One of the most noticeable things about aging is how the perception of time changes over the years. As a child, time seems to go on forever: a week can feel like a year and a year can feel like a lifetime. But time seems to get faster with age. Sure, a particularly busy day can drag on, but years seem to pass in seconds and you could break a decade as quickly as a lunch break.
Why does time pass so quickly in old age? Routine. When you are young, new experiences leave their mark on your memory and leave you with the impression of an extended period of time. But if you do the same thing over and over, your brain consolidates the repeated action into a memory, making it seem like the time has been shortened.
“Routine kills our memory for corresponding intervals”, psychologist and time researcher Marc Wittmann, PhDsays. “If nothing useful has happened, we have nothing that our brain can record, and time subjectively shrinks.” This is why it is difficult, for example, to memorize individual trips to work, since your brain converts 261 train trips into a single memory.
This phenomenon became even more harrowing amid the pandemic. For those of us who worked from home, every day became exactly the same, in the same place, without the usual conversations – travel, restaurants, friends and family – that spice up a routine in normal times. After a seemingly endless period of isolation (not to mention grief, fear, and sadness), people now come out of their home and find that more than a full year has passed without them even realizing it.
If nothing useful has happened, we have nothing that our brain can record and time subjectively shrinks. “
Wittmann notes that the equality really messed up our brains. “Let’s say you went to a barbecue with friends on Sundays before the pandemic, watched football and drank beer, and then on Monday [head] back to work; They would charge between Sunday and Monday, ”he says. “That’s gone during the pandemic. Every day is “blursday” and in retrospect everything is just one chaotic source. The time is shortened. “
As Wittmann notes, the too fast time that passes is emotional. It speaks for our existentialism as a species. “We have this idea of linear time and we only have a certain lifespan,” he says. “One direction does not lead to a beautiful place, but to a place that we call old age and death.”
The bad news is, until someone finds the fountain of youth, there isn’t much you can do about the direction time is moving. But there are ways to slow down the sense of time, so don’t look up, say, 10 months from now, and wonder how your child finished an entire school year without reminding yourself to take them to school every day. Here are some tips:
Change your routine
This is obvious: if routine is a time (and memory) killer, then the best way to save time for a quick death is to break it. There isn’t much you can do about regular commitments like work, but you can crack the same on a daily basis.
psychologist Loren Soeiro, Ph.D. ABPP, says that even small changes to your routine can help add time. “There are ways to look for novelty and differentiation, even if they are not expensive or time-consuming,” he says. “You don’t have to go on vacation or go out for expensive meals or anything. Just break your work day – stroll the neighborhood, meet a friend for coffee in the middle of the day. Something that makes it a little fresher. “
Other changes include taking a different route to work, listening to a new album every day, taking a lunch break to explore a different part of your (or your work’s) neighborhood, planning new after-work activities for as many days of the week as you can You can learn a new language or instrument, prepare a new meal a few days a week, etc.
Travel (responsible!)
One of the best ways to add time is to travel to a new place. Even a single weekend can make time seem longer than at home on your familiar couch.
“Staying at home the whole weekend, lazing around a Netflix series, that goes over quickly,” says Wittmann. “Compare that to a weekend in Paris with friends where you do exciting events and explore and you come back and say, ‘Oh, it’s been so long.’ There are so many things your brain can record in these two days. If you hang around at home, nothing happens and time goes by. ”
If you can, try vacationing in new places rather than going back to the same ones – although after a year at home, any place other than your own place will stimulate memory recording.
If you make a change tomorrow, you will still be so much different. You still made that change. “
Break your goals down into small, actionable pieces to cross off a list
One of the post-pandemic concerns that Soeiro has heard many times is that the past year not only went by quickly, it was lost. “I hear it all the time. It is associated with things like: “Where do I stand in relation to my goals? A year passed and nothing changed, ‘”he says. “People may feel that way anyway, but the pandemic made it worse.”
If you feel like you have fallen behind with the pandemic, the good news is that you can still achieve those goals now. “If you make a change tomorrow, you will still be so different. They still made that change, ”says Soeiro. “It doesn’t matter that nothing happened last year. Don’t let the time it takes to get here put you off. ”
For those struggling to get started, Soeiro suggests breaking a large goal into a series of smaller goals – tiny as those steps seem, reaching a small goal makes the distance to your ultimate goal seem much less daunting.
“Make a to-do list, put your little goals on that to-do list, and cross them off one at a time,” says Soeiro. “If all you have to do is apply for something, even if that’s the first part of your quest to get a degree or find a new job, filling out an application is a valid task and gives you a sense of momentum.”
Actively perceive new things
This method sounds reducing, but it works. When you are on the lookout for small changes in your familiar surroundings, new memories can break the routine.
When you have plants, keep an eye on their leaf growth. If you have pets, teach them new tricks. If you have kids, take their height, count their teeth, check out the new band posters on their bedroom walls if they invite you (don’t sniff). Notice how the sunlight changes in your living room throughout the day. The little things make the difference
Meditate
In general, as one is more present, time slows down, and meditation is a great way to accomplish this. Wittmann says techniques like mindfulness and concentration on breathing help you to get “control” over your time perception.
“My idea of how we perceive time is through our body,” he says. “We don’t have a normal sense organ for time, we sense time through the passing of our interoceptive body states. When you concentrate on your physical self, time slows down. “
Meditation can not only expand the sense of time, but also relieve stress and anxiety. you don’t have to be silent for hours to reap the benefits; There are a number of apps that can help you get started in meditation, even if you only have a few minutes a week.
When you concentrate on your physical self, time slows down. “
Keep a journal
Your brain may not store all of your repeated memories, but your journal can. Writing down a few thoughts, feelings, and memories every day will save those memories before your brain puts them together and revisiting them later can help you remember time otherwise wasted.
“Journaling helps you build your narrative memory and your narrative self,” says Wittmann. “Researchers have shown that when you update your memory over a period of time, time increases relatively.”
(For example, don’t look in your school diary. Puberty isn’t worth the extra time.)
make photos
Like a journal, taking photos helps create a narrative record that will preserve your memories even after your brain has erased them. But don’t take too many photos, as studies show that preoccupation with taking photos can affect your actual memory of the event you are trying to document, which is counterproductive.
Do not punish yourself
Here’s the thing – no matter how much you meditate, journal, or mess with your day-to-day life, time will slip through your fingers. And if you feel particularly distressed about the goals you missed out on in the past pandemic year or moments you couldn’t capture, take a break.
“It’s been a very scary year,” says Soeiro. “There have been many losses, there have been many unexpected, frightening and unfortunate events. We were all held back, we were all delayed and it was pretty scary. “
This post was edited after publication to correct the misspelled name of the quoted expert Marc Wittmann.
