# PSA: Replace Now() with a lower-resolution real time clock for heavy formulas

**URL:** <https://connect.superhuman.com/t/psa-replace-now-with-a-lower-resolution-real-time-clock-for-heavy-formulas/13759>\
**Category:** Tips and Hacks\
**Created:** [February 10, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://connect.superhuman.com/t/psa-replace-now-with-a-lower-resolution-real-time-clock-for-heavy-formulas/13759 "2020-02-10T21:18:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Paul\_Danyliuk](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/coda1/user_avatar/connect.superhuman.com/paul_danyliuk/32/27228_2.png) [@Paul\_Danyliuk](https://connect.superhuman.com/u/Paul_Danyliuk)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://connect.superhuman.com/t/psa-replace-now-with-a-lower-resolution-real-time-clock-for-heavy-formulas/13759/1 "2020-02-10T21:18:59Z")

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**UPD:** For anyone finding this trick in 2023 and beyond — don’t use it anymore!

Use `Now()` with precision, e.g. `Now("minute")` or `Now("hour")`.

For the record, there are two hidden functions, `NowInMinutes()` and `NowInHours()` but the officially supported one is `Now()` with an argument.

* * *

Sometimes you need to calculate things based on current time (e.g. conditionally format tasks that are due, or show different text values for when the time is in the past or in the future). And sometimes those calculations are quite heavy.

What to do when you don’t need the precision of `Now()` (which updates and triggers recalculations a few times per second), but `Today()` is too coarse too?

Answer: make a less granular counter and depend on that. E.g., for minute-precision make a named formula `DateTimeTruncate(Now(), "minute")`

Coda will recalculate this formula every time `Now()` changes (i.e. multiple times a second), BUT will not recalculate anything depending on this coarse timer as long as its [cached] value stays the same (i.e. for the entirety of a minute):

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/coda1/original/2X/f/f897f5af557730737e599bd1e7843d32d3fd398b.png)

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**Author:** ![Bjorn\_Hansell](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/coda1/user_avatar/connect.superhuman.com/bjorn_hansell/32/17961_2.png) [@Bjorn\_Hansell](https://connect.superhuman.com/u/Bjorn_Hansell)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://connect.superhuman.com/t/psa-replace-now-with-a-lower-resolution-real-time-clock-for-heavy-formulas/13759/2 "2021-02-19T18:37:57Z")

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Using the named formula is really clever, thanks @Paul_Danyliuk! I’ve been struggling with this for a couple of hours now and am looking forward to my doc running smoothly again!