Preliminary Findings on Hand Cream Timing
The triggering condition for hand cream application is contact with something that would become difficult if greasy.
Subject: Hand Cream Timing Background: Ongoing Status: Preliminary
Subject
The subject under examination is the consistent activation of hand cream application at the moment immediately following contact with a surface that would be adversely affected by hand cream residue. Surfaces in the documented record include: a phone screen, a keyboard, a light switch, a book page, and a piece of paper requiring a signature.
This is not a small sample. This is the whole record.
Background
Hand cream has been available to the subject for a period of not less than three years. The product sits on a surface within arm's reach of the subject's primary workspace. Its position has not changed. Its availability has not been interrupted.
The body gives clear feedback throughout the day indicating that the hands are dry. This feedback is received and noted. The body then waits for the feedback to become inconvenient before responding. The inconvenience condition is not dryness. The inconvenience condition is the moment at which applying hand cream would interfere with something.
Under the governing rule, a workaround for hand cream timing outranks the inconvenience that originally created it.
Findings
Hand cream timing has received a preferred place in the routine. It happens after dinner. After dinner, there is a window of approximately twenty minutes during which nothing will be adversely affected by greasy hands. The hands are also at their driest at this point, because they have recently been washed.
This is correct. The timing is appropriate. The issue is that the timing is necessary. People start planning around it before the triggering situation occurs. A phone call expected during the day is deferred to after-dinner timing. A document requiring a signature is left until the window.
The routine then defends hand cream timing as necessary evidence of competence, courtesy, or control. Applying hand cream outside the established window feels premature. Impulsive, even.
Status
Preliminary. Further observations required. The finding is unlikely to change.
Filed by: Office of Dermal Administration Distribution: Subject (if not currently greasy)