Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'
Kronos vs Kairos: A dual framework for conceptualizing time
Good morning familia - A quick housekeeping item for you - in an effort to bring more consistent, quality content to your inbox I’ll be starting to deliver these every week.
That said, I’m not a prolific enough writer (yet) to spit out 2,000 words every 7 days so I’ll be introducing a shorter form version where I share more quick-hitting, interesting, and somewhat less polished ideas I came across for you to ponder in a section called…
Weekly Wonderings and Wisdom
I recently came across a book called the Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the Self,1 which in and of itself felt synchronistic as I pulled up to dinner with a friend who had to take a call so I went for a brief stroll, stumbled into a bookstore and had it immediately catch my eye. I’ll write on that more another time but in this book it introduced the split conceptualization of time from the ancient Greeks.
Kronos: linear, chronological time that we measure daily.
Kairos: the qualitative participation in time where we get so engrossed in in the moment, losing track of Kronos. Think flow state.
You’re likely more familiar with Kronos. It’s the perpetually ticking clock. It’s what we focus on as we fill up our calendars, stress about getting places on time, turning in deliverables, etc. We try to maximize this measured time in order to do more things so we feel like we’re being productive, efficient members of society.
This turns us into little optimization machines counting the seconds, minutes, and hours of every day so that we can somehow get more of them.
But it comes at a cost. The strict schedules and deadlines we so rigorously hold ourselves accountable to cause us to lose out on quality time, which is what brings true meaning and joy.
Instead, we should step back and and sit with the moments when creativity strikes, when relationships deepen, when life feels rich. We should allow space in our day for spontaneous moments of Kairos - and when you find yourself in that connected state, cherish it, let it grow.
Being late to a meeting or pushing back your work a day won't kill you.
That's not to say abandon Kronos. Respect it for the beauty of productivity, of discipline. But don’t be enslaved by it.
Because while Kronos may tell us the time, Kairos shows us the value of our time.
Seek the Kairos moments, and let them enrich your journey through Kronos.
I’m also kicking off a Twitter account which is a grind to get off square one so if you liked this, please consider following, liking, retweeting to help spread the word :)
I recommend this book if you’re into Carl Jung, archetypes of the self, and have a general spiritual inclination towards the world and the powers that be.