Make function for handling time or reuse an existing one

[mleot]

Fixes #4113

Description

Please include a summary of the change and which issue is fixed. Please also include relevant motivation and context. List any dependencies that are required for this change.

Fixes #4113

Type of change

Please add a line in the relevant section of CHANGELOG.md to document the change (include PR #) - note reverse order of PR #s. If necessary, also add to the list of breaking changes.

• [ ] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• [ ] Optimization (back-end change that speeds up the code)
• [x] Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)

Key checklist:

• [x] No style issues: $ pre-commit run (or $ nox -s pre-commit) (see CONTRIBUTING.md for how to set this up to run automatically when committing locally, in just two lines of code)
• [x] All tests pass: $ python run-tests.py --all (or $ nox -s tests)
• [x] The documentation builds: $ python run-tests.py --doctest (or $ nox -s doctests)

You can run integration tests, unit tests, and doctests together at once, using $ python run-tests.py --quick (or $ nox -s quick).

Further checks:

• [ ] Code is commented, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• [ ] Tests added that prove fix is effective or that feature works

[codecov[bot]]

Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests :white_check_mark:

Project coverage is 99.54%. Comparing base (a786a5e) to head (f58f112). Report is 1 commits behind head on develop.

Additional details and impacted files

```diff @@ Coverage Diff @@ ## develop #4209 +/- ## =========================================== - Coverage 99.55% 99.54% -0.02% =========================================== Files 288 288 Lines 21878 21871 -7 =========================================== - Hits 21781 21771 -10 - Misses 97 100 +3 ```

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