You have basically three options for timekeeping on mars: adjust the day, adjust the second, or give up on days syncing with the (apparent) movement of the sun.

You have basically three options for timekeeping on mars: adjust the day, adjust the second, or give up on days syncing with the (apparent) movement of the sun. The first option breaks mostly assumptions made in software and processes, the second mostly assumptions made in hardware, and the third breaks human's circadian rythm (a 23 or 25 hour rythm isn't a big deal, but it has to sync to light). Of those three, the things that rely on 24 hour days seem to be the easiest to change. Though there is precedent both to messing with the length of a day (a leap second makes the day one second longer, making 23:59:60 a valid time) and the length of a second (google pretends like seconds are slightly longer as an alternative way to deal with leap seconds)