Last October when Western Australia switched over to daylight saving, I refused to change my clocks, having decided to continue operating on standard time (see my blog post: In A Time Zone Of My Own). Now that daylight saving has ended for this summer, I can look back and review how practical it is to live in your own personal time zone. In a nutshell - it worked for me, but wouldn’t be practical for everyone.

I quickly became accustomed to adjusting the times in my head. For example, a 9:00am class began at 8:00am as far as I was concerned, and from my perspective the TV programs I watch began an hour early (mostly an advantage). The only time I got caught out was when I turned up at a shop 20 minutes before I thought it would close, to find it had closed 40 minutes earlier. Oh well, I was bound to forget at least once!

Most of the time, however, I was able to live by non-daylight-saving time without any problem. In fact, I became so used to it I still occasionally find myself looking at a clock and mentally noting what the time is for “normal people” - even though daylight saving has ended.

Whether this is feasible for others depends on how much one’s life interfaces with the outside world according to a schedule. For someone who lives by the clock, with many appointments, operating on a time different to everyone around you could be very confusing - and more trouble than it’s worth. But for those whose lifestyle is less regulated by the clock, living in your own individual time zone can indeed work smoothly, as I have discovered. If daylight saving becomes a regular occurrence in Western Australia, so will my boycotting of it.