PTPL 223 · Is time running out, or filling up? The way you see it matters.

How two iPhone apps help me harness the difference You are here, your deadline is there. It’s time to cross the space between those two points. How do you visualise that intervening time — as counting down, or counting up? As something that is running out, or something that is being filled? I’d never considered these two ways of viewing time as being significant, but to my grandchildren (and to me) they absolutely are. Here’s how I know. The goal: getting to the car on time As the adult in charge I had forty five minutes to help two 9 year-olds and one 6 year-old tidy their rooms, pack their bags, get shoes on, and be in the car by a set time. As independently as possible. Nothing about those tasks was difficult, but the children were in the middle of a game and needed a way to grasp how much time they were dealing with. Without me micro-managing the situation! Yes, they can tell the time. But we needed a timer, not just a clock. And preferably one that showed the passing of time in a…