The clock on the wall says 3:47 PM. That's clock time. Real. Mechanical. The Earth has rotated to a position relative to the sun. The cesium atom has vibrated 9,192,631,770 times. Nothing controversial there.
Then there's the other time. I'll be happy when. After this project. When I finally. That's the time thought makes.
K split time in two. Chronological time is the clock. Necessary. Unavoidable. Neutral. Psychological time is the postponement of being — the constant deferral of who you are to who you will be after the next acquisition, the next breakthrough, the next stage of life. The clock time is fine. The psychological time is the trap.
Psychological time runs on a simple structure. There's a "me" that exists now. There's a "better me" that exists later. The gap between them is where life happens. Everything you do is in service of closing the gap. The gap never closes. That's the design. Reach "after this project" and there's a next project. Reach retirement and there's the version of retirement you imagined and the actual one. The gap survives every closure.
Notice the chest when "I'll be happy when" runs. There's a slight forward lean. A tension. The body is rehearsing the future moment of arrival. The body isn't here. The body is in the imagined moment. Meanwhile the actual hours pass.
Living in psychological time is living in a future that never arrives, with a body that never quite gets to where it is. The clock kept its time. You spent yours somewhere else.