I recently saw a quote here that said something like, "It takes Non-secretors twice as long to get half as much done." I'm a non-secretor who has issues with time.  I'm curious if any one has any insights. Sometimes I feel like there is not enough time in the day even if I have nothing to do.  Then there are other times when there is too much time in the day.

I'm not sure how to answer that (besides not knowing my secretor status.)

Time doesn't always "fly" and it doesn't always "drag" either. It depends so much on what's happening, my general energy level, etc.

When I'm feeling good, time tends to fly. When I'm exhausted, it tends to drag.

Time flies!  And I try and always stay conscious so that I am not wasting a moment of it.  For this reason, I have never liked to nap during the day.  

Time flies and its waste is a sad event some times we cannot avoid, I always want to do more than I can really, but I adapt that this is inherent to life. I am an A secretor Teacher.

I think some of what you are asking is a Myers Briggs question for J's and P's.  I am an ENTJ nonnie, and I think I control time in a weird way. (yes, the Fieldmarshall is coming out of me on this one)   In other words, I generally can pack a lot in one day and follow my schedule relentlessly.  When I look up and it is time to go home, I am usually very surprised, but I know I have put in a productive day and not allowed it to be wasted.

In the big scheme of things, I can't believe I am 49.  I have so much left to do, so I sure hope I have at least 40 more productive years left!!!!

Quoted from ruthiegirl

I'm not sure how to answer that (besides not knowing my secretor status.)

Time doesn't always "fly" and it doesn't always "drag" either. It depends so much on what's happening, my general energy level, etc.

When I'm feeling good, time tends to fly. When I'm exhausted, it tends to drag.

I agree completely.  I would add that mindfulness plays a key role in how we perceive time.  If we're spacing out (as i used to do after a bowl of pasta) then time will seem to fly.  But if we focus on the here and now, there is plenty of time in which to live.

I have no concept of time and it's always driven those around me (especially my mom and teachers) nuts.  It takes a tremendous amount of concentration to take into consideration time when I'm doing something.  I used to wear a watch so I could make people happy by being on time, but as I've gotten older I've realized all it's really done is stressed me out so much it's all I could think about.  I don't wear a watch anymore.  I'm on time to things like appointments, but anything past that, I don't much care anymore.  If we eat dinner at 5:30 one night and 7 the next, nobody cares except my super-scheduled friends who think I'm doing myself and my family a disservice by being "inconsistent."  Oh, for goodness' sakes.  Get a life.  Being a mommy has helped me relax and realize that, unlike when I was in school, my life does not--and cannot--revolve around the clock.  I'm so clueless.  And it doesn't really bother me much anymore.

I think if there were such thing as a double nonnie, I'd be one.

Time and time again, I have had well-meaning people try to "help" me by making a daily/weekly schedule.  At this time, you do this.  On this day, you do this.  It drove me insane!  I could never stay on top of it all, and I felt like I was back in school:  "Hurry up, Leanne.  You're late.  Faster, Leanne, you're falling behind.  Come on, Leanne, you're slowing down everybody else."  It's all I ever heard in school because I really was the slow one.  I walked slowly, I talked slowly, I thought slowly (thanks, in part, to wheat-brain fog), and I was always behind.  By 6th grade I was so slow that every Friday when we took our 20-question math test, I was given a special assignment of doing only every other problem.  By the end of the hour, I might have finished 4 or 5.  I'd have to come back after school and finish the rest.  I could usually concentrate better when I was the only one sitting there, but even then, it might take me two more hours to finish my 10 problems.

At least I type fast.  lol

I have to say that my hatred of time has dissipated somewhat since being on the BTD because my brain has cleared up considerably.  The spinning fogginess is more under control.  I know it sounds inconsistent to say my brain would spin, and then say my thoughts were slow.  But that's the way it was.  It would take me a long time to pull something out of the fog because it took a lot of concentration to slow down the spinning enough to verbalize it coherently.

