There are very few things in life which are absolutely time and mission critical. Usually these are life or death situations or situations where you are performing or have an appearance at a particular time and place. Outside of that (and a few others) I would say almost 80% of things in our daily life are not time and mission critical. But we still make it so. A client always wants things “yesterday” for no real reason or rhyme, cars refuse to follow the red light (almost like everyone is rushing for an emergency to the hospital is it?), people sit in a restaurant and want food immediately (even if they are not in a hurry). We are addicted to “feeling rushed” and in fact have fallen in love with that feeling. It has become so endemic in our culture (especially urban India) that when a person is relaxed, calm and joyful and apparently in no real hurry, to either execute his or anyone else’s work or to get from one place to another, people almost look at that person with a sense of shock; almost to say “Hey buddy, which planet are you from”. And it’s not just individuals who behave like that – some of the chief culprits are businesses, who live on the edge of insecurity, which fuels this culture of “rushing” around.
Dennis Taraporewala 
This reminds me of an interesting conversation I had with my cousin Radha who is doing her PHD in History. I was mentioning to her about how many of my American and European clients seemed so much more systemically and culturally geared towards following a schedule as compared to Indians.
She mentioned that the traditional concept of activity flow measured with respect to time was of recent origin (in terms of history, recent is anywhere between 500-2000 years) and gained prominence in the West much before they found their way into the Indian culture. The Indian historical view of activity flow was more focussed on the activity rather than the amount of time that it took. The emphasis therefore rests with the activity and not the deadline. I believe this is a more instinctive manner in which humans relate to their activities even today. I often find a lot of effort having to be made to align myself and my colleagues to a time deadline but the adoption of a work process that eases effort and generates the required end result stems from a more natural urge and instinct.
The layering of a time deadline element above activities was obviously triggered by a variety of socio-economic factors but it neither represents the natural human instinct towards activities nor does it really fit in with a spiritual view that emphasises the experience of the moment as the truth. The Advaita philosophy of ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ (That is You) which talks about the self and the universe being one and indivisible can be experienced in the moment if you are not run by a clock.
Renouncing the clock in my view would be a powerful catalyst to bring the moment alive.
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