Greene's division of the art of timing into three kinds, each with its own skill.
Robert Greene's framework, from 48 Laws of Power, pp. 432 to 446.
Long Time
Manage years-long time with patience and gentle guidance, mostly defensively, waiting for opportunity.
Forced Time
Use short-term time offensively by making people wait, making them hurry or giving them deadlines so their timing is upset.
End Time
Having waited and found the moment, execute with speed and force without any hitch in the endgame.
From chapter: LAW 35, pp. 432–446
Never seem in a hurry, and treat time as something to read and shape. Joseph Fouche survived revolution, Terror, Directoire, Napoleon and two Bourbon restorations by sniffing out the spirit of the times, waiting patiently, switching sides at the right moment and escaping arrest by ladder. Greene divides time into three kinds: long time, which calls for patience and defence; forced time, in which you upset others' timing by making them wait or hurry, as Sultan Mehmed did with the Hungarian emissary; and end time, where you must finish quickly and ruthlessly. He says there is no reversal.
