Time Management OTB

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The relevant saying is "damned if you do, damned if you don't". If you ever figure out the right balance between playing a strong opening vs don't use too much time, let me know pronto.

Playing what you normally do is a good idea, since that will save you time. Changing your opening just for the time control is normally an ineffective strategy in my experience

i say if you recognize the opening and know what to do, you can ply as fast as you want.

One of the main advantages of memorizing your openings is having more time for the rest of the game.  I strongly recommend memorization.

In a 60 min game its better to take the time and play good moves early on. Its easier to play fast if you have an advantage, rather than rushing at first and then having to use your time later just to get equality or survive. If you take your time and get a good advantage either they will keep playing fast and lose or they will use up their time so you playing slow at first really doesnt matter as much

Here's my motto: Better to have 20 minutes on the clock at move 20 with a reasonable position than 50 minutes on the clock at move 20 with a lost position.

That said, it's be nice to have 50 minutes at move 20 with a good position  Therefore, it's good if you can whip out your openings moves instantly. Just remember, once you're not sure what the next opening move is (whether it's move 3 or move 15) you've entered the middle game for all practical purposes.

I agree with this.  The last part is the important part.  When your opponent makes a move that's out of your book, that's your first long think of the game.  Everything before that should be very quick.  You study/practice openings because these are huge decisions that you don't need to be taking game time to make.  Once you reach a position in which you haven't made a decision about what to play already, you then must take all the time you need to make the right move (within reason with respect to the time control).  Spending minutes on the 4th move of the French Defense in a common position is frankly a terrible waste of time.  Make that decision when you aren't on the clock.

There is some legend about some master who thought many minutes about the starting position. As grandmaster Mednis said in his book "How to Be a Complete Tournament Player": Don`t waste any of your thiniking time for choosing which opening move you will play (if you have a choice between line a and line b). Do this before the game!

I believe you refer to GM Bronstein who sometimes thought for a long time before making his first move . 

One other thought - an incorrect thinking process will drain your clock! For example, analyzing the same lines over and over because you're nervous is not good.

I've read about the thinking process in How To Reassess Your Chess and Think Like A Grandmaster and it seems it's best to (1) break down the position so that you have a general goal or plan, (2) find candidate moves that achieve this plan, and (3) calculate the moves once; then after a brief review, play your move. They also say that thinking during your opponent's move can be useful. Kotov wrote that he tried to think positionally during his opponent's move and calculate during his move.

Developing a good thinking process and sticking to it is hard; I still regularly get into time trouble. The results of a correct thinking process are enormous though!

I saw example of this during a quickplay (30mins) congress. In the final round he arrived at the board 5 mins late, and took a further 5 mins to make a move. A short time later the old boy in the beret was victorious. 

And for the op I might suggest one of John Nunns books Secrets of Practical Chess.

This is really interesting topic, thanks guy for clarifying some things.

I had my first long time control OTB game last week ("90|30"\40 + "30|30"\rem). Got into unpleasant opening for me quickly and had 1:15 to opponent's 1:27 after 10 moves. Maybe it's good to divide 1/3rd of the time for 20 moves and the other 2/3rds for the next 20 moves. Dunno. Unexperienced. :)

A better position is better than having more time on the clock in long OTB games. (For example it's better to be a clear pawn up with no compensation for your opponent with 30 mins and your opponent has 90 mins, than to have an equal position with for example 60 mins for you and 30 mins for your opponent.)

Use as many time as you need in every phase of the game, learning correct time management is important. If you need 5 mins to play the opening moves because you know it very well, than play it in 5 mins. If you need 20 minutes to figure out what to do because you don't know the opening, then use 20 minutes. But just playing quick random opening moves just to get a time advantage is not worth it, you will lose in the middlegame if you make bad moves because you are in a hurry.