I think quickly now, thanks to my diet, but I still don't do well under pressure.  If somebody tells me to hurry up, I get very flustered as if I were back in school.  When I try to follow somebody's schedule suggestion, I get weepy and sweaty and frantic as if I were back in school.  I do much better doing things when I get to them (or when they need doing) rather than "because the clock said it was time."  That's one of the dumbest reasons I've ever heard of.  Just being entirely honest here, from the viewpoint of an Extreme Nonnie.  I think moving to the country will help even more.  Moving day is this coming Wednesday!!!  Being in the middle of the city, all I see around me is hurry, hurry, drive faster, move out of the way, quick, quick, gotta run, swirling, frantic, speeding crazies on too much caffeine and sugar, wondering if their car clock is ahead of their work/home clock, mad people waiting in line.....and I need to get away from it all.  I need the peace of the woods.  I need the quiet of my own thoughts and the breeze through my okra patch.  I need to be able to send my children outside by themselves...."Here, you go catch a lizard, and you go catch a dragonfly.  Don't come back till you've finished your assignment.  Oh, and here's a tent."  Ha.  Just kidding.

And there's your bit of insight today into the brain of a learning disabled, dyslexic, ADD adult.  

Well written, Ribbit.  You don't have a blog, do you?

For me, the passage of time seems to be relative to the activity level of what's going on around me.  If there's a lot of activity going on, I'm like the energizer bunny on steroids, seemingly able to manufacture time to get enormous amounts of things done, and the time passes quickly.  With no movement or noise, I turn into a slug and time drags and just gets frittered away, with me accomplishing absolutely nothing.  Amazingly enough, I'm most efficient when I'm chasing 6 to 10 kids around all day; time flies and everything gets done.  But when all is quiet in the house I can't seems to get myself moving and the day drags on and on.  And while I function best with a lot of activity going on around me, I get flustered and drained when I'm around a large amount of people, like going grocery shopping on a Saturday afternoon.  

I'm not sure if it's an ADD thing or that I'm just hard-wired for multi-tasking, but I have a really hard time sticking to one task at a time.  I hop from thing to thing to thing, wondering if I'm ever going to get anything finished, but then it all comes together in the end.  The more things I have going at once the more time I seem to have, but the faster it seems to go.  I've been told I'd be more efficient if I'd slow down and finish one thing at a time, but I just can't seem to do it.

I've tried making lists and schedules to try and be organized, but it just never works.  I can't even make a grocery list, because if I do I only buy the things on the list and I don't think to put half the things I need on it in the first place.  I have to shop early on a Sunday morning, the only time I have available when there's hardly anyone in the store, and go up and down the aisles to come home with what I need.  Laundry, general housework, yardwork, etc, get done when they need it, but I really need to put certain things on a calendar or time gets so far away from me that I forget they need doing, like cleaning the furnace filters, fertilizing the grass, or putting chemicals in the hot tub.  

I'm a person who thrives on routines, but hates to have her time scheduled. I'm always on time for things, but hate to have appointments in the first place, especially things like dentist appointments that have to be scheduled months in advance.  I work best under pressure, when I'm not given time to think about things or stress out over them, and if I don't have a bunch of kiddos running around I'd better have some lively music playing.

Quoted Text

I think if there were such thing as a double nonnie, I'd be one.

you ve found yourself such a club here among us, the LDNs!!

royals...yep...time flies.....lurking around and I have to acknowledge...I'll be 52 soon ... ......

Hey Ribbit:

I saw that your MBTI is ISTJ, after reading your comments for a couple of years now, I think you should definitely retest.

I have the feeling you are more of an ISTP or ISFP, you are definitely not a classic J (thank your stars on this, I see time as an inventory unit, my P kids see it as a vast expanse to be filled with exploration)

I had my youngest son tested for learning disabilities earlier this year.  For 8 years I have been hearing from teachers about his lack of focus, lack of attention etc. He had real issues with writing in school, but when the assignment was on computer his marks would go up by 20% (teachers would accuse me of writing for him, as I told them numerous times I already passed his grade level and I do not need to repeat for self esteem issues)

When the testing came back, he didn't lack on the intelligence side, he had issues with processing speed and get the idea from his head into his small motor functions (think writing).  So his reading comprehension and math skills were at 80 percentile, while his processing speed and visual spatial were between 13 and 20 percentile.

