Seasonal time management

It’s time for me to start adjusting my household routines to compensate for the changing seasons, specifically, the shortening days and cooling temperatures. Those changes are mostly slow and not even necessarily easy to perceive—until April arrives. Last night, New Zealand went back to Standard Time (NZST) when we turned our clocks back one hour. That abrupt change in daylight hours is the signal for me to change the way I do things.

Much as I despise winter—something I may have mentioned once or twice—the thing I now despise even more are the two seasonal clock changes, and of the two, the Autumn change is the worst, which is weird to me. I didn’t always despise the clock changes: When I was younger, including after I moved to New Zealand, I was pretty much indifferent—though I often said I enjoyed the “extra hour of sleep” after the autumn clock change. I’ve read that dislike of the clock changes often becomes stronger as people get older, and maybe that’s part of it for me, too. However, the biggest thing for me is the declining number of daily sunshine hours.

As we move toward winter, the earth’s axial tilt causes us to slowly lose daylight hours, and the poor weather in winter can reduce the number of hours when there’s full sunshine. This is a very important thing for me, living in a house with solar power.

For roughly six months of the year—from late Autumn through early Spring—I plan my activities around the times when the sun is shining on the panels. That’s because I always try to use the power I’m generating rather than buying it. When there are already fewer sunshine hours in winter, rainy days can mean the panels may generate little or no electricity. My back-up plan is to do energy-intensive things (like running the clothes dryer or the dishwasher) when the electricity rates go down at 10pm.

This also affects heating when the temperatures descend to winter cold because my heat pumps use more power. On bright sunny days, I make sure the curtains are open when the sun is shining so the house can be warmed for free (the sunshine creates the electricity to run the heat pumps, and it also warms the inside of the house by shining though the windows). Then, when the sun leaves those windows, I close the curtains again to keep the heat inside. This curtain management is something I’ve done for many, many years, but I have an even stronger incentive now that the solar panels will be generating less power over the next few months.

None of this is terribly important for the other six months of the year: I generate so much electricity that I couldn’t possibly use it all. Even so, on hot summer days, I close the curtains on the westerly side of the house once the sun hits the glass. Doing that helps keep my house cooler than if I left the curtains open until evening.

Aside from all those very specific adjustments, I intensely dislike the short days of winter for another reason: Yard work. Over that season, I have to plan my outside work around the fewer hours of daylight—there’s no mowing my lawns on a winter evening, for example. However, the higher number of rainy days, on top of fewer sunlight hours, can add another barrier toward finishing yard work.

All of this may sound like I’m complaining, that I’m annoyed by all this, but that’s the opposite of the truth. In fact, I quite like the challenge of managing all of that, and I feel that mixing up my household routines as the seasons change helps to keep me from getting bored—or, maybe too bored os more accurate—with routine work around the house.

To be clear, I still hate short, cold, dark, and/or rainy winter days, but by making seasonal adjustments to my household routines I distract myself from what I dislike by instead focusing on what I can achieve in a day. I absolutely still hate winter, but focusing on positive things helps me to mind winter a little bit less. I’m sure that this sort of shift in focus wouldn’t necessarily work for everyone, but it definitely works for me. One does what one must, and all that.

Due to the time change, stoday’s unset will be a 6:02pm—and it’ll suddenly get dark an hour earlier that it has been. That’s a noticeable thing, and the seasonal clock changes mess with my body for a week or two, as well. My change in routine doesn’t help with that, unfortunately, but at least it helps me make sure I get stuff done. That’s—well, something I guess.