Is time ‘moving faster' for you too? There's a reason you feel this way, says Charles Assisi

Hindustan Times

5 hours ago

Each time my editor at the Hindustan Times, Zara Murao, reminds me that it's time to write this column, we both laugh and shudder at once. Has it been two weeks already? Wasn't it just the other day she reminded me of my last deadline? It's the middle of the year already; how did it pass by so fast? An astronomical clock in Prague. To make better sense of time, seek out precious or new experiences. As we create memories, time 'stretches', researchers say. (Shutterstock)
These aren't the only times this sensation hits. There have been many moments this year when I've looked up from my desk and felt like I've lost entire weeks.
A project I started work on 'just the other day' has turned out to be months old. My pile of summer reads has gone untouched. Suddenly, we are well into the monsoon.
If you've felt this too — that 2025 is somehow moving faster than usual — you're not alone. And no, this isn't the poetic imagination of tired minds. There is scientific theory, in fact, to explain this experience.
One of the most enduring insights in this regard comes from the 19th-century American thinker and psychologist William James. He famously observed that time feels slower when one is younger because we are encountering the world in high-resolution. Everything is new, and our brains are soaking it in. As we create rich, detailed memories, time appears to stretch out (remember the interminable wait to turn seven; I need a minute, now, to remember what year I'm in).
As we age, James's theory goes, our routines harden, sameness sets in, and we stop noticing the details. We stop encoding novelty, because there is less of it. When memory is thin, he says, time collapses in retrospect. This is why a new experience, a new place, travel or time spent in groups stands out (and seems to go by more slowly).
Since the pandemic, most of us live lives of far greater sameness than we did before Covid-19. Habits have changed, social circles have shrunk. The calendars are full again, but the experiences blur together. We check off tasks, attend meetings, cycle through content. But by the end of the day, we're not quite sure where the time went.
It was particularly comforting, and intriguing, to me to hear the clinical psychologist Kuldeep Datay, whom I have known for some years and who is affiliated with the Institute for Psychological Health (IPH) in Mumbai, concur.
'The years do seem to be moving faster,' he said. 'It seems to be a function of two things: the pace of life in our cities, and the sameness of our days. Most of our days are so similar, we can go through them on autopilot.'
Sameness of course is a luxury; it indicates stability and ease. But as with anything good, have we breached the limit and ended up with too much? Paired with other aspects of life in the social-media age, have we tipped the scales too far?
I believe Kuldeep strikes at the heart of the matter when he speaks of the pace of our cities.
Take my younger daughter. She and her pre-teen friends live days filled with new sights, experiences and information. Even their slang is constantly evolving. As their brains record more memories per unit of time, a single afternoon can feel like a week. A school day can feel endless. A summer seems to stretch on for a lifetime (and have half a lifetime's experiences packed into it).
Their minds aren't as cluttered with deadlines and calendar entries. They live far more in the present, with little concept of time as a resource.
I am already seeing this fade with my elder daughter. Amid schedules and exam stress, her teenage life is more repetitive: classes, homework, endless scrolling. 'This year flew by,' she said to me in December, for what I think was the first time.
There is biology and math at play too, as psychologists have pointed out.
Proportionality theory, which I find equal parts elegant and sobering, suggests that time appears to speed up as we grow older because each year becomes a smaller fraction of our lived experience. To a 10-year-old, a year is 10% of their life. To a 50-year-old, it is 2%. This, they theorise, is part of why childhood summers lasted longer, and adult Decembers seem to arrive faster each year.
Of course, culture plays a crucial role. We live in a world that celebrates speed: 2x video speeds. 10x growth. Rapid iterations. Even rest has become something to optimise. We measure time not by its texture, but by how efficiently it was used.
What can we do to course-correct?
The answer, ironically, is to deliberately slow down. Not in a vague, Instagram-zen way, but by actively working towards novelty, mindfulness and presence. Be more aware of what you are doing as you do it. Stay in the moment.
Make time for moments of nothing: watch the clouds change shape, put the phone down for the duration of a conversation. Feel the fullness of time again.
(Charles Assisi is co-founder of Founding Fuel. He can be reached on [e-mail])