How can I make time slow down?
There is a character in Catch-22 who believes that time passes quickly when you are having fun and that it crawls when you are bored, so in an effort to live as long as possible, at least subjectively, he attempts to stay as bored as possible at all times. I was trying to find something about that online and came across this article. Here are some relevant quotes: when childhood holidays are recalled, they seemed to stretch out into eternity. Sure, they were longer. But it’s no secret that with advancing years comes the sense that time is accelerating. Yet it doesn’t have to be like that, says Steve Taylor, who teaches courses on personal development at the University of Manchester. Clock time may be about minutes and hours, but Real Time is down to how we experience it, which differs from person to person depending on what we’re doing. A child’s day from 0900 to 1530 is like a 20-hour day for an adult, he says, and
The more new things you do or experience the slower time seems to go. Traveling and taking up a new, hard skill are good ways to slow time down. I am always amazed at how slow time seems to go when I am on vacation, in a new city. Conversely, the more time you spend doing routine, boring stuff, such as sitting around an office, watching TV, or using the web, the faster time seems to go. As people get older, activities tend to stretch out and repeat more — instead of going to school for 9 months from 8 until 3, you’re in an office from 9 to 7, year-round, doing basically the same stuff over and over again. Instead of a 2-week project being a long project, it’s a 2-year project that’s considered long. So the best ideas I have would be to not work in an office, get a job with lots of variety, many short projects, and that requires constant learning and travel.
I went through a lot of similar angst in my 20’s. It was a tough adjustment going from a relatively carefree education with lots of free time (even as an engineering student) to working in the real world. I’m far more content in my 30’s than I was then, and time has slowed down somewhat, though I’m still stressed out. I’m hoping my 40’s will be even better. You need to be comfortable in your own skin, and enjoy life, not just live it. Doing things you want to do, rather than just the things you have to do, will slow time right down. Have a proper lunch break. Go for a short walk, if you can. Take up a hobby that gets you out of the house. Do good deeds. Meet people. Have fun. Strive to be happy. Time doesn’t fly when you’re having fun – it lasts in your memory for a very long time. Happy times with friends and family are like jewels of the mind, locked in time, free to return to and be played with when you need a pick me up. Oh, and one last thing. Spend some time with the elderly. Gra
The problem is proportionality – when you’re 5 years old, a day spent in the fields playing is a (relatively) major portion of your life. If you spend the same day in the same field at 25, it’s a much smaller proportion of your life and nothing will stop you subconsciously measuring it against what you’ve already experienced and feeling it coming up wanting… The only thing you can do is consciously reassure yourself that time isn’t moving any more quickly – that it’s an illusion – and to stop worrying about it. Make sure that you fill the available time doing *something* – it will help you feel less guilty about the time you can’t stop from slipping away.
