timekeeping.

Phase II

The second phase focused on

• Validating the stated problem of distraction in

the digital age.

• Looking at existing products

Research

Direction

Setting a research direction

3. Science of timekeeping

Time keeping and body

Timekeeping and mind

Social timekeeping

Secondary Research

Throughout the course of the project, secondary

research was carried out. Numerous books, articles

and research papers were refered on time,

timekeeping and mindfulness. This was crucial

for indepth understanding. The wide knowledge

helped in validating conclusions derived from

primary research and was key to feel equipped to

conceptualise a mindful timekeeping device.

Immersive experience was a key part of research

through out the project.

National Institute of Design | Graduation Project | 2020

19

Contents

1. Timekeeping

2. Mindfulness

1.1 History of timekeeping 24

Timeline of timekeeping devices

1.2 Body Clock 28

Introduction

Three Basic Biological Rhythms

The Bunker Experiment

Circadian Rhythm Deviation

1.3 Time Perception 32

Introduction

Autonoetic Consciousness

A Psychological Perspective-

Time Perspective Theory

A Neuroscientific perspective of Time Perception

1.4 Social Time 36

Introduction

Importance of Group Timing

Conclusion

2.1 Mindfulness and the Mindfulness Movement 40

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness Movement

2.2 Understanding mindfulness through Vipassana 43

Introduction

Vipassana Research Institute & Academy

A Brief History of Vipassana

Vipassana Retreat

An Immersive Learning Experience

Personal Experience

Key takeaways from Vipassana Experience

2.3 Neuroscience of Mindfulness 48

An explanation of Mindfulness

A Conscious Brain

How does meditation work?

Benefits of Mindfulness

Conclusion

2.4 Distraction 52

20


3. An Investigation

3.1 Primary Research I 56

Documentation of the process

Unstructured Interview

Sample Interviews

Acknowledging the participants

Data consolidated in a tabulated format

Inferences

3.2 Primary Research II 66


Data consolidated in a tabulated format

Graphical representation of key insights

Inferences

3.3 Timekeeping at present 70

Introduction

4. Research Synthesis 83


5. Ideation 90

Ideation 1.0- Looking at possible products

Ideation 2.0- Finding the nuances

Ideation through journaling- An immersive process

6. Design Direction 108

7. Iteration and Detail Exploration 118

Conclusion

Acknowledgement

References

3.4 Future Consumer 2022 by WGSN 80


21

22

1

History


of timekeeping. How

did we get here? How do we go

ahead?

Mindfulness in timekeeping

urges us to look at time with

respect to our mind and body.

Timekeeping


23

1.1 History of time-keeping

For thousands of years, devices have been

used to measure and keep track of time. [1]

The sexagesimal system of measuring time

that we currently use dates back to

approximately 2000 BC from the Sumerians.

Sexagesimal also known as base 60 or

sexagenary is a numeral system with sixty as

its base. It originated with the ancient

Sumerians, was passed down to the ancient

Babylonians, and is still used in a modified

form—for measuring time, angles, and

geographic coordinates.

The Egyptians divided the day into two 12-hour

periods- duodecimal system and used large

Obelisks (tapering stone pillars), early form of

sun clock to track the movement of the sun.

Most historians credit them with being the first

civilization to divide the day into smaller part.

Sundials were other form of sunclock which

was widely used.

Egyptians also developed Water clocks,

and later was used outside Egypt as well; they

were employed frequently by Persians and the

Ancient Greeks, who called them

Clepsydrae. It was regarded as the most

accurate timekeeping device of the ancient

times.

The Song dynasty (imperial dynasty of China) is

believed to have used the Outflow

water clock around the same time, the

devices were introduced in Mesopotamia as

early as 2000 BC.

Other ancient timekeeping devices include

the Candle clock, used in ancient China,

ancient Japan, England and Mesopotamia; the

Timestick, widely used in Persia, India and

Tibet, as well as some parts of Europe; and the

Hourglass, which functioned similarly to a

water clock.

The earliest known clock was with a

water-powered escapement mechanism,

which transferred rotational energy into

intermittent motions, dates back to 3rd

century BC in ancient Greece.

Chinese engineers later invented clocks

incorporating mercury-powered

escapement mechanisms in the 10th

century, followed by Arabic engineers

inventing water clocks driven by gears and

weights in the 11th century.

24


First Mechanical clocks, employing the

verge escapement mechanism with a foliot or

balance wheel timekeeper, were invented in

Europe at around the start of the 14th century,

and became the standard timekeeping device

until the Pendulum clock was invented in

1656.

The invention of the mainspring in the early

15th century allowed Portable clocks to be

built, evolving into the first Pocketwatches

by the 17th century, but these were not very

accurate until the balance spring was added to

the balance wheel in the mid 17th century.

The pendulum clock remained the most

accurate timekeeper until the 1930s.

Quartz oscillators were invented in 1917

(during world war 1), which led to the making of

a clock with it in 1928. With accuracies of up to

1 second in 30 years (30 ms/y, or 10−7), quartz

clocks replaced precision pendulum clocks as

the world’s most accurate clock.

Atomic clocks were invented after World

War II in the 1950s to become the most

accurate timekeepers with accuracy upto

loosing a second in a million years.

Although initially limited to laboratories, the

development of Microelectronics in the

1960s made Quartz clocks both compact and

cheap to produce, and by the 1980s they

became the world’s dominant timekeeping

technology in both clocks and wristwatches.

Atomic clocks are far more accurate than any

previous timekeeping device, and are used to

calibrate other clocks and to calculate The

International Atomic Time;

a standardized civil system, Coordinated

Universal Time, is based on atomic time.

Fig 1.3 captures the historic evolution of the

timekeeping devices.

It was the human curiousity to tell time more

accurately that drove innovations in timetelling

devices till here. With the digital revolution it

is changing and there is possibility to evolve

more. Discussed further in

Chapter 3.3 ‘Where are we now?’


25

Timeline of

time-keeping

devices [3]

3500 BC 2000 BC 1500 BC 500-1000 1094 1300-1350

Sun clocks

Early Calender

Water clocks

Candle clocks

Water powered Mechanical clock

The ancient Egyptians The Sumerian people People in Egypt used In Asia and Europe,

clock

Mechanical clocks

used sun clocks to of Mesopotamia

water clocks. Water slow burning wax

The Chinese scientist, were invented in

tell the time. They did deviced a calender drips out of a small candles were used Su Song built a 40ft tall, Europe and used in

so by measuring the based on the cycles of hole in the bottom of a to tell the time, even water powered clock churches. They are

length of a shadow the Moon, which

conical container,

at night. The candles tower. It uses an

powered by a heavy

cast by Obelisks. Later divides the year into causing the water level burn at a steady rate ingenious series of weight and chain that

they were made

12 months . As a result, to drop Markers inside and are marked with gears to keep track is allowed to slowly

circular and were each month was either the container show evenly spaced lines to of not just the time fall, turning the clocks

called sundials. It was

widely used in other

29 or 30 days long, and

the year approximately

how much time has

passed. This

show how much time

has passed.

and date but also the

movements of the Sun,

gears as it does so.

cultures too.

354 days. Other early facilitated measuring

Moon and planets.

civilisations developed time at night.

similar calenders.

Fig 1.1 Timeline of historic evolution of timekeeping devices

26


1524 1657 1759 1847 1910 1980s

1950s

Pocket watch

Pendulum clock MarineChronometer Railroad time

Wrist watches

Quartz Clocks

Atomic clocks

German

clockmaker

Peter Henlein makes

mechanical clocks that

are small enough to fit

into pockets. They are

driven by a steel spring

that turns the clock’s

wheels as it unwinds.

Dutch scientist

Christiaan Huygens

designs the first clock

that makes use of the

regular sweep of a

pendulum

time. It made

to keep

timekeeping accurate

to within a few seconds

a day.

After 45 years work,

English

John Harrison

clockmaker

completed the marine

chronometer

pocket watch so

H4, a

accurate that sailors

can use it to calculate

how far east or west of

London the’ve sailed

by comparing local

noon time to London

time.

Railroad stations in

Britain

their clocks and

timetables with

synchronize

Greenwich Mean Time,

a standard set by the

Royal Observatory in

London. Before this

each town had kept its

own local time based

on sun.

The first wrist

watches were items of

jewellery-

decorative

bracelets incorporating

clocks. Pocket watches

on chains remain more

common until World

War I, when military

style wrist watches

became popular

First quartz clock was

invented in 1927 by

Warren Marrison and

J.W.Horton and quartz

watch in 1969 by

Seiko. With invention

of

microelectronics

in 1960s, clocks and

watches became

compact and easy to

produce. Leading to

mass consumption by

1980s.

Scientists

clocks that are

invented

regulated by the rapid

vibration of electrons

inside atoms. An

atomic clock loses a

second in a million

years. Most accurate

time telling devices.

Fig 1.1 Timeline of historic evolution of timekeeping devices


27

1.2 Body clock

Introduction

There is a complex system of timekeeping

within us. Chronobiology is a field of biology

that studies periodic/ cyclic phenomenon in

living organisms. [4] It is a field that has seen

significant development in the last 30 years.

Chronobiologists have extensively studied our

biological clocks and how our physiology

functions in sync with it.

External and internal clocks control our

physical, mental and emotional functions

without the need for our interference. But the

more we attune our lives to the rhythms , the

more benefits we can reap. This knowledge is

of even more importance for disease and

healing. [5]

Three Basic Biological Rhythms [5]

Infradian Rhythms

Rhythms that last more than 24 hours and

repeats every few days, months or once per

year is an Infradian Rhythm.

Eg: Menstrual cycle

Ultradian Rhythms

Rhythms that are shorter than 24hours. These

rhythms have multiple cycles in a day. They

regulate physical, emotional and spiritual

functions and often last over several hours.

Eg: ingestion of food, blood circulation,

secretion of hormones, different stages of

sleep, human performance curve.

Circadian Rhythm

These are rhythms that take approximately 24

hours. The key function of the circadian rhythm

is to regulate timely period of tiredness and

wakefulness .

This is extensively studied as its affect on

human beings are direct and immediate.

These rhythms are governed by internal

biological clocks. Every cell in our body own

these clocks that are programmed to turn on

and off thousands of genes. And these

system of internal clock is regulated by a group

of 20,000 neurons in the brain called

Suprachiasmatic nucleus. [6]

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus sits in the

hypothalamus- right above the optic chiasm

(where optic nerves from both eyes cross).

Therefore it takes in the light cues to entrain

our body to the environment. All the cues that

entrain the circadian rhythm are called

Zeitgeber. They are capable of drastically

altering the internal rhythms.

28


Fig 1.2 Basic body rhythm in a day. Image source: “The Circadian Code”


29

Almost all physiological parameters associated

with human beings are rhythmic. When these

rhythms are disturbed for as little as 2 days our

clocks cannot send right messages to genes,

disrupting the body and mind functions .[6] If this

continues for a few days, weeks or months, it

makes us prone to diseases.

The Bunker Experiment

Inorder to understand the presence of

biological clock, Chronobiologists conducted

experiments were participants lived in

complete isolation in bunkers- where all

possible external cues for circadian rhythm

were blocked. The physiological functions of

participants were constantly monitored during

this time.

One of the popular bunker experiment [7]

conducted in 1985 examined forty-two

volunteers who had been in isolation in

bunkers, devoid of any Zeitgebers for periods

between a week and a month. The findings

were that, majority of the participants believed

that the experiment lasted 20–40 percent less

time than it actually did. The sleep- wake cycle

continued to be 1:2 i.e., though the perceived

days at times were almost 1.5 times longer than

24 hour days, during the perceived duration

of a day, the participant spent 2/3 of the time

awake and 1/3 of the time asleep.

The behavioural time shifted drastically in

participants, but timing of physiological

functions though slightly longer remained

close to 24 hours, indicating the presence of an

internal clock regulating bodily functions even

in the complete absense of external cues.

