Less than Zero," or the original by Simon & Garfunkel, the opening lines of the song "Hazy Shade of Winter" are pretty recognizable. And, for me, they sure resonate. Time goes by and, one day you look in the mirror and … well, let’s just say you aren’t as young as you once were. And the world continues to change at an increasingly rapid pace.

I’ve been thinking about time a lot lately — whether it’s navigating work with people in different time zones (or, being in a different time zone myself), daylight savings time or just not having enough hours in the day. I guess you could say that time has been on my mind.

When I was a young girl, my dad often said, “The older you get, the faster time goes.” I had no idea what he was talking about. My childish brain believed that time was measured by a clock. And it didn’t move faster or slower. It just WAS.

Or was it? Because I now find myself thinking he was right.

What is this phenomenon that makes it feel like the hours, days, weeks, months and years are speeding up? I can’t blame it all on technology, though I do believe for many of us, that is a good part of it. I mean, when your workday never really ends (see above about working with people in different time zones and especially on a global basis) and you can fluidly transition in and out of work mode, even when you are supposed to be disconnected, it is easy to see how time just passes us by.

But it turns out there is more to it than that. There is actually a scientific reason for the feeling that life is flying by at an increasing speed. Simply put, the best explanation is that our perception of time is directly linked to how much time we have already lived and the experiences we have had.

For those science geeks (like me) who want to learn more, I sourced this study from Cambridge University. The short version is that we perceive “actual time” as that which occurs between the arrival of newly created neural images …or in other words, we remember new stuff more readily and that contributes to our distorted perception of time.

Most of us experience fewer new experiences and fewer memorable events as we get older, so it seems like childhood lasted longer. Do you remember something you’ve done once more vividly than something you’ve done over and over? Or, have you ever had the experience of driving home and not remembering how you got there? It’s related to the same phenomena: your brain can pretty much run on autopilot because you’ve driven the same route so many times.

For the same reasons, we get stuck in a rut at work. We do things the same way because we’ve always done them. We stifle innovation because we don’t have time. It’s simply going by too quickly. “I don’t have time to be creative,” we say. We block out focus time and let meetings creep in. We check our devices at every notification.

The solution is actually pretty simple, it seems. The way to “slow time down” is to simply break out of our routines and do new things. Go new places. Try a different dish at your favorite restaurant. Meet new people. The same goes for work. Collaborate with new people, try new things and break out of the old patterns. Silence the notifications, even if it’s just for 30 minutes at a time. Who knows, maybe the change will spark a great idea?

Dad may not have been wrong, but I’m not quite ready to accept that time will continue to speed up as I take additional trips around the sun. Or, that I will be stuck in a rut for the rest of my days. What new things have you tried recently? Do you believe that breaking our routines can help to “slow time down”?

Hang onto your hopes my friend
That’s an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again

Time, time, time

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