Why it's okay to be (a little) late

• The relationship to time has been completely turned upside down by the health crisis, episodes of confinement, teleworking or digital tools.

• In Rennes, a service called the Bureau des temps tries to help residents optimize their time by adapting the schedules of the facilities.

• Rennes welcomes this Thursday the psychoanalyst Hélène L'Heuillet, who published a book praising the delay.

  Without abusing it either.

Arriving late is often frowned upon.

Evidence of poor organization?

A sign of casualness?

Or even a cruel lack of seriousness?

Everyone will see what they want.

Sometimes, the delay can also establish a form of domination when one knowingly decides to make the other wait.

Or that we want to show that we are overwhelmed or try to convince that we lead a full life.

After two years of health crisis where life has sometimes stopped, the question of time has become central in our society: telework, time in transport, leisure... Our whole schedule has been turned upside down.

In Rennes, the municipality has been working for a long time with a service whose mission is to think about it.

This Thursday, the famous “Bureau des temps” is organizing a conference in Rennes around a theme that concerns us all: “Take the time to be late”.

"Time is for everyone"

To facilitate this meeting, the community called on the psychoanalyst Hélène L'Heuillet.

The one who also teaches philosophy at the University of the Sorbonne, in Paris, is sometimes critical of our frantic rhythms of life.

“The time pressure is more and more intense.

We have this impression that time escapes us, that there is no longer a vacuum.

By dint of running, we do too many things so we quickly find ourselves late.

We created a capitalist relationship over time.

We intensified it.

We have reduced the working time but some are forced to rush it.

We track down all the dead time, we track down the void to fill it.

It's like bulimia, an endless cycle that leads you to exhaustion”.

🗓️ Meeting on April 7 at 8:30 p.m. for the next conference, on the praise of the delay.

With Hélène L'Heuillet, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and psychoanalyst.

📍@LesChampsLibres#conference #time #bureaudestemps #delay pic.twitter.com/PlCClLIqFc

– Rennes Time Office (@BuroTempsRennes) March 11, 2022

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In 2020, the psychoanalyst delivered a book entitled

?

A few weeks after its publication, France and a good part of the world froze, confined to escape a virus that we then knew so badly.

“There was a form of amazement, as if time suddenly stopped.

But everyone has had a different experience.

Caregivers or people working in the food industry did not experience it in the same way as certain executives who left to isolate themselves in the countryside”.

Those who lived alone may have fallen into a pit of boredom.

Others no longer had a minute of solitude in an apartment that was suddenly too small.

"Time is unique to each person", analyzes Hélène L'Heuillet.

To “better live” time, the teacher advises everyone to “give themselves intervals”, even if it means showing a little selfishness to keep time for themselves.

 “Praising lateness is not pretending that others don't exist.

I rather regret our extreme requirement of punctuality.

Before, we had watches that moved forward or slowed down.

Digital has caught up with us.

The delay is not disrespect if it is only a few minutes for an appointment, ”she believes.

The author also insists on the clinical fear of delay, especially in children.

Should we be alarmed if a child does not walk at the age of 2?

“Parents are obsessed with developmental delay.

But what are we basing this on?

On statistics only.

Before thinking about a disability, let's think about the scale of a life.

Repeating a class is considered a one-year delay.

But on the scale of a lifetime, what does that represent?

".

Changing habits is complicated

In Rennes, the Time Bureau has been looking into the question of our rhythms of life for twenty years.

His mission ?

Find collective solutions to respond to our individual concerns.

The most striking example is to be found on the metro side.

In 2012, the service had obtained from the University of Rennes 2 that it stagger its hours of entry into the amphitheater to avoid a hyperpeak of attendance in the metro each morning.

“It is a very telling example.

To deal with this problem, we thought about enlarging the trains, increasing the frequency, when it was enough to have a temporal approach, ”recalls Iris Bouchonnet.

The assistant to the time policy likes to insist on "the essential role of communities" to relieve the daily life of the inhabitants.

In particular by adapting the opening hours of public services such as libraries or swimming pools.

"We must make people feel guilty about managing their time by proposing adaptations".

Recently, the Rennes metropolis launched an experiment around “teleworking at peak hours”.

Objective ?

Avoid traffic jams by delaying your arrival time at the office.

“We notice that there are many blockages.

Because people are being asked to change their habits.

But also because some explain to us that their later arrival is frowned upon in the company.

We must infuse this approach, explain it, ”continues the elected communist.

“Do not try to calculate as accurately as possible”

By inviting the psychoanalyst Hélène L'Heuillet, the Rennes community hopes to "open the discussion" around the rhythm of life that everyone leads.

“If I had any advice to give, it would be not to try to calculate as accurately as possible, to afford a margin without being afraid of emptiness.

Keep some time for yourself between two appointments, without trying to chain everything.

If we don't have that time, we run the risk of being constantly late, of chasing after”.

The teacher also warns of the danger that awaits the most overwhelmed people: “The feeling of having to rush everything is often a triggering factor for burnout.

This is where you can lose your self-esteem”.

With this unpleasant feeling of not doing anything right.

Dear reader, if you're still here, take some time to think about it.

Society

Rennes: Telecommuting at peak times to avoid traffic jams?

Planet

Energy crisis: Why cycling must be quickly (and massively) developed

• Society

• reindeer

• Brittany

• Delay

• Work time

• Stress

• burn out

• Confinement

• Telework