Circadian Rhythm Deviation

Social Jetlag

According to Chronobiologists, social jetlag is

an important circadian marker for health

outcomes. This a phenomenon everyone is

prone to experience when they end up

sleeping late because of external factors. This

could be when a mother stays up late to nurse

her child or when someone stays up late with

exposure to screen-light (also termed

digital jetlag). Social jetlag causes poorer

health, worse mood, increased sleepiness and

fatigue. Sleep regularity plays a significant role

in wellbeing.

Chronotype

A chronotype is a behavioural manifestation of

underlying circadian rhythms. At times there

are deviations in the circadian rhythm of

individuals. Individuals tend to follow a

sleep- wake cycle late or early than the normal

circadian rhythm. It also tend to change with

age. The causes and regulation of circadian

rhythm is normally associated with geneenvironment

interaction with exception of the

most extreme and rigid chronotypes. [9]

30


Fig 1.3 Lifestyle disorders caused by erratic lifestyle, Image source: The Circadian Code


31

1.3 Time Perception

Introduction

The study of brain and behaviour associated

with time has been extremely challenging for

neuroscientists and psychologists, as neural

mechanisms underlying time perception is still

unclear. Having said that, it is a known

scientific fact that perception of time is

subjective and it changes from individual to

individual much like the colour of their eyes.

Even in an individual it varies with situation

they are in and how they experience it. [10]

Time perception is a field of study within

Psychology, Cognitive Linguistics and

Neuroscience that refers to subjective

experience or sense of time, which is

measured by someones own perception of

the duration of the indefinite and unfolding of

events. [11]

Psychologists and Neuroscientists suggest

that humans do have a system, or several

complementary systems, governing the

perception of time.

One clear finding that psychology has made

with respect to time is that, time is relative

psychologically just as it is physically. It is

relative for more personal reasons than those

explained by Physics. Multiple other factors

affect a person’s time perception- their age,

body temperature, emotional state, personal

time perspective, the pace of life of the

community in which they live etc. The

perception of time is a cognitive process and

is therefore subject to cognitive

illusions. Temporal illusion is a distortion in

the perception of time.

Eg: Judging time intervals , estimating time

duration etc are subject to distortion.

Underlying neurological conditions and

psychological disorder also alters an

individuals time perception.

Autonoetic Consciousness

Human beings do not perceive time in a linear

manner like we measure it. Our consciousness,

enables us to place an abstract self of us in an

abstract past or future. At any given point of

time, we can mentally time travel to past or

future rather than being completely in the

present reality. This is considered to be

important for formation of self identity. It

enables us to foresee the future but also might

cause rumination about the past and anxiety

about future. [12]

32


A psychological perspective-

A study by Psychologist Philip Zimbardo

Dr. Philip Zimbardo along with author John

Boyd, documented their study on time perspectives

in the book The Time Paradox. [13] The

most striking finding according to them was

that no two people’s attitude towards time are

identical. The survey sample included

thousands of people from America and Europe

from children to people of age 94.

Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (1997) [14]

is a tool (questionnaire) used to determine

underlying time perspectives that is influencing

a person’s life and decision making.

The Time Perspective Theory was formulated

after the study. It states, Time Perspective is

the partitioning of our personal ongoing

experiences into time frames, time zones and

temporal categories automatically and

subconsciously. These frames depend and

vary between people depending on their

personal life experience. The factors that

influence this are culture, geography, climate,

social classes, nations, religious beliefs,

education, economic and social stability. It

affects their actions, perception and emotion.

They become biased by learned overuse of

some frames and under use of others.

The study concludes that there are five key

time perspectives or attitudes towards time.

And each individual have in part all, with a few

of them predominant over the others.

The five time perspectives are:

1. Past positive time perspective

2. Past negative time perspective

3. Present hedonistic time perspective

4. Present fatalistic time perspective

5. Future time perspective

Negative past and Present fatalistic

perspectives are negative processes while the

others are positive processes. The key is to

develop a balanced time perspective by

minimising the use of negative processes

Table 1.1 shows the traits associated with each

of these perspectives.

Apart from the first five time perspectives, they

also identified Holistic Present, as a time

perspective that is associated with meditative

practices. It reflects neither the pleasure

seeking of present hedonism nor the

cynicism and resignation of present fatalism. It

is a healthy perspective to have. It was not

included in the inventory initially as the

associated traits were unclear. A research was

deviced in 2017 to develop a scale to further

study this time perspective. [15] The study

reiterates Holistic Present as Expanded

Present Time Perspective.

According to the psychologist, being conscious

about the frames of references are advantageous.

These time perspectives influence individuals

thoughts, feelings, and actions. Being

aware of it will enable people to get more out

of life and help in altering time perspectives

that are not useful. An ideal balanced time

perspective was defined to be moderately high

past positive time perspective with moderate

future and present hedonistic perspectives.

An independent study conducted in 2019, validates

the claim that higher levels of mindfulness

promotes a more balanced time perspective

with a reduced focus on negative aspects

of past and negative anticipation of future.


33

Table 1.1 Tabulated desired levels of each time perspective and expressed traits associated

34


A Neuroscientific perspective of

Time-Perception

A neuroscientific definition of time perception

is that , it is the sum of stimuli associated with

cognitive processes and environmental

changes. Thus the perception of time requires

a complex neural mechanism and may be

changed by emotional state, level of attention,

memory, diseases. Despite this knowledge,

associated neurological circuit is still not

completely understood. [17]

Frontal cortex

Basal Ganglia

Parietal Cortex

Almost the entire brain, as depicted in Fig.1.3

is found to be involved when it comes to time

perception. From the fronto-polar region of the

frontal lobe (which is the most frontal part of

the brain) playing a significant part in thinking

about the future, to Hippocampus seated at

the back of the brain, responsible for long term

memory playing its part in thinking about the

past. It is the pathways in the midbrain that is

associated with present. Cerebellum plays a

crucial role in timing and synchronising.

Cerebellum

Hippocampus

Fig 1.4 :Cortical and subcortical areas involved in the time perception cerebral mechanisms.


35

1.4 Social Time

“Viewing the world from a future time perspective may

lead you to be “on time”, while viewing the world from a

present perspective may lead you to be “late”. Objectively,

there is no difference in validity between the two

perspectives. But in the subjective, social world we live in,

perspective makes a difference. Society deems one

perspective “right” and dismisses the other.”

- Philip Zimbardo, An excerpt from

Time Paradox

Social time concerning to an individual is

1. The standard time and timing followed by

the society - a social contract.

2. Adhering and being in sync with this

group- which includes their family, friends,

co-workers, peers is crucial for better

wellbeing and management of interpersonal

relationships.

For the longest time we have placed utmost

value to social aspect of timekeeping over the

others. This is probably what encouraged us to

care less about our body and mind time. Also,

chronobiology and time perception are fairly

nascent fields of study.

The way our society has evolved, with mindless

systems in place, it at times tend to promote

unhealthy lifestyles which are detrimental for

the bodily rhythms and which each individual

with their unique sense of time struggle to keep

up with. Social timekeeping standards fail to

be universal when it comes to accomodating

individuals who perceive time differently.

The standardisation of time was initially

introduced in 1847 as Railroad time in Britain

to synchronise the time between local towns,

mainly to prevent accidents.

Later the system facilitated mass production

during the industrial revolution. Until the

beginning of industrial revolution, perception

of time was said to be rough and hazy. People

began to behave and organise themselves in a

new way, adapting to standardised time. This

was highly beneficial in those times. [18]

The Prussian education system propagated

the construct of social time further through

schooling.

36


Social standardising and abiding to time played

a major role in shaping the world we live in

today. Adhering to group standards of time is

still relevant for balancing an individual’s

relationship with their people and society. But

how important it is when compared to the

mind- body time of an individual needs

evaluation. This will vary from person to

person.

Importance of Group Timing

Author Daniel H. Pink in his book When [19] ,

states three important principles of Group

timing-

External Standard- The external standard or

demand helps set a pace.

postive experience. It contributes significantly

to a sense of wellbeing. Not being in sync with

the social standards can cause further unease

in navigating through time.

Conclusion

All the aspects discussed in the chapter

namely bodily rhythms, time perception and

social time are all important when it comes to

timekeeping.

An individual should be equipped to be mindful

about all these aspects and then assign value

and prioritise allocating attention to where

ever necessary to develop a balanced and holistic

timekeeping approach.

Sense of Belonging- Every individual has an

innate need to belong. Abiding to the

standards help create a feeling of belonging

Synchronisation- Adhering requires

synchronising to external standards. This

requires and enhances wellbeing (it is a loop).

Traditionally, as a society we exhibit a learned

behaviour of giving importance to social time

over other aspects. This approach needs

rethinking and as a society we have to strive

towards accomodating differences in

individual timekeeping and be aware of

factors causing the same.

Being in synchrony with the social standards

and expectations with respect to time is a very


37

Mindfulness, its

widespread application

Understanding mindfulness

through Vipassana

Mindfulness- A Neuroscientific

Perspective

2Mindfulness

38



39

2.1 Mindfulness and mindfulness movement

What is mindfulness? [20]

In simple words, mindfulness means bringing

awareness to the present. By definition,

Mindfulness is the psychological process of

bringing one’s attention to experiences

occurring in the present moment, which one

can develop through the practice of

meditation and through other training.

Mindfulness is derived from Sati, a pali word

that loosely translates to awareness, a

significant element of Buddhist traditions,

based on Zen, Vipassana and Tibetan

Meditation techniques.

This now finds widespread application in

Clinical psychology and psychiatry. It has been

employed to reduce symptoms of depression,

reduce stress, anxiety and addiction. It appears

to provide therapeutic benefits to people with

psychiatric disorders. It helps reduce

rumination and worry, which is proven to be

the root cause of various mental disorders.

Mindfulness based programs have been

adopted in schools, prisons, hospitals,

veteran’s centers etc to improve mental health/

for a healthy mind. It has also been applied for

outcomes such as for healthy aging, weight

management, athletic performance, helping

children with special needs. Clinical studies

have documented both physical and mental

health benefits of mindfulness in healthy adults

and children as well.

Mindfulness Movement

In the west, mindfulness gained popularity

(probably much more than what we see in the

East) with what could be called a mindfulness

movement. Several factors contributed to this

acceptance. This included setting up of Insight

Meditation Society in 1975 [21] and application of

mindfulness in developing Mindfulness Based

Stress Reduction Technique by psychologist

John Kabat Zinn (1979) which was well

received by the medical community. The

scientific articles supporting the meditation

techniques also started getting published in

1970s. This movement is what encouraged

tweaking the concept to more palatable widely

accepted formats.

Today, there are popular meditation apps like

Headspace, Calm etc that are based on

mindfulness techniques. Multitude of products

try to apply the concept. Plenty of self-help

books are written on it. And there are many

more formats of psychotherapy based on it.

40


As early as 1830s, saw the import of Eastern

philosophies to America. It was early American

Transcendentalists who translated Asian

spiritual texts to English. But the practices

reached the west only a few decades ago

when teachers went to the West and

Westerners travelled to the East for teaching

and learning the practices respectively. On

learning about the benefits, it started getting

researched and organised in the 1970s. [22]

According to psychologist and science

journalist, Daniel Golemann mindfulness can

be applied at varied levels as illustrated in

Figure 2.1: At the hightest level is the original

technique, as followed by a Buddhist monk.

And at the bottom levels is the more watered

down applications in new contexts. He

stresses on the importance of applications at

various levels so that masses could reap

maximum benefits of this ancient wisdom.

Fig 2.1 Different levels of application of mindfulness as explained by Daniel Golemann in the book “The science of Meditation”.


41

Fig.2.2 Pagoda at Dhammagiri , Igatpuri

42


2.2 Understanding mindfulness through Vipassana

A need of indepth understanding of

mindfulness called for the study of Vipassana

meditation . Vipassana meditation has been a

core contributer to the mindfulness movement.

