Time

When you are a child, one year feels like a lifetime because it is your lifetime. When you are five years old, waiting one year for something means waiting a period of time equal to 20% of your entire life thus far. As we get older, this fraction shrinks. When you're twenty, waiting a year means waiting another 5% of your life so far. When you're forty, waiting another year means waiting another 2.5% of your life so far. Suddenly, the years seem to be whizzing by, and you wonder where all the time went.

This simple mathematical thought process provides only a partial explanation for the common feeling among humans that time seems to be speeding up as we grow older. Another factor is memory. Children are constantly learning new things about the world they live in: how to talk, how to make friends, how to play games, how the world works. Our developing brains process all of this information and store it in the form of memories. When we become adults, we start to settle into a routine: work, eat, sleep, repeat. We are not learning as many new things on a day-to-day basis, so there is no longer any reason for our brains to record as many memories. It's the same-old, same-old. Been there, done that. An adult has fewer memorable moments on a day-to-day basis compared to a child, who might have new formative experiences everyday.

For this reason, if we want to slow down our perception of time as we age, we have to leave our comfort zones: place ourselves in environments and situations we have never been in before and do so regularly. Avoid falling into a state of monotony where each day feels like the same as the previous. Keep learning. Keep being playful with your time. Keep being a kid.