Our experience of time, as we all know, is elastic. When you’re stuck in traffic and late for an appointment, every minute can seem like an eternity. When you’re sharing good wine and stimulating conversation with friends, on the other hand, hours can pass like minutes.
Time exhibits similar elasticity when it comes to putting information in context. When you’re a sales manager with the end of the quarter bearing down on you, you want to see all of the big proposals waiting for customer approval now. But if you don’t make your numbers for the quarter and want to figure out why, you’ll probably want to be able to review the histories of key deals as they progressed over time—so you can figure out how they may have gotten derailed.