Today, through the mindfulness movement its

practices and principles find widespread

application. An accessible way to learn

mindfulness is to take a vipassana course. It is

taught around the world and mainly in India by

Vipassana International Academy established

by Shri. S.N. Goenka.

According to Vipassana Research Institute,

Vipassana means “to see things as they really

are”. It is a logical process of mental

purification through self-observation. [23]

Vipassana enables us to experience peace

and harmony by purifying the mind, freeing it

from suffering and the deep-seated causes of

suffering.

Vipassana Research Institute and

Vipassana International Academy

Courses of Vipassana meditation started in

India in 1969. The Vipassana International

Academy is situated in Igatpuri, Maharashtra.

It was established in 1976. Vipassana Research

Institute (VRI), a non-profit-making body, was

established in 1985 with the principal aim of

conducting scientific research into the sources

and applications of the Vipassana Meditation

Technique.

A Brief History of Vipassana [24]

Vipassana is one of India’s ancient meditation

techniques. It was knowlegde imparted by

Gautam Buddha, and is the essence of what

he practiced and taught. During the Buddha’s

time, it was largely practiced in Northern India.

Over time, the technique spread to the

neighbouring countries of Myanmar (Burma),

Sri Lanka, Thailand and others, where it had

the same effect. This happened with

Emperor Asoka’s intervention, when he

discovered the teachings of Buddha after the

Kalinga war. Five centuries after the Buddha,

the heritage of Vipassana disappeared from

India.

In the country of Myanmar, however, it was

preserved by a chain of devoted teachers.

From generation to generation, over two

thousand years, this dedicated lineage

transmitted the technique.

Vipassana has been reintroduced to India, as

well as to citizens from more than eighty other

countries, by Mr. S. N. Goenka, founder of

Vipassana International Academy and


43

Research Institute who popularised

Vipassana in India again. He was authorized

to teach Vipassana by the Burmese Vipassana

teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin .

Vipassana Retreat [25]

Basic Vipassana courses are 10 days long. The

course instructs the students to maintain noble

silence for the 10 days. On doing that, one is

left with themselves and their mind. It is

necessary to take a ten-day residential course

under the guidance of a qualified teacher.

The next step is to develop some mastery

over the mind by learning to fix one’s attention

on the natural flow of breath as it enters and

leaves the nostrils. This is a form of meditation

and is named Anapana Sati.

By the fourth day, the mind is calmer and more

focused, this is when the Vipassana

meditation is taught, which is : observing

sensations throughout the body,

understanding their nature, and developing

equanimity by learning not to react to them.

The courses are conducted at established

Vipassana Centres. For the duration of the

retreat, students remain within the course site

having no contact with the outer world. They

refrain from reading and writing, and suspend

all religious practices or other disciplines.

During the course, participants follow a

prescribed Code of Discipline. While

observing noble silence they are not

communicating with fellow students; however,

they are free to discuss meditation questions

with the teacher and material problems with

the management.

Fig2.3 Body scanning to observe the sensations in body. Body

sensations depend on our state of mind, environment , what

it consumes at any given point of time. And it is constantly

changing. Vipassana meditation involves focusing our mind

on body scanning.

There are four steps to the training.

The first step , for the period of the course, is to

follow the provided code of conduct. The

simple code of moral conduct serves to calm

the mind, which otherwise would be too

agitated to perform the task of self-observation

Finally, on the last day, participants learn the

meditation of loving kindness or goodwill

towards all, in which the purity developed

during the course is shared with all beings.

The entire practice is a mental training. Just as

physical exercises improve our bodily health

and strength, Vipassana can help us keep our

minds healthy

44


An immersive learning experience

It was in February of 2018 that I took my first

course of Vipassana. Though I was intrigued by

the idea of a 10 day retreat where one should

not talk and have to meditate the whole day, I

was initially unaware of how it exactly is. Not

knowing anything about the centers in India,

I did not see me going to one. Coincidently a

friend found centers near Ahmedabad around

the same time and both of us ended up enrolling

for a course. When allotment came, one of

us was given a different center as the center

we applied was full (in hindsight, both of us are

glad this happend). With the minimum I knew,

not talking for 10 days and waking up at four in

the morning felt like the most difficult bit.

My course was at Dhamma Pitha, a center

at Ranoda, in the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Around 100 people had enrolled for this course

of which 40 were women. It was interesting to

meet a lot of millenials in the crowd. Each of us

were alloted individual or twin sharing rooms,

which were well maintained. I shared the room

with a lady who was in her 50s. As the days

passed, I was grateful for her presence.

Daily routine

At the retreat, days started at 4am and ended

by 9.30 pm.

4:00am: Wake-up Bell

4:30am — 6:30am: Meditate

6:30am — 8:00am: Breakfast

8:00am — 11:00am: Meditate

11:00am — 1:00pm: Lunch

1:00pm — 5:00pm: Meditate

5:00pm — 6:00pm: Tea


7:00pm — 8:15pm: Lecture


10:00pm: Lights Out

It was around 10 hours of sitting meditation

each day. From forth day along with

Vipassana, 3 hours of meditation included

practicing “Athitana” or strong determination

(8am — 9am, 2:30pm — 3:30pm, and

6pm — 7pm), where we pledge to not move

even if we feel like, was practiced.

Meditation practice schedule

Day 1-3 - Anapana Meditation(focus on breathe)

Day 4-9- Vipassana Meditation (body scanning)

combined with Anapana when needed.

Day 10- Metta Bhavana ( Loving Kindness)

Though the task during meditation is to notice

the breath for the first 3 days and body

sensations (vipassana meditation technique)

from the fourth till the last day, mind continues

to focus on thoughts, inevitably. As nearly no

socialising is involved, our mind wanders even

more.

The course instructs not to react to or get

consumed by the thoughts and feelings that

are bound to arise during the meditation.

Instead it urges to observe them as it is and

understand that they are passing by and would

not last long. On reacting with aversion or

craving, we create attachment, which causes

suffering or a struggle in the mind. Following

the instructions completely was

impossible as the mind continues to engage

with the thoughts.

Personal experience:

10 days felt like an intense psychoanalytic

psychotherapy session where the mind walked

through the entire life story rich in all emotions.

A very novel experience! It was something

unforseen when I decided to take up this

course.


45

Being a anxious person, fear was a

predominant emotion. I experienced paranoia

twice, like never before! Its funny now, but I

could not sleep an entire night as I

experienced heightened fear of snakes. It was

accompanied by flashes of visuals of snake

everytime I closed my eye along with creepy

crawly feeling. I had to check my bedding

in between to make sure that there were no

snakes. Never in my life I had experience such

paranoia. And at this point, I felt like leaving the

course.

Next morning, though I thought I wont be able

to go and sit for the meditation at 4.30am, to my

surprise, I did! Never in my life had I bounced

back this fast.

I cried through the sitting initially, followed by

feeling drained, but by the end of the day I was

over the experience. And that chapter was

closed with talking to the teacher, she gave

me the reassurance that it is nothing to worry

about. The set up doesnt encourage speaking

much as it encourages sitting with every

emotion that you experience, experiencing it

fully and eventually let it pass.

The very first time I tried Vipassana, on the

fourth day of the first retreat, it felt like a panic

attack- stiff and hurting arms with few

shooting pains and trembling sensations at

different points. This made me feel that may be

I’m not fit to practice the technique. To which

the teachers said, “Such sensations are always

present in our body and they are constantly in

flux, we are rarely sensitive enough to be able

to observe them. Previously you observed it

like a patient. On practicing vipassana one

develops the faculty to observe these

sensations all the time non-judgementally.”

This gave me a new perspective to look at

experiences of panic attack.

Finding conviction

Importance of trusting in one’s beliefs was an

important lesson imparted by a teacher at NID.

It did not make so much sense until the

Vipassana experience. I’ve tried to find ways to

deal with it in the past with the help of

various mental health interventions. All of it

helped in mitigation but either I did not believe

completely in its benefits or at some point my

anxiety regarding it made me stop completely

believing it. My first vipassana experience

imparted a sense of trust and hope like never

before. It also made me realise trust in

something makes it work better.

Aftermath

I continued practicing as advised for two years.

This was an easy habit to inculcate as there

were friends around who practiced as well. I

took up the course again after seven months.

It was easier to listen to instruction better this

time as I was not overwhelmed like the last

time. Regular practice of vipassana, made me

calm, complacent and hopeful and kept

anxiety at bay to a great extend.

The other side

There is a lot of naysaying when it comes to

vipassana and mindfulness. From calling

vipassana a cult to scrutinizing mindfulness

movement for being a 4 billion dollar industry.

Thus it felt important to document a personal

account.

Vipassana is probably a practical version of

self help. Basic discourse overlaps what we

can read in many self help books, and

probably it is what is universally preached.

46


Key takeaways

from Vipassana

experience

A retreat is an extrinsic motivator for

resetting lifestyle

Vipassana course acts as the much needed

extrinsic motivation to structure a healthy

lifestyle. During a 10 day course, one has to

strictly wake up at 4.00am every morning, eat

clean and less at set windows of time and

follow a very structured routine. The effects of

this lasts for a few months and with some care

can be sustained for longer.

Meditation acts as a keystone habit*

It brings structure to each day and has an

impact on other activities in the course of a

day.

Body scanning is an exercise for mind

Our mind has the habit of constantly engaging

with fleeting thoughts and reacting to them by

generating emotion. This habit can put us in

emotionally difficult places at times.

Therefore body scanning meditation is an

exercise in which you train your mind to divert

the focus from thoughts in your mind to

sensations in your body. This also aids in

consciously training allocation of attention.

Vipassana also trains to catch distraction.

Importance of present

Present moment is an outcome of interaction

of :

Body- the sensations experienced by it, the

effect it has on our mind

Mind- the thoughts in the mind, emotions that

arise with it, the effect it has on the body (our

thoughts/emotions trigger an associated

sensation in the body).

Environment- Our physical and social

environment.

Consumption- Everything from the air we

breathe, the food we eat and everything our

senses consume.

Paying conscious attention to each of these

factors influencing the present is beneficial for

holistic understanding of an individuals being .

Practicing equanimity

According to the discourse, ‘if you crave for

positive experience/feeling/emotion, one

is bound to suffer while facing a negative

experience/feeling/ emotion’. What you feel

is fleeting, therefore its important to train the

mind to develop the faculty to be equanimous

and observe the experience/ emotion without

being reactive to it.

* Keystone habit is a term coined by author Charles Duhigg, in his book Power of Habits. It is defined as small changes or habits that people introduce to their

routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives. Eg: Exercise, sleep, prayer, making a donation etc.


47

2.3 Neuroscience of Mindfulness

An explanation of mindfulness [26]

Mindfulness, derived from meditation, is an

activity to

• Control attention

• Regulate emotion

• Train self-awareness

Attention:

Attention is the ability to focus on one single

input. It requires an object to pay attention to.

During meditation, object of attention is

attention itself. Concentration is prolonged/

sustained state of attention.

Emotions:

Brain takes inputs in the form of internal and

external stimuli, process it and generate

output. Emotions are the by product of this

processing. Its function is to give purpose and

act as a drive for biological functions. One

external

stimuli

internal

stimuli

Fig 2.4 The outer part of all cortical regions attend to external

stimuli, received through the five senses. While internal

parts of all cortical regions attend to internal stimuli received

through the autonomic nervous system. Midbrain is

responsible for balancing both. Cingulate cortex, chooses

what to respond to.

cannot choose to control emotions (unlike

attention) but can develop the faculty to

regulate them.

Regulating emotions, gradually help regulate

stress and anxiety.

Self awareness:

Majority of the time, our attention is diverted

to the outside world. Bringing attention to the

internal stimuli calls for the need of developing

self-awareness. Interoception is being

attentive to internal stimuli. It includes the

perception of physical sensations related to

internal organ function such as heart beat,

respiration as well as the autonomic nervous

system activity related to emotions. This is a

function, only human beings are capable of

engaging in. Self awareness like

neuro-plasticity, helps in forming new neural

pathways that help control attention.

