The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity

Book Synopsis: Have you ever fantasized about having more time—now, this minute, to accomplish everything you need and want to get done today? Or wondered why time flies when you are thoroughly engrossed in something? Or why minutes pass so slowly when you're standing in line at the store or airport, or on hold waiting for a customer service rep to answer your call? Or how, simply, to find more time to relax and unwind? Now, with The Secret Pulse of Time, already a longstanding best seller in Germany, internationally best-selling and award-winning science writer Stefan Klein has crafted what amounts to "operating instructions" for time. "We are all taking part in a giant experiment in dealing with time," Klein writes—and his aim with this book is to help us each to understand "the degree to which our experience of time hinges on our outlook on life."

With his journalist's unerring eye for the telling detail, Stefan Klein effortlessly combines original investigation and reportage, personal revelation, and a wide-ranging, commanding presentation of scientific research among disciplines including brain physiology, social psychology, philosophy, and Einsteinian physics—with the goal of guiding us not only to better master time but also to understand why we so often fail to do so. Woven into his narrative are dozens of practical ways to make sense of and gain control over time, including:

• How not to lose your head when a deadline is quickly approaching
• How the present becomes a memory—and vice versa
• How to attune to your inner clock for more productive, satisfying days
• How to avoid becoming worn out by the fast tempo of modern life

Popular science at its very best, The Secret Pulse of Time awakens us to and empowers us with the idea that time is far more at our disposal than we have ever before realized.