time

Summary – Associate with emotion and some practice
One of the biggest mystery of life is this – Let say tomorrow we are going for a trip oversea and we have to wake up at least 6 am just to get that flight. And somehow, we manage to wake up precisely at 6 am, not a minute sooner or later.

Have you had such experience?

This will happen almost everytime we are excited about waking up the next day. For example, first day at a job, or marriage. A theory suggested to explain this is that we have an internal clock built in to our subconcious mind. That will explain the accuracy of waking up time for some people, or the sudden nervousness when you forget an important thing to be done.

I have no proof on the theory, but I really believe that internal clock does exist. And wouldn’t it be a waste if we do not make use of this amazing gift.

Here’s some exercise that you can do immediately to harness the power of your internal clock.

1) Be insanely excited about waking up
The secret to waking up exactly at the specific time you wanted is actually making use of your emotion.

How many time do you able to wake up early when you know there’s something fun for you to do. Or maybe you are nervous about that first date, or when you know you will be called up by your boss for some big mistake you’ve done. Every one of these has one thing in common. You go to bed with an emotion associated to your future waking up.

If you go to bed, with an intense feeling about waking up tomorrow at 6am, you will definitely wake up at 6 am. Try it.

2) Guess the time without using any clue
This is a training I come up with to use the internal clock. At any time of the day, I will try to guess the time. It must not be a wild guess, you must try to search for the answer in you.

Another rule you must abide is that you must not make a calculated guess. An example of calculated guess is as such “Peter always leave the office at 1pm, so I know now is about 1.30pm”. Try to avoid this kind of analysis just to guess the time. In the end we want to train ourselves to be able to rely on the accuracy of our internal clock.

3) Play with your timer.
There’s one in your cellphone right? When you have nothing to do, play with it. Set it at 1 minute, and without counting the seconds in your mind, try to guess when will your 1 minute will be up. Maybe do a 10 seconds countdown.

With practice, you will be able to tell without looking at your watch, how long is 1 minute.

Advantages of a trained internal clock:

  • You will be able to wake up anytime you want.
  • You will be able to take power nap (5 minutes nap that will energize you back).
  • No more waking up at random hours.
  • You will appreciate the time you have better.
  • A giant leap in your time management skill.
  • A more discipline you.
  • You can now sell your watch.

Conclusion – I truly believe there’s so much more mystery of our body that we still haven’t figure out. By doing this exercise, hopefully we will be one step closer to better understanding them.

– I wonder –
Do you believe in internal clock? When is your last time waking up exactly at the time you wanted?

———– Personal Note ———-
When I was a child, I was told that ghost will appear every night at 2 am. Thanks to my internal clock, I woke up every night exactly at 2 am. And man, I was so frightened at the time. I thought it was the ghost that woke me up since it is exactly 2 am. 🙂

Of course there are no ghost.

Photo credit – Yves Lorson

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This post has 13 comments.


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  1. 09 Jul 08 12:47 pm

    3 Exercises To Train Your Internal Clock | LessonInLife.com…

    Internal clock is when you want to wake up at 6 am, and you wake up exactly at 6 am. The entry suggests 3 exercise to train that untapped resource….

  2. 09 Jul 08 6:42 pm

    Very busy people like me really need this. I get very crossed with myself when I wake up 1 hr latter than i planned.

  3. 10 Jul 08 11:09 pm

    am always sleeping when i’m taking my lunch break,
    cause its 30 minutes and the seat at my cubicle is just
    too nice for me to ignore.
    Somehow i manage to wake up just the right time which
    is 1 minutes before the chime rang.
    Felt great doing it
    makes u feel like u have control of your own body like
    pushing a button.
    And am so sound asleep, i’ve even seeing dreams!!

    U do know that our brother sometimes sees a digital
    clock on his top left of his view right?
    just like the old robocop
    and the new ironman movie. an active screen tru his
    eyesight 🙂 wahahahahah….

  4. banji
    12 Jul 08 4:33 pm

    AZblogging – The same with me, I am so angry with myself if I woke up late. And even angrier if I somehow manage to wake up early but go to sleep again afterward 🙂

    DaPocket – Now that’s internal clock for you 🙂 I bet that 30 minutes sleep is very refreshing. More refreshing that those 3 hours one

    About our beloved brother.. he is one of a kind hehe

  5. 15 Aug 08 11:25 am

    As a practicing counselor, I can say that what you suggestion DOES work. I use it in session all the time. I know exactly where we are, even as I pay attention to what my client is saying. What is that old quote about how to get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice! Good blog. I found your article on LifeHack and tracked it back here. Keep writing! G.

  6. banji
    16 Aug 08 9:02 am

    Grace – Thank you for the comment and visit. Internal clock is not that hard to master. Somehow our subconscious mind is set to always solve our problem obediently (Well most of the time). If we want it really hard and with proper training, we will master it in no time.

    That’s the magic word.. practise practise practise 🙂

  7. […] to women, but thankfully my clock is ticking correctly.  Last week I read an article similar to this and it reminded me to be thankful that I had trained my internal clock pretty well.  Having a […]

  8. 19 Feb 10 11:35 pm

    Ha, this is awesome. I believe it too. I just woke up right at 7am this morning. I always wake up and look at the clock. For example, if I want to goto Baker, the lifts open at 9am, it usually takes an hour and 30 minutes to get to the ski resort. I never set an alarm clock (I hate them with a passion). Somehow I’ll aways wake up at 7am to get ready, hop in my car and mob!

    Today is different though, I gotta work. I guess I have a lot of projects I want to work on. I do love my job, so I was excited to wake up. Haha.

  9. 12 Mar 10 10:02 pm

    Eddihughes – It clearly shows that you really looking forward to waking up. Thank you for sharing 🙂

  10. Larry
    09 Jan 11 11:17 am

    I believe in the internal timer too! But i only believe it works when you’re sleeping. Right before i fall asleep, i set a time (Hour) i want to wake up at, and i normally wake up with in minuets of my chosen time 🙂

  11. […] giant leap in your time management skill.A more discipline you.You can now sell your watch.via 3 Exercises To Train Your Internal Clock | LessonInLife.com.So how do you exactly train your body to work in this rhythm?Go to bed and wake up exactly at the […]

  12. Reacher
    26 Jan 12 12:19 pm

    Read the Lee Child “Jack Reacher” books- I started looking into this area of study after learning that Reacher knows the time of day at any random time, and can wake up whenever he wants/needs to.

  13. pixie
    05 Jan 13 3:18 pm

    It’s kind of like when I was sleeping I didn’t want to move around a lot so I told myself to be still and I staid still threw the whole night. I learned about this from the Gallagher Girl series when I learned that almost everyone in them had an internal clock.

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