48


A Conscious Brain

Consciousness is a spectrum. When we speak

of a conscious mind, it can be anywhere on the

spectrum as illustrated in Fig 2.5.

It is important to train our consciousness as

that is what will help us be attentive and

sustain our attention. Brain is otherwise prone

to distraction and habituation.

Awake: A function of Reticular Activating

System (RAS) by secretion of nor-epinephrine.

Aware: A function of Thalamus. Thalamus is

always aware of all the inputs.

Function : Sense stimuli > Process > Respond

With meditation and mindfulness we intent to

attain higher levels of consciousness. While

meditation is a well establised method for

training consciousness, mindfulness is

application of the technique in more adaptable

formats.

FC

ACC

thalamus

Alert: Intermediate state between awareness

and being attentive.Thalamus acts like a

security guard to executive functions. It

selectively sends inputs to the conscious mind

making it alert.

Sense >Process>Respond> Select one stimuli

Research on meditation suggests,

interoception is crucial for training mindfulness

as it gives our conscious self access to the

autonomic nervous system. [27]

RAS

Attentive: A function of Frontal Cortex(FC).

Choose to pay attention to the one stimuli

when alerted by the thalamus.

When moderately high consciousness is

sufficient to regulate positive emotions, it takes

higher levels of consciousness to regulate

negative emotions. [28]

Fig 2.5 Levels of a conscious mind

Concentrated: Prolonged or sustained

attention. A function of Angular Cingulate

Cortex.

Vigilant: Heightened state of concentration

on multiple stimuli.


49

How does meditation work?

Meditation is controlling attention to

eventually have better control of one’s

consciousness.

Seat of

Conscious

Self

It aids voluntarily changing our level of

consciousness. All functions in the brain

happen simultaneously as multiple involuntary

loops controlled by the autonomic nervous

system which the conscious self is unaware

of.

Meditation initially helps in gaining access to

these involuntary functions, then later gain

control of them gradually. Increasing levels of

voluntary consciousness helps in being aware

and then be in control of the involuntary loops

in the brain.

Fig 2.6 Gradually increasing consciousness by gaining access to parts of brain

that otherwise our conscious self do not have access to

When some amount of consciousness, help us

control attention and regulate emotion, with

higher levels of consciousness, one can

control core body functions. For example,

some monks are said to have developed the

faculty to regulate body temperature and heart

rate. Benefits of meditation are huge and is

constantly being discovered.

50


Benefits of mindfulness

Certain parts of brain seemed to be enlarged in

meditators [29]

The insula: Part of the brain that help in

interoception and emotional awareness.

Somatomotor areas: cortical hub for bodily

awareness.

Parts of PFC: that operate in paying attention.

Anterior Cingulate cortex and

Orbito frontal cortex: Key for self regulation.

Amygdala was found to be less reactive and

greater working connection between the

amygdala and the regulatory circuits in the

PFC are found in long term meditators.

Conclusion

Practising mindfulness in the form of

meditation can have huge benefits. The same

can also be beneficial when adopted into life

in subtle manners. Activities like engaging

attention and interoception can be

encouraged via means other than meditation

with an intent to gradually increase the

consciousness.

Well-being has been found to be elevated

when individuals are better able to sustain

positive emotion and recover more quickly

from negative experiences. This is facilitated

by mindfulness. Over time practice of

mindfulness help in experiencing emotions

being equanimous.


51

2.4 Distraction

Time management is pain management

- Nir Eyal , “Indistractable”

Distraction is a problem widely written about.

And has been a starting point for this project.

There are a number of books on how to fight

it and manage time better. Distraction caused

by screens were much spoken about that big

tech companies like Apple, Google and

Facebook took action to empower users to

combat it.

Surprisingly it failed to come across as a

problem during Primary research phase I.

Therefore Primary research phase II focused

completely on it (further discussed in

Chapter 3). Secondary research helped in

making sense of the findings.

Why is distraction a problem?

Distraction costs time. It is a culprit, when we

fail to achieve the goals we set for ourselves.

It triggers negative emotions like guilt and

regret. The more planned we are, the more

annoying the distractions become. The more

away we are from our goals all the more negative

we feel and the more we hold distraction

a culprit.

Is distraction really a problem?

Distraction is something we all experience.

Specially in today’s age, when we live in a digital

world, where there is a lot happening and

everything is fighting for our attention. It has

become increasingly difficult to allocate attention

to one particular thing. Therefore we stay

distracted.

Attention economy

Digital world considers human attention as a

scarce resource. Therefore for businesses to

thrive, they offer well designed ever evolving

products and services trying to gain and retain

maximum attention from people. In this process,

it has commoditized our time and turned

us into products to be bought and sold. [30]

52


Why does this happen?

There is no evolutionary advantage in staying

focused. Our ancestors had to watch out to

catch movement and changes in environment

to make sure they are safe. This involved being

aware of the surrounding as a whole and

not focusing on any one thing in particular.

Therefore our mind is predisposed to be

distracted. On prolonged exposure to one

stimulus, brain gets habituated and stops

paying attention to it. Thus, Attention and

focus has to be trained. It is not an easy task

because of the gap between our conscious

self and the limbic system.

According to neuroscience [31] ,

Our brains are wired with

- Movement bias (this has to be because, our

ancestors- hunter gatherers had to pay

attention to movement as that was the cue for

probable danger)

- Novelty bias (may be as we are averse to

boredom, something novel or new, catches

our attention.)

Our brain tend to prioritise allocating attention

to anything that is moving or something that

is new. Constantly evolving social media feed

and content in digital space, therefore has our

attention most often in a subconscious

manner.

Importance of distraction.

In our idea of discipline we tend to build walls

in our mind to prevent chaos. When we are

distracted, we are in a mentally chaotic space.

Thoughts and ideas that previously seemed

disconnected connects and create room for

creativity. Not being too focused aids to be

creative. Too much focus on a something

makes us unsee other possibility.

Distraction when seen through a negative

frame of reference, makes us feel regretful and

guilty. It is of no much harm, when we view it

with equanimity, accept it and manage it

considering it an integral part of being human.

Developing the faculty to pay attention and

sustain it, will help in better distraction

management.

Conclusion

In the age of digital revolution, Mindfulness

is an antidote to distraction. By training our

mind to be conscious of our internal triggers

and viewing it being equanimous will help us

manage the internal triggers better. Training

out attention will empower us to allocate less

attention to distractions.


53

What are the problems people

face when it comes to

time keeping?

Is distraction really a problem?

What are the products the market

offers for time keeping today?

3Investigation

54



55

3. 1 Primary Research I

This is the first step, that followed the project

proposal.

The first phase of research was kept open to

anyone who was willing to participate. It

involved semi- structured interview,

conversations and discussions. This was done

to understand different problems faced by

people in the activity of navigating through

time, the solutions they found, methods

followed, tools used and their opinions. It also

intended to see how conscious participants

are regarding time keeping. That is, to see how

well aware and thoughtful they are about the

time they spend.

Participants who volunteered to take part in

conversations and discussions ranged from

age 18- 35 years.

This phase was interesting as it involved lots of

conversation. Though there were

questions to direct the flow of the

conversations, it mostly ended up being open

and free ponderings with multiple participants

pitching in. An anticipated problem that was

expected to come up during the research was

distractions in this digital era. But that did not

happen often. People mostly spoke about the

problems that arose because of differences in

how people kept time.

Another tool used was “A day in life board”

where participant depicted how a typical day

in their life is, through images. These gave

interesting insights about how people

perceive time and how they spend time. It

had cues with which their aspirations could be

speculated. For instance, It had indicators that

showed the ease with which they navigated

through time- do they see time in a negative or

positive perspective? Do they prefer or lead a

balanced lifestyle or enjoy hustling etc.

Knowing the participants personally, helped

when it came to decoding A day in life boards.

This chapter includes a few of the sample

interviews, samples of day boards, tabulated

data from the complete research. Inferences

made after analysing the collected data.

56


Unstructured

Interview

• How does a typical day in your life look like?

(inorder to understand nature of work,

lifestyle, people and environment associated

with the person)

• Activities and daily schedule. How is it

designed? Zeitgebers or factors that influence

your decision making?

• Main priorities and how is the day divided

(time slotted) accordingly?

Time balance

• How balanced are the following

1) Work time

2) Family time

3) time for self

4) Time to socialise

5) Time spend online

6) Screen time (phone laptop)

• Areas you would like to have a balance and

how?

Personality and time

• Are you a planner ? Yes ( ) No ( )

• If yes, How good are you at estimating,

planning and executing?

• Do you like structure? ( Structure dictating

how you spend your time)

• How have you evolved as a time keeper?

(stories from childhood till now)

• How good are you at keeping up with the

set standards of time keeping.

( Its hard on me—————————I’m pretty

much at sync)

• Does timekeeping cause stress? Is the

amount of things you have to get done,

overwhelming you?

Products used

• Products and aids prefered for time keeping

Watch (analog/ digital/ smart)

Phone (stopped using watch?)

Keep it manual ( to-do-list/ time tables)

Apps used


57

Krishna Maniyadath

26

Research Scholar

Interview Sample- 1

A lifestyle in sync with the

circardian rhythm is healthier.

Timing is everything .

Background:

Babu Krishna Maniyadath is a Research Scholar, PhD

in Molecular Biology in the Department of Biological

Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,

Mumbai. Currently working on identifiying the

mechanism that drives the feed- fast transition in the

liver.

A trained and practising painter, drummer and

basketball player. And given a chance sings and

dances.

At school did exceptionally well academically, in co

curricular activities and in leadership roles.

Discipline and systematic approach to time keeping

was not a part of her childhood. It developed with

her professional demand.

A typical day in life

Work time: 9.30 - 8 (mostly extend by 2hrs)

How structured is it: Personal work is quite

structered. Being a molecular biologist demands

a lot of discipline. Keeping time is extremely

important in the experiments. For instance a cell

culture needs to be looked after, every 12 hours. A

well looked after cell culture yield accurate results.

The minimum infrastructure provided in the lab

demands efficient coordination among the

labmates. Apparatuses are made available in

timeslots. This needs consideration during the

planning of experiments.

Experiments for a day are planned ahead. Mostly 3.

And it is important to finish the planned experiments

the same day. Unscheduled meetings and group

engagements creep in extending the worktime to

late nights.

Nature of work: Lab work- experiments, data

assimilation, lots of reading, paper writing

Work life balance: Gets free time during the

incubation periods during experiments. Most of

the socialising and fun happen then. Singing,

dancing and eating together. Its mostly at night, the

time is take out to reach out to family and friends

away from work.

Screen time: Screen time creeps in during

incubation periods, mostly in the form of instagram

and facebook. Also play the brain games then. And

once its done and when there is time left, will read. It

stops with the end of incubation period. Thus

distractions does’nt really affect work.

On Circadian rhythm:

Working in a lab that studies lifestyle diseases have

had a great impact on the lifestyle. Personal work of

research on fast-fed cycle and liver function has

helped in changing the diet patterns and has made

her follow time restricted feeding which

according to her helped improve her

wellbeing. She says “Timing is everything” A

fellow researcher who studied the circadian rhythm

and its effect on feeding cycle, started following

intermittant fasting which gave him healthy results.

Her research made her conscious- Being in tune

with the circardian rhythm when it comes to

eating and sleeping will contribute to a healthy

life.

Pain point: External demands interfering personal

work, making work days long

A day in

Krishna Maniyadath’s

life (in 2018)

58


Maitreyi Nandhakumar

27

Psychologist turned

educator

Interview Sample- 2

Learning to experience time as

a luxury and not a scarcity.

