A Time Marker is how we remember and mark the passing of time.  This has shifted for so many of us in 2020.   Was 2020 fast or slow? I really can’t say.  I was reflecting with a group of leaders on 2020 and talking about Time Markers.  When I got a lot of puzzled looks I thought I should explain myself.

What is a Time Marker?

A Time Marker is an event or something that happens to us, that makes it easy for us to remember that moment in time.  Our rites and rituals are important Time Markers.  If you remember moments in your childhood they are often around significant events.  Do you remember the graduation ceremony from school?   Do you remember a birthday party? Your first kiss? Your first concert? A wedding? These rites and rituals of how we celebrate and mark time create moments for us to reflect on the passing of time.

Why are Time Markers Important?

They are opportunities for us to come together, create connections and engage with each other.  They offer opportunities for things to look forward to, provide hope and celebrations.

One of the important functions of our Time Markers is to be our reference point and understanding of time.  It also creates opportunities for change, rites, and social phases like “schoolies”, “weddings”, “significant birthdays”, “funerals”, “honeymoons”, “retirement parties”, “first days at school/jobs”, “sporting events”,  and “graduations” these rituals mark a point in time where we expect change and our structures determine that this is a different phase in our life.  Those more significant Time Markers are our rights of passage.  Those first moments, and final moments like schoolies which marks the passage from a schoolchild to adulthood.  Those significant Time Markers don’t just mark time but create our sense of time.

How many times have you said, “I am looking forward to… (holiday, birthday, celebration)”? The things we count down days until.  We build anticipation and excitement around time markers.  We use them for our delayed gratification.  Delayed gratification is essential for motivation both personally and professionally.

Delay of gratification, the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more-valued reward in the future. The ability to delay gratification is essential to self-regulation, or self-control.

Delay of Gratification, Regina Conti

2020 Impact on Time Markers

For me, 2020 has been plans, plans, and disappointments.  I have attempted to plan so many things only for them to be continuously changed or canceled.  I have paid for tickets to events, to be postponed and changed.  Parties have been canceled. Family events canceled. Events of all sorts canceled.  Even holidays canceled.

Without Time Markers

So what is the impact if we don’t have transitions or Time Markers to signify important moments in our life which allow for transitions?  We feel a sense of flux and grief.  There is a collective sensation of emotional disorientation.

Sense of Flux

They feel disconnected, unmoored, isolated, lost. Some can’t sleep; others sleep too much. Some obsess while others tune out. For some, anxiety spikes or depression deepens; others report feeling numb.

It is important to remember that all of these are reasonable and responses to a highly unusual situation.

The Importance of Ritual, Rebecca J. Lester Ph.D., MSW, LCSW 

Sense of Grief

We’re also feeling anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain.

That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief, Scott Berinato 

When we can’t plan or plans are canceled we need to acknowledge even as leaders we are also experiencing these emotional responses.

Leadership and Time Markers

In the workplace, it means we have people who are experiencing anxiety and depression or feeling disconnected and searching because they don’t understand the loss they are feeling.   There is a shared experience when we lose our Time Markers and a sense of feeling disorientated.   We haven’t experienced this before and we don’t have the language to even talk about it.

What are our Leadership Lessons?

Talk about what it is and what you are feeling.  As leaders, we need to acknowledge that 2020 has created new challenges and we need new tools and language to deal with the constant change and loss.  A shared language to describe things allows a space to describe and talk about these issues.  Compassion and empathy are key whilst everyone is going to handle their grief very differently.

However, if you can find space to share what and how you are feeling it creates a sense of team and ‘we are in this together’.  It allows an understanding of what we are feeling and acknowledgment of those emotions.

I have managed my plans, plans, and disappointments by trying to use mindfulness and gratitude.  When I have another Time Marker lost I simply ask myself a number of questions to think about the situation differently.  It has been a game-changer.

“What is it that I can learn?”

“What space does it create, or what is the opportunity here?”

“What can I be grateful for at this moment?”

The simple act of reframing the situation has made me less frustrated and reactive to what is going on around me.  It has also given me a sense of control.

If you can continue this practice, it also starts to harness innovation.  Imagine if you can, what happens when you have a culture of looking for an opportunity in change, you begin to build a team culture of innovation and growth.

Get more insights with our emotional intelligence book or come to one of our leadership workshops.