Less Chronos, More Kairos: Stop Counting Hours and Start Counting Moments That Matter

Do you know that dreadful feeling when you keep watching the clock because you can’t wait for a boring 60 minutes presentation to be over?

You’re just waiting for the minutes to pass by. One by one.

On the contrary, there are moments when you feel like you have completely lost track of time. Whatever you’re doing, you’re completely absorbed by it.

You’ve got no idea how long it’s been, but it doesn’t matter. You may have lost ‘‘hours’’ according to the clock, but it doesn’t feel like it. Rather, it adds to your wellbeing.

When we’re in this flow state, we live kairologically. When we’re just measuring time, we live chronologically.

We don’t make this distinction in this modern day and age. But the ancient Greeks did. They knew we needed two words for time: chronos and kairos.

Chronos is quantitative. Kairos is qualitative.

Kairos is time measured in meaningful experiences — moments that shift our paradigm, open our eyes and deepen our relationships. You can’t measure it in seconds, minutes or hours.

When you find yourself in kairos time, you completely lose track of chronos time. A state of flow is activated, and it cannot be measured — only experienced.

When we think of a ‘‘day well spent’’, we tend to focus on quantity over quality. How many mails did I sent? How many meetings did I attend? How many hours did I work?

This focus on quantity makes us feel good, and that’s because chronos is the default in our society. We excel at keeping ourselves busy ticking off tasks against a ticking clock.

But it doesn’t measure what really moves the needle in the things you do. Or what really moves you as an individual. It doesn’t measure the moments of inspiration or insights you gained during the day — or failed to gain because you were too busy living your life in chronos.

You can’t the measure the quality of our days in quantity. But you can implement more moments of kairos in a society that’s all about chronos.

You don’t have to take a sabbatical or a long time off of work to embrace more kairos in your life. Let’s not forget that kairos also means ‘opportunity’ or ‘the right moment’. That feels passive, but don’t think you have to just wait for it to strike you. In fact, you already have what it takes to incorporate moments of kairos in your day to day life. For me, that looks like:

• Introspection time. Maybe I’ll journal, read a book, sip tea — or just sit there and do nothing except for listening to myself.

• Learning something that’s always fascinated me.

• Simply having a day with no plans at all, just taking things on my own pace.

• Deep talks with friends that last for hours (but obviously don’t feel like it).

• Riding my bike without a set destination.

Michel de Montaigne said it best:

“The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them.’’

How do you make room for kairos in your life? Let me know in the comments.