Background:

Maitreyi pursued her postgraduate degree in

Psychology from Ambedkar University, Delhi. After

a short stint as an Event Associate with Little Black

Book, she joined Vasant Valley School (Delhi) as a

Special Educator. Here, she spent her time creating

Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) for children

with autism and Down syndrome. Being

interested in alternative education, she has

volunteered at organizations such as SECMOL in

Ladakh and Marpha Foundation in Nepal, where she

employed activity based learning in the classroom. A

trained Bharatnatyam dancer, she is keen to explore

different mediums of teaching. In her free time, she

loves to travel, read and bake.

A typical day in life:

9-30-7 work day. Flexible by an hour.

Wakes up at 8. Keeps an alarm from 7.30.

Get ready

Makes breakfast.

Reach office by 9.30-10am. Leaves home by

9.20-9.45.

All the work is self directed at the organisation. So

maintain a to-do-list. Start of work, devote first

10 minutes for making the to do list. A habit she

developed during the past few years.

Once done with the work for the day by 6.30-7.30,

she cycles back home, and retires by cooking,

talking to family and friends and watching

something on netflix.

Used Noteplan initially. But find making to do

lists in paper and striking off things makes her

feel good. Though the srtiking off feature was there

in noteplan, it did not give the same satisfaction. The

pending things go to the next day list.

Used to plan exercises before but not anymore. Write

things that she tend to forget but want to remember.

Things pending in the to do list for long, is a sword

hanging on the head but which she doesnt bother

much about now, gradually. But this gets done with

last minute panic.

When stressed, she finds herself decluttering her

space so that makes her feel a sense of control.

Balance in life: Never satisfied. But now accept the

process. Feel more in control of life. As there is

autonomy of time. Run away when overworked. As

it is a fellowship , no much coordination within group

needs to be done. Coworkers are cooperative. There

are unexpected work that pop up occasionally at

wrong time that is frustrating.

Process of completion of task:

Start immediately

take a break in between

work in the middle.

Day before deadline go mad. 60% work done is

done when, last minute panic strikes and then works

for her. But becomes highly self critical.

Then work the best on last day. A sense of

disatisfaction strikes on the last day.

An anxious person as she is self critical. As a kid, a

benchmark was set by the peer environment ,

became anxious in the process of trying to meet the

benchmark.

Get time to sit back and reflect on the days work.

Considers this a luxury of time she experience

now, which was absent in the past. This has really

helped her. Sometimes she wishes to have

someone at work, to tell her what to do as she

always had somebody do that for her previously.

Transition:

Previously worked as a Special educator at

Vasant Valley. There her days were automatically

planned for her. Once she started her fellowship

at Shaishav, it was self directed and it took her time

to adapt.

Initially during the fellowship, she struggled with

the autonomy and lack of a set structure. She

believes the 10 months of fellowship will help a great

deal in life ahead.

Pain point: Need for extrinsic motivators.

Autonomy makes her anxious.


59

What is measurable is

manageable.

Mohsin Khan works in the social sector. He is

currently the head of Dr. Mohan Sinha Mehta

Memorial Trust, Udaipur. An organisation working for

Societal and economic developement.

An avid user of smart products.

Mohsin Khan

35

Social Worker

Interview Sample- 3

Mohsin uses an MI smart watch. He feels having

notifications on his wrist helps in keeping his

phone away. It helps him not to worry about missing

out on something. Used to use an app to monitor

how many hours he spent on each app. A person

concerned about privacy in the age of hyper connectivity

so dont use any social media platform other

than twitter.

He believes what is measurable is managable. So

likes monitoring how he spents time.

Typical day in his life

Sleep: Smart watch monitors his sleep. He

sleeps at 10pm and wakes up by 5.30-6.00. He is

aware he is an early sleeper and riser according to

the statistics provided by MI. A comparative

analysis of people using the product in the same

area and age group. It was gratifying and fascinating

information to him. Monitored constantly initially,

but once he got used to it, lost interest eventually

and checked less frequently.

Wake up at 6. Go for a walk( when lazy skip the walk

and youtube).

Cook and have breakfast.

Work time: 10 AM to 5 p.m. at office.

Nature of work: It is mostly relaxed. As the CEO, he

experiences autonomy in working. Sunday,

monday, tuesdays read whole day, on something

that interests him. Which will be discussed on fridays

with 90 members of all the umbrella organisations.

This is the part he enjoys the most. A bit difficult

part is managing the co-workers.

Screentime: Check Twitter and world news in the

morning.He allows himself 45 minutes to 1 hour of

youtube at office. When boredom strikes.

Goes for a walk post work. So that he meets the set

target for the day. Uses smartwatch for tracking.

Makes it a shared goal with the person he walks with.

When lazy, exercise is taken over by some screen

time.

Gets a lot of time to self as he lives alone and is

not overloaded with work. Therefore choose to the

lead a structured and organised life.

Likes to be punctual as he believes that it helps him

to be efficient. Sundays he chooses not to be

structured. Expects punctuality from others too.

Dealing with a task in hand:

Suppose there is a week long project:

Starts immediately

followed by a lag because of laziness.

Work hard on day 5

Try to finish by day 6

Day 7 is for reviewing the work done

Problem faced with respect to timekeeping:

Working with a colleague who works differently

In the team,

A co-worker does some work with great

enthusiasm and finish it way before deadline.

And some other work, he starts much later and will

be praising himself that he worked a lot on those

days but wont complete it on time. Making him

unreliable and difficult to manage.

As Mohsin is the lead, deals with the colleague

carefully, by choosing to assign work that, the

colleague is interested in. According to him a

possible intervention could be using a feedback

system that gives report of the teams on a daily

basis and create a sense of urgency.

60


Abdul Vahid

Ananthakrishnan

Aritro Mondal

Arun KP

Aswini AP

Dhaval

25yrs

26yrs

22yrs

26yrs

26yrs

33yrs

Doctor

Designer

Law student

Engineer

Pilot

CA

Divya Ann

26yrs

Designer

Hrithik

19yrs

Law student

Jeevika Shiv

32yrs

Social worker

Kanica Verma

29 yrs

Designer

Meenakshi

37yrs

Receptionist

Merrin Joseph

26 yrs

Biologist

Oshin TSR

26yrs

Designer

Parul

34yrs

Accountant

Sourav

29yrs

Designer

Swati Bali

29yrs

Designer

Ruchir Joshi

28yrs

Restaurateur

Urvi

24yrs

Accountant

Fig3.1 Acknowleging the participants of Primary Research Phase I


61

A day in life

Board

A day in life board was a task which was

undertaken by a few of the participants to

depict their lifestyle. The task was to depict a

day through pictures that explains how their

days look like.

It was an effective tool to understand how

people spend their time, how they feel and

identify their lifestyle and priorities. It gave a

much more decluttered information than

interviews.

Abdul | 26yrs | Doctor

Priority: Studies, Work and balancing both.

Study time dictated by non working hours.

Leisure: Good food and time with friends.

Screentime: An integral part

Pain point: Time-pressed

Aspiration: Breakfree/ energy to hustle

Ananthakrishnan | 26yrs | Designer

Priority: Healthy routine, especially morning

routine, Work, to be in nature, balance

Leisure: Time with friends, cooking and

games, watch something mostly when sleepy.

Screentime: Seems to be in control

Pain point: Boredom at work

Aspiration: Stability and rhythm

Arun | 26yrs | Designer

Lifestyle: Hedonistic

Priority: time socialising, moving around,

good food

Work: Experiences autonomy, attend to it

when needed, spents minimum time.

Screentime: Not a major source of leisure

Aspiration: Sustain the freedom to be

(autonomy), not to be time bound, fun.

Fig3.2 A day in life boards of the participants

62


Merrin | 26yrs Merrin | Biologist | 26yrs | Biologist

Priority: Work, Hustle

Lifestyle: Exhausting, Work centered,

multitasking (gets done with easy tasks like

eating with work)

Work: Research at lab, along with meetings,

classes and study

Screentime: An integral part of the day

Aspiration: Success, a rewarding future,

wellbeing

Divya | 26yrs | Designer

Lifestyle: Work centered lifestyle

Work: Promotes sedentary lifestyle

Experience: Burnout, low energy

Leisure: Music

Screentime: Integral part of the day

Aspiration: Structure, autonomy, escape from

a monotonous lifestyle

Fig3.2 Day boards of the participants

Swati | 29yrs | Designer

Lifestyle: Holistic

Priority: Wellbeing, self-care, socialising

Work: Baby steps, learning, strives for

improvement

Experience: Peace, energy, motivation,

Leisure: Music

Screentime: Not a priority

Aspiration: A balanced lifestyle with fun, peace

and luxury


63

Table 3.1 Tabulated primary research Phase I

64


Inferences

Primary research

Phase I

Some interesting findings from this phase are

as follows.

• Different ways of timekeeping from

individual to individual, cause conflict at

workplaces.

• Coordination of time in family:There is a

lot of chaos within families when it comes

to timekeeping. For instance, if it is a

family of 2 working parents and children,

parents have the added responsibility of

keeping time in sending kids to school.

Coordinating each others task

so that they can be on time to

work causes a chaotic situation.

making daily life difficult as one suffers

troubled health as a result.

• Distractions are not only caused by

technology but also other aspects like

thoughts, less important task, or any

object that catch our attention. It is a

rampant problem- but was rarely

mentioned as one. It is a deep rooted behaviour

that we subconsciously engage in.

It was surprising to find that people

don’t generally address distractions

caused by the devices as a problem

when they talk about time management.

• When family or friends try to help you keep

up with deadlines , one almost always feels

nagged than helped, even when you need

some form of an external motivator or drive.

• Mind-body time gap: Living a life in

tune to our circardian rythm can have a

positive effect in life. But everyone choose

a lifestyle they think is right, which is often

not in harmony with the body time. Hence

there is a mind body external time conflict

Most commonly raised time

related problems where interpersonal

conflicts that arose due to differences

in timekeeping between individuals.

Other than that, the spectrum of

problems associated with

timekeeping were diverse,

all participants faced some or the other

difficulty in keeping up to social standards

of time.


65

3. 2 Primary Research II

Introduction

Booming distractions and not having a control

over it was a part of the problem statement.

Validating this was the aim of Phase II of the

primary research.

Distractions are one of the key barriers in

timekeeping. Buddha speaks about spending

time in ways one will regret during his times.

The challenge today is, we live in times of

revolutionary technology. And there is a whole

economy that is thriving on human attention.

Distraction are being planted into our minds

without even us knowing. A part of human

beings have always been prone to be

distracted. That along with the manipulation is

detrimental to each individual.

what causes them to be distracted, through a

structured interview.

Quantitative analysis of the data collected was

done.

Questions for the interview

1. What are the major distractions?

2. When do they affect?

3. What causes distraction?

4. Methods used to help one stay away from it

5. Are you aware when you indulge in distraction

or do you get carried away?

6.How strong are you at resisting distraction?

7. Does it disappoint you but still cant opt out

of it?

Primary research:

Understanding distractions, participant

experience and how they manage them, and

Fig 3.3 Sample Interview

66


10/13 participants

find it a problem.

Highlighted

are the internal

trigger.

11 participants

try to manage it.

Experienced

mostly during

times of expected

productivity.

Everyone seems

to be aware of

their nature of

distraction.

9/13 participants

dont think they

are good at

managing .

majority of participants

were

not aware of

internal triggers.

Table 3.2 Tabulated primary research Phase II


67

Fig3.4 Graphical representation of the data collected in Primary Research Phase II

68


Inferences

Primary research

Phase II

It is true that in this digital era, distractions are much

more accessible than it was previously and it is

difficult to fight them even when there are so many

digital tools for the same. Second phase of the

research aimed at looking at distractions people

encounter and how they tackle it.

The following are the findings from the research:

• Distraction experienced while at work

is a widespread problem. Though

people feel they are aware of it, most

of the particioants felt, they are not

effective enough to restrict distractions.

• It was noted that people are aware during

the course of distraction but mostly not

aware when they get into it. Only 18%

felt they consciously chose distraction.

