Where does the time go? Hasn’t this year gone quickly? How is it almost July? I blinked and its summer
Have your heard or said any of these in the last few days, chances are you have. Certainly the concept of time - its pace, never having enough, us having a lack of control over it - is something that we talk about often. But what is it that we really mean? Why does it ‘go so quickly’ and can we get more of it?
Alan Burdick, author of ‘Why Time Flies’ says that when we talk about time, we often think of a clock, and when we feel time speed up or slow down it is because it doesn’t accord with that regimented ticktock, the steady idea of time ticking by that we have in our minds.
Part of the reason it feels like time is going quickly is because we are doing so many things. And literally trying to do multiple things at once. A definition of stress I heard a few years ago was put as simply as doing one thing and having the feeling you should be doing something else. Sound familiar?
How do we get more time? Laura Vanderkam- Time Management Expert, reminds us that we have 168 hours in a week. And factoring in a full time job and sleeping for 8 hours a night still leaves us with around 72 hours for other things. That is a lot of time each week and her advice is that we have to plan and prioritise how we use those hours each week, ideally a #friday afternoon. There will always be ‘life admin’ and things that need to get done but planning around career needs, family/home needs and personal needs is a clear way of thinking about these hours to try and feel more in control of our time.
The good news about time feeling like it is running away with you? Research done in elderly care facilities shows that when people are asked about how quick they think time is passing, the ones that feel time is going fast are more likely to be more socially engaged and active than those who felt it was going slowly.
So it does seem that time really does fly when you are having fun.
