A: Because as you get older, each period of time represents a smaller fraction of your life. For instance, at 10 years old, 5 years represents 50% of your life–that’s a lot! Fast forward to when you are 50, that same 5 years is only 10% of your time on earth. To match the perspective of a 10 year old thinking about 5 years, that 50 year old needs to consider 25 years worth of life.
In other words, a 10 year old lives as much in 1 year as a 50 year old lives in 5 years.
That’s one reason why time seems to get faster. The other reason has to do with what you do in your down moments.
Think about traffic: why do you always seem to be in the slow lane? Because you are acutely aware of where you are when you’re just sitting there… versus when you zip past fourteen cars, which only takes a moment and which frees your mind from the frustration of being locked to wander. Amazingly, when I focus on what I need to do the following day during my commute home, time goes by quicker and I’m never quite as frustrated. Now apply the same principal to life: as a kid, down time is DEAD time. There is nothing to fill it. If you’re not playing, you’re not anything… and as a result, the moments drag on FOREVER. Fast forward to adulthood. With so much going on, you’re mind is spinning even in those dead moments, making you less aware of the passing time… similar to how focusing on work makes my commute go by quicker by taking my mind off the fact that traffic ain’t moving. Add this phenomenon to the principle that a minute is a much smaller fraction of your life span (as a percentage), and time now seems to RACE.
Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.
I'm the CEO of Ajax Social Media. We're helping 1 million people shine by making their online stories better. 