• When primary distractions where thoughts/

emotions/feelings, coping mechanism are

secondary distractions

• Another interesting finding was how

people admitted that they chose

some distraction to fight thoughts or

emotions that are their primary distractors.

• It was surprising to find that people don’t

generally realise the distractions caused

by the devices when they talk about time

management and most of the time related

problems were interpersonal conflicts that

arises due to differences in time perception

and management between individuals.

• Distractions mostly crept in at anytime at

work but many found them distracted when

they encountered some struggle in work.

• -It was surprising to find that less than 40%

of the sample found themselves distracted

by social media while it was observed that

all of them were active social media users.

• People chose activities on screen even

while on breaks. There is no clear cut

distinction between break time and work time


69

3. 3 Timekeeping at present

Along with the research phase I, a lookout for

the initiatives that are in place to tackle the

issues identified started and continued through

out the project.

It was exciting to discover a few apps,

products and movements that is trying to

address the core problem of screen time.

As time progressed, the number of available

options catering to the chosen area of work

seemed to be humungous. Many of these were

well designed, but they fail to reach out to as

many people as they should, who are in need!

It gets lost in the sea of attractive apps and

products. The habit of using timekeeping or

self improvement tools was also found to

gradually fade among users.

A rise in intiatives for digital wellbeing

2018 saw a heightened awareness and actions

with regards to digital wellbeing. In May 2018,

Google announced its digital wellbeing

initiative for android 9. Followed by which,

Apple announced Screetime tracking and

managing features for iOS in June.

Facebook launched its (discreet) digital

well-being screen-time management

dashboards on both facebook and instagram,

in the August of the year.

A few movements that are dispersed , came

to existence in isolation in the 2010s talking

about the need to address the toll Attention

Economy has on the wellbeing of human

beings. Eg: Center for Humane Technology,

founded by a former employee at Google,

Christian Harris in 2017. They research and

provide guidelines for humane technology. A

few other such movements advocating

humane technology, digital wellbeing and

fighting tech addiction are Digital Wellness

Collective, Time to log off,

Digital Wellbeing.org

Other movements like Quantifying

Self, facilitated by numerous tracking

apps and products and Bio-hacking,

encourages users to take charge of their lives

and advocates use of tools and hacks that

empower the same.

The product study in this segment intends to

look at and evaluate products and features

that focus on:

• Screentime

• Time management and Planning

• Other aspects of timekeeping

• Mindfulness

The study helped in developing a better

understanding about the needs of the users

and about what works and what does not.

Fig 3.5 places the available products in

market on a Mindfulness vs Usage scale.

70


What do we

have now?

Smart clocks and

watches that are mindful

than the popular smart

watches and clocks

Many apps across

platforms to facilitate

mindful navigation

through time

Smart clocks and

watches - that do more

than just timekeeping.

Where mindfulness

co-exist with distractions.

Initiatives for digital

wellbeing by big tech

companies like Google,

Apple and Facebook

that has more reach.

Mindful aesthetics in

traditional time-telling

clocks.

Phones and laptop

are currently the most

used products for time

keeping.

Clocks that do more than

just tell time.

Traditional clocks and

watches are commonly

used. It only tells time.

(In a way it is mindful as

it can silently blend into

user’s life.)

Fig3.5 Placement of the products and tools available for navigating through time on a Mindfulness- Usage scale


71

Google

Digital

wellbeing

Digital Wellbeing was announced during

Google I/O ( Google’s annual developer

conference) in May 2018. It is designed to help

Android users monitor their phone and app

usage. The idea is for Android users to be

more conscious about when and how often

they use their devices.

With Digital Wellbeing, users can see:

•Overview of their digital habits.

•How frequently different apps are used.

•How many notifications are received.

•How often the phone is checked.

Digital Wellbeing allows users to:

•Set app timers.

•Configure Do Not Disturb.

•Manage notifications.

•Set flip to shh- A feature when enabled

activates do not disturb mode when phone is

kept face down

•Use the Wind Down feature to set time limit or

enable grayscale.

Screenshots from google digital wellbeing page (https://wellbeing.google

72


Apple’s

initiatives for

digital wellness

On June 4th, 2018, Apple announced new

tools built into iOS 12 to help customers

understand and take control of the time they

spend interacting with their iOS devices.

These include Activity Reports, App limits, Do

Not Disturb and Notification controls designed

to help customers reduce interruptions and

manage screen time for themselves and their

families.

With screen time, and the new tools, Apple

intents to empower users who want help

managing their device time, and

balancing the many things that are

important to them. With iOS 12 Apple

offered users detailed information and tools to

help them better understand and control the

time they spend with apps and websites, how

often they pick up their iPhone and iPad during

the day and how they receive notifcations.

Fig 3.7 Features of Apple’s initiatives for digital wellness


73

Looking at

existing

applications

The primary research brought into notice that

there is an overwhelming number of

applications existing to help the user easily

navigate through time and mitigate

distractions.

The following section is the documentation of

applications that were tried out during the

research.

Apps were chosen keeping in mind, what an

ideal mindful timekeeping product would do.

An ideal mindful timekeeper will help-

• understand mind and body time

• form healthy habits

• facilitate mindful investing of attention

• enhance focus

• helps to stay in sync with social time when

needed

• make sense of your time

• enhance time positivity

Flow

Flow is a minimalistic pomodoro based

focus timer for Mac.

Allows to set work-timer (pomodoro)

from 25mins- 90min and schedule

short breaks for 5-10mins (after every

pomodoro) and long breaks 15-30

mins after every 3 time blocks. Timer

turns full screen during break,

Nudging the user to take a break.

Experience:

Minimal, only one function, to the

point. Most usable product tried. Timer

stays on the menu bar.

Tyme

Tyme helps with your time

management by keeping your

project times and work statistics

synchronized on your Mac, iPhone,

iPad and Watch.

Time management tool for team and

individuals. Features include

recording activity, projects, budgets

and deadlines. Booked hours,

current revenues, your working

hours or already planned times are

displayed and breaks are recorded

automatically.

Experience:

Slightly difficult to use with a lot of

features, monotonous.

74


Timeout

Antisocial

Forest

Save my time

Timeout is a breaktimer, and it is one

of the more popular apps for break

management .

Time Out allows you to customize

how often breaks happen, how

long they are, and more. It comes

with two kinds of breaks by default: A

10-minute one that will pop up once an

hour, and a 15-second one that alerts

you every 15 minutes and reminds

you not to tense up or sit in a poor

position. Also tells you about the

importance of break.

Experience:

Though the purpose is simple- urge

the user to take break, this product

has a lot of information added to it. It

is not an easy app to get comfortable

with. Break timer in Flow is preferable

over Timeout because of its ease of

use.

Antisocial is an app to keep track

of phone usage. Gives the user

a comparative report of the time

spent on phone against other

users.

An extremely useful app that

tells you amount of time spent on

phone. Charts showing

comparison of your consumption

to average world consumption,

also your usage over the days.

Gives information about most used

and most opened apps, average

number of unlocks of the phone,

per day. Enables setting time

limits (in minutes or hours) or

time windows (say, enable app

access from 9am to 11am) for each

app.

Experience:

Useful to limit phone usage as

changing the limits set is not very

easy.

Forest is a gamified pomodoro

timer.

A fun to use timer app based on

Pomodoro technique. With every

focus activity time session, you

plant a virtual tree and is rewarded

with points. They have a library of

virtual trees, soundtrack to help

focus when activity time is

running. With earned points you

can purchase virtual plants or even

contribute to plant a real tree, an

intiative by Forest.

Experience:

It is a well conceptualised app.

But using it on phone made me

realise, while working on a

computer its easier to use a timer

on it as using a product on phone ,

increase dependency on phone

increasing the chance of

distraction.

Activity tracker app.

Pops up everytime you unlock the

phone urging to enter information

about how the time is spent until then

from the last entry.User can filter

statistics to uncover insights about

specific activities. Enables to categorise

daily activities into 9 broad categories.

It gives a daily report at he

end of the day.

Experience:

Getting feedback each day kept the

spirit to do better the next day.

Everytime I picked up the phone it

nudged to reflect on what I did from

the time Iast picked up the phone.

Grouping activities to 9 broad

categories seemed to limit the

experience and sometimes

discouraged to make an entry. Long

periods of not using phone meant

entry for a longer period in one go

which was a difficult task that

demotivated the usage of the app.


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To do by Microsoft

Sanvello Dailyio Presently

App for planning and making to do list.

To do is a highly functional to-do list

application that’ll help anyone keep

their personal projects and tasks on

time and on target. Allows task

prioritization and scheduling, file

upload in each individual task,

including documents, images, and

other types of files.Task can be shared

to others. Encourage breaking down

tasks.

Experience:

Planning and execution a usually

difficult process - to do made it

interesting. It has a simple,

soothing, minimal and fresh interface.

The leftover tasks magically does not

appear overwhelming unlike other to

do lists. It brings some amount of

flexibility to the planning and

execution process, also makes it feel

easy.

A Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

based app for stress management.

Experience:

A well thought out app with

attention to details. Its promt

questions are not all rosy, probably

as it is based on CBT. It takes an

assessment test of 21 questions

every week so that you know if

you are anxious or stressed or

depressed. It gives you an

assessment asking you look at it. It

also has features to take

professional help through it. There

are other mindful exercises like

resolving thoughts, mood tracking,

meditation exercises etc

incorporated.

An advanced app as a supportive

care for mental health.

A journaling app with focus on

mood tracking.

Journaling app that asks the

emotional state that the user is in,

as soon as you open the app.

Activity logging is easy with

grouping activities and icons for

each activity as set by user.

You can view the statistics, which

shows frequency of entries, mood

chart, acheivements- that are titles

given by the app according to the

frequency of usage. Enable and

encourage setting small goals.

Experience:

Fun, cute, feel good app to use.

But failed to keep using

continously.

A gratitude journaling app.

An extremely minimal gratitude

journaling app. That has very few

interaction points. It shows your

gratitude entries as a timeline. You

get a library of simple themes for the

app. There is option to set a

reminder so that it nudges you

to make an entry. The screen for

gratitude entry asks , What are you

grateful for today? It also subtly put a

quote at the end of this screen

Experience:

Picked up this app from the list

of gratitude journaling app as it

appeared to be minimal than the

rest. The app is quite, simple and

soothing. It feels very non intrusive.

The no noise aspect of the app is

something that feels like the need

of the hour. Not being loud makes it

almost invisible in the phone.

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Grid Diary

21 Days Tide Day One

A well designed journaling app.

Simple and clean interface.

Favorite journaling app found. Which

follows a grid system for journaling.

User can set promt questions for each

grid. Questions in categories of special

day, health, relationship, Professional

development, financial independence,

family hapiness, personal

development, personal goals.

Eg: In personal development section a

question is - What is stopping me from

growing or reaching my

potential? Each day either you can

decide 5 questions to answer or you

can ask the app to make it random.

Experience:

Enjoyed answering 5 random

questions all the time. The questions

trigger self reflection but doesnt

demand thinking too deep, therefore

it is not time cosuming. It is once in a

while habit, dont think about the app

every day.

A habit creation app.

A fun app that assist in cultivating a

habit by giving/ curating

challenges that will finally help

you reach the goal by the end of

21 days. For eg: to sleep on time

and wake up on time, the scratch

card gives you a challenge for the

first day- to keep the phone away

so that you wake up an move

to switch it off. Scratch card like

presentation of challenges makes

it interesting. You can access only

a task a day in each area.The

curiosity to discover challenges

makes you keep going.

A self help app with a focus on

music.

The basic version helps with focus,

stress, sleep, nap. The design of

the app is the very soothing even

when there are lots of elements.

Basic version of the app is very

minimal. The visuals and music

used is extremely calming and

positive. A well designed app.

Experience:

The logo design is so inviting,

which is what made me download

this product. The music is simple

and calming that one would just

want to play it in the background.

The plus version of the app tend to

cater to resolve many aspects like

confidence, pain, nervousness etc.

