Clock-time differentiates and systematises in a way rarely endorsed by small-scale societies, where the tendency is to reject hierarchy based on the measurement of time. Taking my lead from the Karawari-speaking Ambonwari of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, I introduce the concept of egalitarian temporality produced by never ending competition between different individuals and groups. The villagers are themselves responsible for creating periods and ways of being in both their environment and society, and they actively participate in dramatic episodes intended to cut into their existent ways of life. These ‘cuts’ then create desired changes. I argue that time in the Sepik and egalitarian small-scale societies in general is very much agentive and thus possessed, held and seen by individuals and groups, with periods defined by and organized around future oriented projects.