The down on dirty on this was, I gave him one of my old laptops for school use as keyboarding seems to help his brain connect.  He can type like a madman but when he hand writes, it looks like he has a death grip on his pen.  His school posts all of the assignments online, so he is able to do the assignment on computer and print it out. He is able to do all the assignments in class in a timely manner without extra time.   (Now he just needs to physically do the assignment, he has this notion he can cherry pick what he wants to do...)

His final exams came back a full 20% higher on the written than in previous assignments.  The teachers were very thrilled that the fix helped so quickly.  

When I took Buspar for PTSD for 3 months, it seriously altered my sense of time. Things seemed in slow motion.

Time flies more the older I get.  There is never enough time in the day to get all that I want done.  Then I look at the time and shake my head.

Is this just a nonnies thing, or is this common to the general population, given our over-scheduled, hurry up and get it done, rush, rush lives?

Well Plucky I just looked at the results so far and 10 out of 11 non-secretor responders said that time flies for them. It's a small survey but totally one-sided, we need some secretor responses for comparison but I'd say they'd be closer to split down the middle votes. I think that many people have a poor concept of time, but I'd say that non-secretors would have a worse concept perhaps largely because they carry older genes and the concept of time is actually a relatively new concept.

When I think of a typical non-secretor I think of a Native American, as I'm part Cherokee and feel that they represent the hunter-gatherer lifestyle quite well but when did their culture flourish? Certainly long before the Spanish and British cultures, which were likely made-up largely of secretors, began dominating the World with their technological and scientific prowess-these people were chained to the arms of the clock.

Matt

Interesting point, MM.  I'm never happier than when I'm camping in the woods, squatting in front of the fire, poking it with a stick and smelling the sweet potatoes baking in the coals.  Time doesn't exist, and who cares about the rest of the world?  When we go camping, we go to bed earlier, get up earlier, and eat when we're hungry, not when the clock tells us to.  My oldest brother and I used to go on long hiking trips.  He always said, "Leave your watch at home.  We don't care what time it is."  And it was amazing to feel so free from the Holy Clock that so many people seem to worship.

I shall do a re-test (MBTI) when I get a chance, Jean.  It's interesting that by reading my posts it would cause you to call into question the T and the J.  I believe I am more perceptive than I used to be, but I don't know if that's diet-related or just from being a mommy!  Being a mommy  has made me a much more compassionate person.  Ahhhhhh, hormones.

Plucky:

"I'm not sure if it's an ADD thing or that I'm just hard-wired for multi-tasking, but I have a really hard time sticking to one task at a time.  I hop from thing to thing to thing, wondering if I'm ever going to get anything finished, but then it all comes together in the end.  The more things I have going at once the more time I seem to have, but the faster it seems to go.  I've been told I'd be more efficient if I'd slow down and finish one thing at a time, but I just can't seem to do it."

Hey Plucky, how are you doing? You sound similar to me, I had a strange realization last Summer when I was working for Coca Cola. There was this female truck driver that seemed really similar to us, I have ADD-Inattentive type, but she would almost always take much longer to get deliveries to stores. I never understood why, until one day I was at a Target and the receiver was checking in someone else and she drove right by. The receiver said that anytime the driver was going to have to wait a few minutes she just went on to her next stop, this way the driver was always busy so it seemed like she was getting more done to her. But, in reality she spent 10-15 minutes going to the next stop on her list, and the trucks are loaded stop by stop so she would have to pull all of the soda pallets out for Target with an electric pallet truck, then unload the truck, and finally she'd have to put all of the Target freight back on the truck and make the drive back to the store.