Its intriguing but looks like it would

make it complicated did’nt feel the

need to try it out.

A journaling app.

Journaling app for desktop.

Accessible at the menubar to make

an entry. You can add photos, other

files and write. It also gives daily

promts to reflect upon.

Experience:

Interface was a bit boring or

probably could not figure it out fully.

Though easily accessible to make

entries. It was not encouraging

enough to continue making entries.

As I used Day one on the desktop, it

made me realise journaling on phone

offers a better experience as that

feels more personal.


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78


The Present

We are going through a pandemic like

never before. This has pushed us to adapt

to a new normal. We perceive and navigate

through time differently. Timekeeping has

become hazy than the pre- pandemic times.

Timekeeping feels distorted. Our reliance

on screens to get things done has gone up

significantly.

Times like this is said to trigger a Present

fatalistic mindset, were future seems to be

uncertain with heightened fear as an

accompanyment. Existential anxiety and

Hypochondria has become prevalent. Yet

our systems demand people to function like

everything is normal.

On the brighter side, there is

heightened focus on health and wellbeing at

both systemic and individual levels.

MIndfulness and a mindful timekeeping

device can aid the user in this journey.


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3.4 Future Consumer 2022 by WGSN

The white paper, “Future Consumers 2022”

by WGSN, Ascential in May 2020 forecasts

consumer sentiments that will be the drivers

of consumption trends and identifies three

types of resulting Consumer profiles. [32]

Consumer sentiments

• Fear • Desynchronised Society

• Equitable Resilience • Radical Optimism

Consumer Profiles

The Stabilisers | The Settlers | The New

Optimism

Fig 3.8 Future consumer 2022 forecast by WGSN, Ascential

80


The Stabiliser

Among identified consumer profile, the

Stabiliser are the group of customers who are

prioritising mindfulness based products.

Fig 3.9 explains the drivers and aspiration

of the stabilisers. They are a group who are

suffering from burnout, digital emotional

contagion and chronic financial uncertainity.

They are seekers of Radical acceptance.

Tired of the constant focus of self

improvement, they aspire to see reality and

accept it , which is the core principle of

mindfulness. So that they can invest their

time and resources on the areas they want

to improve instead of boarding the never

ending bandwagon of self improvement. They

are customers to the Mood Market- which is

based on how people feel.

Supportive evidence

In Apple’s appstore trendlist of 2018

mindfulness and optimisation apps came first

with $32 million spent on them.

According to a US market research company,

self improvement market is growing. In which,

business of life coach is the fastest growing.

Fig 3.9 Stabilisers- consumer profile


81

Documenting the process

involved in making sense of the

information gathered.

Glimpses of information

mapping, gathering insights.

4Research

Synthesis

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83

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The Process

This is a research centered project. Therefore

synthesizing the information gathered from

both primary and secondary research was the

part that had utmost attention. It was an

important and challenging process as it was

dealing with two abstract concepts, time and

mindfulness. On one hand, the concept of

time is too broad to fathom and on the other,

mindfulness is a tad bit infamous. Thus making

the process chaotic and uncomfortable. It

took going through phases of doubt and going

around in circles to finally find conviction. In

hindsight, having a team to work with would

have helped a great deal in this phase. Tools

that came handy were mapping , consolidating

the data and finding patterns.Letting the mind

marinate in the information, eventually helped

in making sense of the intent and validate the

need.

It was only with staying in the process, that it

was found timekeeping and mindfulness are

not mutually exclusive. Mindfulness is a quality

that encourages to make the best of the

present reality and impart time positivity.

While screentime and life in the digital world

was identified as a problem in the design

proposal, it was not the major problem the

participants in the research mostly mentioned

during conversations on time related

problems unless nudged in that direction.

Everyone experienced some or the other

problem with timekeeping but was so varied,

which was validated with secondary research

on time perception. The identified problem of

distraction is relevant but core to human

behaviour. The only way an individual can take

charge of it is by training their attention.

The following pages captures glimpses of the

process involved in Research synthesis.


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87

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89

Ideation 1.0

Ideation 2.0

Ideation through journaling

5Ideation

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A visual feedback based on time spent. Tell the user, how one spends

his/her time decides their aura.

How it works: Time allocation for each task. Set daily task targets in

terms of time in the app. Give input about time spent on the task.

Gives feedback at night , a visual representation of how close you were

to the target. Increase in brightness as user get closer to the target.

Continuous feedback or feedback when asked is given by the product.

A product that helps map user’s mood and energy levels and then use

the data to predict the user’s energy at different points of time.

Understanding energy helps better task management. Product nudge

timely inputs from the user. Energy level indicator in the form of light to

tell the user predicted energy level. Additional feature of task allocation

can be combined.

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“Every sunset is a proof that no matter what happens, everyday can end

beautifully”

- Kristine Butler

Sunrise marks a fresh start, sunset marks an end. And both are always

beautiful. No two sunrises are the same reminding that each day can be

a fresh start. A product that act as a reminder.

A block with slots/ beads (numbered or colour coded) and a key.

Each slot has a task linked to it. User has to insert the key while doing

the task, to monitor the time spend on the activity. Each slot can be

assigned a task with the help of the linked app. By having a physical

product linked to the app, one need not go to the app to give inputs

repeatedly. End of the day, app will give feedback on time spent. This

could be a way for activity tracking being away from any screen.


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Taking inspiration from a fidget spinner. A wearable product that would

enable the user to fidget with sense of time. User can get a feel of time

going slow when tensed or need to slow down and a sense of time

going fast when they need to speed up. This could give a perception of

control over time. Control gives a sense of comfort. It could feature,

needle moving fast or slow or normal, feedback in the form of pulses

changing as per the mode and/or other visual cue.

Timer and activity tracker in a product independent from other screens.

Analog activity tracker and timer with display.

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A product inspired by a pager, that redirects priority notifications from

most used important apps in phone while you decide to keep the phone

off or stay away from it. MInimize interaction with screens.

An intuitive smart wearable device that understand your time

perception, how you spend your time. And guide accordingly by giving

headsup about distractions, conflicts that may arise with others with

respect to time. Getting assistance to avoid interpersonal conflicts

and distractions. Gathers data about users time habits and situation

demands and suggest corrective measures.


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Digital tabletop organiser. Screen divided into grids and each

allocated with different function. Calender, timer, a planned distraction

as a reward, motivation or positivity feed.

Gamifying planning and execution with task cards and reward cards,

points assigned.

96


A product when connected to gadgets , monitors the time spend and

block/ disable sites and apps or even the gadget completely as per the

time blocks set. Also give the use information about the time spend

using them.

A product that helps monitor time you spent distracted. Every time user

find themselves to be distracted, the button needs to be pressed, stop

when you get back to the task at hand. They can do the same when

they choose to stay distracted.


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A dusk and dawn simulator clock. A reminder that every morning is a

fresh start and every evening ends on a beautiful note.

An animate object which gives the user a visual cue with its body

language or colour of the light or frequency of blinking, the state of

mind they should be in. It is to promt the user to be alert, focused or

relaxed.

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Reduces the interaction with

phone for activity logging.

Makes monitoring of execution

fun.

Con: Not as fun as screens.

Simple button to be

mindful about distraction

tracking.

Personal diary directing the

user to positively navigate

through time.

Activity logging independent

from phone.

Con: Not easy to use and

habit forming as smart

screens.

Mood and

energy cues

promts to be in the

state.

Gamification of reward

planning

Con: Reward banks- too

primitive

Implement the set timeblocks

across devices when

connected to this jammer.

Con: only looks at blocking

devices and apps.

Dusk and dawn simulator

that sets a positive tone

in the beginning and end of

the day

Con: Minimum function at

start and end of the day

Cue to change the timeperception

of how fast the

time goes.

screen grids with different

functions (each screeen is

a product in itself)

Con: feasibility of modular

screens

a product that helps in time

management in interpersonal

relationships

A very animate object . Gives

cue for urgency needed.

minimize information. give the

necessary nudge .

Compilation of initial ideation to identify highlight/ pro and cons of the product idea


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Ideation 2.0

The phase one of ideation focused on exploring

what could be the product as a whole. Phase 2

of ideation, helped in understanding the details

of the product.

This phase kickstarted with a group activity of

brainstorming to diverge the thought process.

The exercise was to pick up words from the

given random list of words and brainstorm on

them. The activity energized the process.

Later these were analysed to identify a few

possible characteristics for the product.

A few of those characteristics are

- Unique memorable experience

- Impart a sense of belonging

- Sense of safety

- Care for basic wellness

- Saviour from information quicksand

- Train emotional intelligence

- Impart positivity

- Act as a guide to navigate through

time

- Capture the wilderness within

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101

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103

Ideation

through

Journaling

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Journaling is documentation of passing time.

Benefits of journaling is well documented since

ancient times. Today it is a self-help tool that is

recommended by psychiatrists and

psychologists. There is a lot written about it

and is popularised by artists in social media.

Ideating through mindful journal

Journaling is a tool that organically became a

part of the process and came handy for

ideating on the possible features for a mindful

timekeeping device. It helped realise the

nuances of mindfulness in timekeeping.

While attempting to incorporate mindfulness

to timekeeping and imbibe it into the daily life,

journaling of different sorts were used at

different stages. Ironically, how it evolved did

not take any conscious effort.

It started off as capturing of the highlights of

the day. Key parameters captured

being- mood and productivity. This was

done at the end of the day, encouraging

reflecting about the time spent. The task was

easy, therefore lasted for a while before fading

eventually.

The next try was a traditional planner. This

failed to become a habit. Probably as it was too

structured and boring.

One of the productivity slumps triggered the

habit of keeping a gratitude journal. Criteria

followed was to journal about something I’m

grateful about- self, others and the universe or

capturing moments of gratitude each day. This

was a habit that brought about much

satisfaction and positivity into the days.

Therefore happened to be long lasting.

The most effective form of journaling was

curated during the last stages of this project.

Call it-“ A Canvas a day”. It involved treating

a sheet of journal like how an artist would treat

his artwork, working on it with absolute

autonomy, coming back to it at any time of the

day. It’s motto was to facilitate honest

expression in a creative manner without letting

perfectionism come in the way.

A blank canvas each day imparted a feel of

fresh start. It permitted a lot of flexibility. If a

day went bad, you can simply scrap it to

remind that its over and start over again the

next day. Through out, the aspects like

gratitude journal in a particular format that

worked were taken forward and what did not

work were modified or replaced by new

aspects. Each day as a blank canvas had scope

of finding something new.

This form of journaling was found to be an

effective tool for mind-sorting or dumping all

the known external/ internal stimuli to process

and make sense of it. This should have helped

the mind to be free, and choose to pay

attention were it is due.


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The nuances identified through

mindful journal exploration that

could add value to a mindful

timekeeping device.

Making sense of time Wellbeing tracking Mood/ emotion tracking

Journaling as a tool was

found to be very useful to

make sense of time in

retrospect. When we

document the passing

time, incorporating multiple

aspects associated like the

activity, mood, environment

etc. It makes it easier to make

sense of the time spent. And

make it more meaningful and

time positive.

Most crucial deciding factor

in how we get through time

is wellbeing. Better wellbeing

facilitate better surfing

through time.

Mind, body, sleep- wake cycle

form the basis of wellbeing.

Interpersonal relationships

and environment has an

impact on it.

Keeping a track of it means

documenting it with respect

to time. This also implies

being interoceptive and

mindful about it.

How one feels has a

significant effect on how

we surf through time. For

instance, a depressed mind

is susceptible to perceiving

time as passing by slow.

Checking on the moods and

documenting helps in making

sense of the time spent

better which inturn impart a

sense of acceptance.

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Strategy to get through

Planning and execution Gratitude journal Visual language

A step taken to be time positive.

Once you know the state of mind

and body you can assign

simple strategies accordingly to get

through the day.

