Daily Times

I’m a timekeeping obsessive, used to managing every hour and minute on the radio. Now my calendar is empty – how will it feel not to be busy? 8 My son has a new watch. Every weekday morning before school he declares: “It’s 16 minutes until we have to leave. Now it’s 13 and a half minutes until we have to leave.” It’s very relaxing. I worry that this obsession with clock-watching is hereditary. He’s only saying out loud what I’m saying in my head. My two main jobs, broadcasting and DJ-ing, share a central tenet; to fill and manage time. Every day for two hours in a BBC radio studio, I talk in time pockets, back-time songs and declare what time it is to the nation. I’m a timekeeping obsessive. I know that I can use the bathroom, make a cup of tea, and be back in the radio studio in the time it takes for an average pop song to play out. I know that it takes 22 minutes to cycle from my house to work, but 24 if I hit every red light on the final stretch.