Since she was always working it must have seemed like she was getting more done, but with the 30 minutes of extra driving and the 15-20 minutes of rearranging the truck she was taking much longer to get to stores. This was one of those lightbulb moments for me, I realized that people with ADD tend to get in the habit of doing things a certain way and they may grow to be very efficient in this way, but at the same time they may also be overlooking obvious factors- like time.

Hey, MM.  That sounds like me.  I'd rather drive five miles out of my way to keep moving than to sit for five minutes in traffic at a standstill.  "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming"... my favorite line from "Finding Nemo"     On the way home from taking my son down to university one day there was a back up on the freeway AND my stereo in my pick-up quit working AND I was stuck in the inside lane so I couldn't make my way out to an exit to take an alternate route.  I was pounding the dashboard, hoping a nice jolt would restart the stereo, and bawling my eyes out.  I don't think I've ever been so frustrated from sitting still in quietness for so long in my life!  An hour and forty minute trip took two and a half hours.  Since then I've been taking a different route, one that only allows me to go 55mph (instead of 65) but never has traffic back-ups.

Hi Ribbit:

I am more convinced of you being a P rather than a J.  I am not so sure on the T vs F difference though.

I used to be a much tougher T until I had kids, then I thought I became nicer and more feeling.  I got a rude awakening however the other day when my kids asked why I am so much tougher on them than other mothers with their children.  I replied I thought I was less tough these days than before I had kids.  My husband cleared his throat and suggested I rethink that, I was still as tough as ever.....

Quoted from Memento Mori

but I'd say that non-secretors would have a worse concept perhaps largely because they carry older genes and the concept of time is actually a relatively new concept.


Matt

Memento, that is a fascinating idea.  I never knew that non-secretors carried the older genes.  So the gene for non-secretors came first in our evolution?  I keep learning more and more everyday on these forums.  I love it!

In Live Right For Your Type pg 7-8

"There is some evidence that the non-secretor state is genetically older than the secretor state and may have been more compatible with the digestive needs of hunter-gathers."

I just received my copy of The Genotype Diet and took a quick look at 4 or 5 questions about determining your genotype and they seemed to confirm my suspicion that I carry many genes which were adaptations to hunting.

In my town there is a RR station that has a viaduct to the East which you can drive under and a gate crossing to the West.  I shop on the street to the west and I live SW of there.  But when there is a freight train, instead of waiting, I go out of my way to take the road to the east.  If I just patiently waited, it actually would be faster, but I hate to sit and do nothing.

Hey RedLilac, how are you? Since your mother is a type O that means that you must carry a recessive O, do you have problems concentrating? Tyrosine has worked wonders for me, I used to be on a high dose of Adderall until I began a wheat-free diet. Actually virtually a grain free diet to be more precise, rice and fresh, organic corn once or twice a month is the only grains I ever eat.

How I long for a blue belt, I'm gonna judo chop the next person that talks smack about the blood type diet without knowing any of the science behind it.

I agree that this relates - at least in part - to the J vs. P.  For me, days, months, and years seem eternal... in a good way.  I've never had that experience of:  "Wow, it's Thanksgiving again already?" or, "I can't believe it's been 10 years since I graduated!"  People always told me time would speed up when I got older, but that hasn't been the case.

My theory as to why time moves slowly for me is that my thoughts move so quickly.  10 minutes of chatter in my own mind feels like an hour-long conversation.  I'm also an avid journaler, daytimer, and calendar-tracker.  Yup, definitely a 'J'.  

However, I don't necessarily get a lot done each day.  I had a boyfriend who was a B bloodtype and an INFP who was always remarking on how many hours are in each day.  He worked two jobs, had a zillion hobbies, and still had time for trips and things.  However, he had no rituals.  It only took him 10 minutes to get ready each morning, and he never cooked or engaged in any 'night-time' rituals.  For me on the other hand, it takes about 2 hours to set up for the next day, clean up, calm down, get in bed, and actually fall asleep.

Sundays do seem to speed by.