Month Counting

If you are among the 85% of the population who count months inefficiently, this is your lucky day. I am about to save you a lot of time and frustration.

First, a mini-quiz:

Let’s say you were wondering how old Leo was and I told you his birthday was April 30th, 2008. How would you figure it out?

Think about it and then read on.

If you’re like most people (the 85% I referred to above which, by the way, is just by guess. I bet it’s really more like 95% but I was trying to be nice), then you get out your fingers and say, “April to May,” then hold up one finger, “May to June,” hold up your next finger, “June to July,” hold up a third finger, “July to August,” hold up a fourth finger and then say, “Just about four months!”

While you would arrive at the correct answer, you’ve really wasted a lot of time. Here is the way you should be doing it:

Say out loud, “April” but don’t hold up a finger. Then assign a finger to every month after that, “May, June, July, August.” By eliminating the first finger, you’ve saved yourself the trouble of having to say, “May to June,” “June to July,” etc. Try it. It’s really much faster.

You might say, “That won’t save me that much time!” But guess what. It applies to years: How many years ago did I graduate from college? Instead of going “99 to 2000,” “2001 to 2002,” “2002 to 2003,” You simply say, “99,” no finger, “2000, ’01, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08,” assigning fingers to each. The answer is nine. Wow. I’m old. But I would be older if I had done it the first way because I would have lost so much time.

It works on time too: How many hours until 5:00pm? No need to say, “11 to 12,” “12 to 1,” “1 to 2.” Just say “11” and then don’t assign the first finger.

If you’re confused about how to do it correctly, just remember, the key is to skip the first finger. Then you can drop all that “to” talk.

I hope I’ve helped you. If you want to thank me, please do so by Monday. That’s in…five days! It works for days too!