I’ve become more respectful of my time.

I started wearing a watch again. At one time a permanent fixture on my wrist, I stopped strapping on the timepiece eight years ago.

I know, or I must have, worn a watch through my teenage years, but it was a high-school graduation gift from my parents that I first remember as a constant reminder of time.

A wristwatch reminds us of where we are and where we need to be. It becomes habitual to check your wrist on your way to an assignment, event, or meeting. The wristwatch is a practical, purposeful piece of jewelry where you can casually glance down without interrupting the flow of time.

It can become pretty easy to be a slave to time.

I stopped wearing a wristwatch when a career move suddenly had me based in an office. There was always a wall clock, or a computer always displaying the time in digital format. I appreciated that.

I remember the feeling of freedom I found by removing the wristwatch.

My days were more structured than they had ever been. I started and stopped work at the same time each day, knew it took 14 minutes to walk to work, and if there was ever a doubt as to what time it was any other time of day, I could always check my cellular phone.

I began to rely on my cell phone to tell me what time it was, when I needed to know what time it was outside the office, or when something needed to be done, and done on time. It was convenient, my cell phone was always in my pocket.

Thing is, I began to count on the clock on my phone a little too much and I began checking the time a little too often. Of course, now, when you check the time on your phone you can also check your email, or messages. We all have experienced the advances of mobile technology over the past decade, and we have all experienced the wonder of having a computer in our pocket and information and applications always at close range.

Aren’t we all checking our phones a little too much? I know I was pulling out my mobile device too many times a day, whether I needed to know the time or not.

It became a bad habit. It became pretty easy to become a slave to your phone.

I was, quite simply, checking my mobile device too many times, whether I needed to know the time or not.

It was a bad habit, so I have switched back to a wristwatch.

Almost immediately, I began to notice how much less I was looking at my phone. Granted, I’ve only been wearing a wristwatch again a little more than a week but I am glancing at my phone less, and less. I am more conscious of time away from my phone.

The decision to again wear a wristwatch was a conscious. I even bought myself a new watch as an early Christmas gift to myself (it’s the most wonderful time of the year…)

I didn’t purchase a watch that would sync up to my iphone. I didn’t buy a watch that would check my pulse, count my steps, monitor my brainwaves, or allow me to catch a movie, soap opera or ballgame whenever I wanted. Truthfully, I didn’t even want a watch that told me what date, or day of the week it was (I carry an agenda), but a calendar function was pretty much standard on any wristwatch that caught my fancy.

I want to be less mindful of the time.

You look at time differently when it is expressed on the traditional watch face. Time seems to move a little slower, or is more organic. Time seems more forgiving, or as forgiving as it can be (it is time, after all), when it is displayed by the hands of a clock.

You look at time differently when it is not expressed as digits, you think differently, use your brain differently, as you have to (consciously or unconsciously) calculate exactly what time it is. Whether it is half past two or a quarter to three; the top of, or bottom of, the hour, you begin to see the time by the virtue of how you were taught to tell time. You recognize 11:11 differently, whether it is by the light of day or happenstance of night.

It is no longer simply digits. There seems to be a greater purpose to the time. It feels now like it is more my time in how I choose to interpret, perceive, or ignore. It is now real time, and not real time.

Time seems more tangible, minutes turn to hours naturally in a more isolated state.

We respect time when we have to think about it. Maybe we all need to think a little more about what time it is, or what we are doing with our time.