Popcorn tells you when it’s done: when the pops slow down. Most things give signals if you listen.

Most things broadcast their state if you are paying attention to the right signal rather than the clock. The information is rarely a number; it is a change in rhythm, a shift in tone, someone going quiet when they were not before. Reading those signals is most of what people call good instincts.

Pick one thing this week you usually run by timer and try reading it instead. The pan, the conversation, your own energy at about four in the afternoon. Ask what it is telling you and act on that rather than the schedule you assumed.