Eg: Go with the flow, plan and

execute, self-care, do your duty,

care work etc. were the strategies

formulated. When you strategise

tasks aligned with your state of

being it will impart positivity, and

minimize negative emotions like

guilt and regret.

Though planning is frequently

used tool, execution is often

difficult. And failing at

execution affects motivation.

For planning mostly to-do list

were used. Timeblocking was

more effective. Execution was

documented by time logging.

Having a strategy each day

minimised disappoinment

at the end of the day for not

acheiving as planned.

The main aim of a mindful

timekeeping device is to

impart a time- positive feeling

in the user. Gratitude journal

was found to have a high

impact when it comes to

imparting a positive feeling.

Therefore it happened to be a

key feature that sustained

longest in mindful journaling.

Ideating the details through

journals enabled to explore a

visual language for different

areas that needs to be

acknowledged by mindful

timekeeping device.


107

Identifying and listing the

characteristics and features apt

for a mindful timekeeping device

Guidelines for making a mindful

timekeeping device

6Design

Direction

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109

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111

Mindful

screen

Journaling

In this digital age, it is mostly screens that is

fighting for human mind’s attention. It is said that

a habit cannot be changed but needs to be

replaced. For example, the act of substituting

Journaling was found to be the most effective

way of staying aware of the time spent. Therefore

it is the main design direction. A product that

encourages journaling in some form.

cigarettes with nicotine supplements inorder to

gradually quit smoking. In such a scenario, where

humans are habituated to screens an ideal

antidote would be in the form of a screen.

Gratitude journal: Gratitude journaling is one

effective way to inculcate time positivity. It could

be a way to adapt the concept of love and kindess

meditation.

112


Alter

time perception

Stand-alone

product

The way one perceives time is an aspect of

timekeeping we are mostly mindless about. To

positively navigate through time it is important to

address the same. A feature that help understand

and work on time perception is much needed.

The process should help in adopting positive time

processes.

There are so many timekeeping products out

there in the market. Specially in the digital

market space. Many were found to be well

designed and useful. It was noted that when they

coexisted with other alluring products they fail

to catch the attention of user for a long time and

ends up not being fully used to its potential. This

calls for a stand-alone product dedicated for

timekeeping.


113

Revisiting

familiarity

Time-care

As a new/renovated timekeeping device is

being introduced, it is important to create

familiarity so that user can easily adapt to it.

This can be done by incorporating interaction and

forms , the user is well acquainted with.

Mindfulness is about depths of awareness and a

clock is the traditional device used to measure

and indicate time. Therefore a clock that look

at multiple aspects and depths of timekeeping is

an ideal mindful timekeeping device. Thus delving

into the depths would makes the user take care

of his/ her time better.

114


Time assistant

Responsible

screen

A product that could become an integral part or

an extension of the user. Blends in just like how

mobile phones have in the recent past, but in a

more meaningful way.

Attention economy is one of the problem faced

by the world today. where every digital product is

fighting for users attention. Therefore designing a

product that values users time and uses it

responsibly is the need of the hour.


115

Possible

features to

be explored

Gratitude

Journaling

Gratitude journaling is one

effective way to inculcate time

positivity.

Sync

Nudge

Nurturing interpersonal

relationship by focusing on

sync. Being in sync with your

people brings harmony to the

social system.

Subtle way of letting people

nudge the user to get things

done

116


Mindful

activity

Promote the act of

mindfulness in basic

activities - eat, sleep,

hydration, exercise,

physical and emotional

health etc. that are key for

Sense

of flexibility

& control

The product should impart

a feeling that the user is in

control and also give him

the freedom to customise

according to his needs.

Time

positivity

Dose of positivity as and

when needed for easy

navigation through time

overall wellbeing.

Timeline

navigation

Enable peaceful navigation

through timelines. Track

deadlines and simulate the

needed amount of urgency

at different points of time.

Get things done without

anxiety.

Small

wins

Small easy tasks that can

be completed every day-

customised to impart a

sense of achievement and

enhance motivation


117

Moulding a mindful timekeeping

product

Finalising the product features,

Feel and mood of the product,

Product-user interaction

7Iteration &

Detailing

118



119

Mood

boards

Every sunrise is a fresh start.

Every sunset is a proof that no matter what happens,

everyday can end beautifully.

No two sunrises or sunsets are the same, and its always mesmerizing

Time Positivity

120


Images courtesy: Instagram


121

Mindful Tech

Soothing Zenware

Images courtesy: Instagram and Pinterest

122


A step back

Technological advancements

today, are promising a future

were we will be manipulating our

brain to make it as efficient as a

computer.

But for now,

Let us take a step back, use the

technology to focus on improving

the brain we have today.

Let us take cues from the era

before smart phones.

Nostalgic 90s |

Creating a familiar future

90s office set up recreated by Adobe


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125

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128



129

Product-User

Interaction

130



131

Time Sol is a smart clock attempting to assist

the user in their navigation through time.

It prioritises user’s wellbeing and on imparting

a sense of time positivity.

It nudges the user to be mindful about the

reality they experience. It encourages them to

document or journal thoughts, emotions and

experiences inorder to identify patterns and

help them improve. This is crucial for a holistic

understanding of the time spent which would

inturn help in staying time positive.

It intents to help the user gradually train their

attention and improve their future time perspective.

Time

Sol

132


Welcome Clock Screen

Basic clock with an environment cue.


133

Planning and execution

It is a habit that the product attempts to inculcate in the user, as it is a executive function that requires attention and training.

Planning and execution is crucial for an individual to nurture a Future Time Perspective.

The process has to feel easy, motivating and important to the user.

User has two options to plan with- Time blocks (detailed) and Checklist ( a to do list for the day)

Product asks the user to plan the previous night. If not done the next day after well being check. Indicates problem, if not done

How to make an entry?

STEP 1: A dialog box

appear on selection of

the blocks

STEP 2: Make the

activity entry

STEP 3:Colour code the

activity/ entry can be

made with set colour

code

STEP 4: Add activity

On clicking the dialog box,

user can add details about

the activity , choose to

repeat etc.

134


A walk through Demo of a

detailed plan

User can ask the product to walk through the plan he

made for the day any time and can edit it.


135

Product Every Morning

Prompts are set reminders or notifications

that are functional when the user is not

interacting with the product.

136


Routine Wellbeing check

First interaction of the user with the product everyday -

User can mark emotion,any discomfort with the help of

filters and also add a journal entry if they feel like.

First and important exercise to nudge Interoception


137

Strategy for the day

Strategy for the day is an

important feature provided by

the product to give a feel of

flexibility and hence a sense

of control when it comes to

execution of plan. User can set

how each of these strategy will

alter the plan.

138


Navigating through a task

In act/ work mode, the product walks you through the task with visual cue of the passing time, the

speed of cue will change as per the set mode of urgency.The screen also display the level of priority,

Attention/focus, effort, stress , urgency etc. required for the task. User can add notes associated,

have a set of tags that repeat saved for easy addition and tracking.


139

Mood tracking

Mood tracking made easy with easy swipe filters.

140


Time Positive feedbacks

Positive messaging at the beginning and end of the day along with timely positive feed.


141

Nudges

User can set timely reminders for things necessary to ensure their wellbeing.

142


Journaling

Encourages to the user to capture thoughts, moments, experience and associated emotions.


143

Form exploration

144


Iteration


145

User product interaction and ergonomics

146



147

Technical drawing

148


3D Visualisation of form


149

Time-Sol

A mindful smart clock

150



151

“As we begin, however, we must first acknowledge that our ability

to answer questions pertaining to time is constrained by the nature

of the organ asking them. Although the gelatinous mass of 100

billion brain cells stashed within your skull is the most sophisticated

device in the known universe, it was not “designed” to understand

the nature of time any more than your laptop was designed to write

its own software. Thus, as we explore questions of time, we will

learn that our intuitions and theories about time reveal as much

about the nature of time as they do about the architecture and

limitations of our brains.”

- Dean Buonomano. “Your Brain Is a Time Machine”

152


Conclusion

On the basis of research work done, I learnt

that there is a lot of scope in the area of work.

For the longest time, products we associated

with timekeeping are mere time telling

devices. Today we have smart clocks and

watches that do much more than just tell time.

They are more of a computer at your wrist or

bedside. We can do much more with the smart

and innovative technology that we have today.

We can delve into depths of timekeeping! This

is important inorder come up with universal

and inclusive timekeeping devices that can

improve quality of life.

There is immense scope to explore

Chronobiology, which is now an established

field of study. It insists how important it is to live

in sync with our individual biological rhythm.

The erratic lifestyle we live, that is nurtured by

the society is causing harm to our wellbeing.

Exploring the studies will guide us, to come up

with products that will help us function aligned

with our biological rhythms.

Neuroscience and study of time perception is

still in its developing stages. We will have to

watch out to the developments in the field. It’s

acknowledged that time perception is

subjective and varies drastically amongst

people. With better understanding of this we

can try and accomodate all types of

timekeepers in the social fabric of time.

Mindfulness is a quality that will become a

much needed life skill in the near future.

Therefore we will need more tools that will

help train mindfulness in different areas of life.

It is a crucial quality to help navigate through

time peacefully and positively.

Maybe all we need is radical acceptance when

it comes to our individuality in time keeping but

until we get there we will need assistance to

keep up with the social standards and

expectations.

This project of developing a assistive product

to help balance the internal and external time,

is at its nascent stage. It needs a lot of work

and moulding to be a fully functional mindful

timekeeping device.

The process was rewarding. It gave an

opportunity to learn more about time and

timekeeping, and let me explore mindfulness.


153

Acknowledgement

My earnest gratitude to Dr. Ranjit Konkar, for

being my guide. Thank you so much sir, for

your invaluable time, guidance, support and

patience. Thank you for helping me organise

the chaos and accepting the process despite

its flaws.

Thanks to everything that conspired my time

at NID. The time and energy here pushed me

to strive to be a better version of myself.

Everyone whom I met here and all the

enriching coversations we shared contributed

to this transformative journey.

I’m grateful to all the faculties who taught me

at NID. Thanks for the knowledge you

imparted and for nudging us to think

differently and beyond we otherwise thought.

I would like to thank our former faculty

Krishnesh Mehta for planting the seeds of

interest in Neuroscience and Meditation,

which I ended up exploring during the course

of this project. I would like to thank our

director, Praveen Nahar, for giving a direction

to this project with a question he asked during

a brief conversation I had with him- which

was - “Concept of time, time management and

productivity were things that helped us in the

past, is it the way forward?”

Special thanks to my bunch- Batch of M.Des,

Product Design 2015 not only for everything I

learnt with you but also for leaving me a heart

full of memories and experiences that will stay

with me for a lifetime.

Swati, Anant, Jovita, Prashant, Sourav, Vini

and Naina you were an intrinsic part of this

project. You guys loaded it with a lot of fun,

enthusiasm and optimism. Cheers to those

good days.

I would like to thank everyone who devoted

their time to take part in the research phase of

this project.

I’m forever indebted to Divya and Jeevika for

picking me up everytime I struggled to do it

myself. And thank you Jeevika for

volunteering to facilitate the primary research

at a scale that I would have otherwise

struggled to conduct.

I’m eternally grateful for having my Amma,

Achan and Balu by my side through out this

journey. Your presence, made it easy for me

to get through the tough times. In between all

your worry and concern, the slightest ray of

trust is what keeps me going. Thank you for

choosing to be there throughout. Thank you

for your patience. Major source of happiness

credits to Coco and Porsche.

Thanks to all my friends who checked on me

cheered me and motivated me from time to

time.

Most importantly, I would like to thank my

team for making this happen. Working alone

was not easy, that is when you chose to be

there, every single day. Thank you Oshin and

Meenu for virtually co-working with me, during

the crucial phase . Thanking you Sunayna and

Lakshmi for making sure that I stay sane in the

process.

I am grateful for, this quest is my only reward.

Lastly, Thank you! for choosing to pay

attention to this work of mine.

154


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