I read a book last year titled "Why Time Flies" that opened my mind to a lot of just how our brains perceive time, particularly when we reflect on time past present and future... extremely applicable to this topic and most of the posts here.
It is a bit deep, in terms of research, even suggesting that time and our presception of it is a manifestation of consciousness (gets a bit philisophically deep there)... but I would think many here would love it just as much as I did.
The general idea that I took away from it is that our brains and our perception doesn't actually follow time in a sense that it flows. Instead we reflect on time as markers that have been condensed. We can't actually think of moments, because a moment to us, no matter how small, is just a collection of things that happened during a period of time. This happens on small and large scales. That is, when we feel time is flying it's because we really truly are happiest when we aren't tracking moments of time, but rather just living it. We don't place markers in these moments so when we reflect it seems it passed faster. That is because the moments we think about time is when it slows. To the contrary the moments of tedious and boredom seem like time can never go fast enough. The one difference between these two is that in moments where we are bored, we reflect on time, and in doing so we place markers along the way. So when we reflect on a day of boredom, we can think of all those moments we thought "how long has it been..." or "how much longer will today be..." it felt like it took forever. We had a lot of markers where we thought "how long as it been" as it was going.
Ironically our brain then condenses all these boring days (weeks, months years of similarity) into routine, where it kind of recursively categorizes it down to single markers. So when we reflect back on days where we did the same thing over and over, without an deviation... they all merge into a single idea that represents the whole. In that way... being a slave to routine can make life in real time seem incredibly slow, yet in retrospect later, seem like it passed in the blink of an eye because no deviation gives us less to think on other than that one moment we pinned it all as.
So what makes us feel time is rich, longer, fuller? Why do we feel like time is slower when we are younger? Well a few reasons:
- History... when we lack a lot of history (markers to condense from similar experiences) we feel like time has been going forever, because we compare what we're doing now to what we've done in the past. As a 20 year old with about 15 years if solid memories, the last decade represents 67% of all your moments - and most everything done is new and different. To the contrary, when you're 80 and reflecting on the last decade of life. It's mixed in with about 70 years of memories, and that same decade by comparison is 12.5% of your life. It can be condensed quite a bit by calling on past experiences for reference.
- Experiences are GOLD. Doing something different. Our brains are wired to create new markers. I experienced this in real time. When I was 29, I worked myself to death. For some ungodly reason I wanted to get the largest bonus I could that year. So I took zero time off. None. Gave me a payout at the end of the year worth about 15% of my yearly income (time bought back). Yay... in retrospect that year felt like it flew by. Like I gave it away. My mind sees nothing... just routine. It saddend me, so the following year I took 4 weeks off, and every since I've forced myself to take at least 3. I use those days to travel and always do something new and different. Experience something I'ev never experienced before. I feel like age 30-33 was richer than my entire 20's because of this. I'm taking this lesson forward for the rest of my life. I don't want it to fly by... bored.
- Our brains construct of time relies on input from our senses. Our senses pass less data to our brains as we age. Some more than others. Some less because of health (mainly diet). If there is no other reason to eat healthy... this is it! Did you know that dragonflies perceive time five times faster than us. Their brains take in data faster, and process it faster. So scientists believe what they see as time (on our scale) would show us moving in slow motion. So that little bug, that may only have days out of the water to fly around and be active. Well they are experiencing five times as much reality as us per second. Our brains are a mysterious thing in that we do similar... and as we age our brains slow down gradually because we don't have as much sensory input coming in from our ears, eyes, fingers...
Keeping yourself sharp keeps time moving slower
This is the magic behind all of those scientific studies showing that keeping the brain elastic is key. Challenge it. Do something different, and new. This doesn't have to be travel or adventure. It means get out there and try something else. Study something else. Do something else.
I did a horrible job doing this book justice. It really gives context to this most valuable thing in life... time
