Time Flies
May 23, 2025
To Inspire:
My mother always told me that the older you get, the faster time goes. As a young person, of course, I didn’t believe her, but now I fully understand how right she was. For example, how is it almost June already?! It turns out this is not just in our minds, there are reasons why our perception of time changes as we age.
Time seems to move more slowly when we’re kids, and part of that is perspective. Cindy Lustig, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan said, “the perception of time is influenced by memory and how much you’ve experienced. For an 8-year-old, a week is a big portion of their life. For an 80-year-old, a week is a much smaller portion of their life, which contributes to the feeling that it went by quickly.”
Time also seems to move faster depending on how we look at it. Are we in the moment experiencing it or are we looking back on time past? Looking back on time impacts this feeling of acceleration. While a single day may seem like it’s going by slowly for an 80-year-old or an 8-year-old, when both people look back on this time, the older person will feel like time goes by faster.
One big reason for this is lack of variety. For the 80-year-old, life is probably not much different than when they were 77 or 78 or 79. They’re looking back on fewer events. Our brains tend to lump time together when days or weeks are similar. So, for an older person who mostly does the same thing every day, time blends together and feels like it goes by much faster.
Our brains are designed to note change. Young people have so many new experiences in a day or week. This makes it seem like time is stretching out, it feels long. Doing something new and exciting makes the days and weeks feel different to our brains and sets time apart in our minds. So, changing your routine can affect how fast the years seem to go by.
While you can’t actually slow down time, there are things you can do to make it feel like time is moving a little slower. Most importantly, experience new things. Pick up a new hobby, take a trip to a new city, or sign up for a class. Be fully engaged while you’re doing these new things. Laboratory studies have shown that mindfulness exercises can impact your perception of time, so make an effort to focus on your experiences.
Everybody wants to live longer and do great things with the time available. Getting out of your day after day after day routine and learning something new is a great way to slow down time and make the most of this valuable asset.
Written by Michelle O’Brien, Manager of Marketing & Communications