Have you ever had the feeling that time is speeding up, as if every year is shorter than the previous one? That’s completely normal, according to Steve Taylor, a lecturer in psychology at Leeds Metropolitan University and a researcher in transpersonal psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. He wrote a book called Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It. In an article in Psychology Today, he talks about the reasons why time seems to speed up and suggests what we can do to slow it down.

Time passes slower for children because everything is new for them, so they learn things and experience things very intensely. As we grow older, we become more familiar to the world and take in fewer impressions, which makes time pass more quickly. Steve Taylor thinks that unfamiliarity slows down time and what we need is new adventurous experiences. He did a survey of returning travellers at Manchester airport. He asked them whether they felt time had gone quickly or slowly during their holiday: people who went on adventurous holidays to unfamiliar places – for example, trekking around India or a three week tour in Peru – felt that they had been away for a long time, whereas those returning from tourist complex holidays felt that time had gone quickly.

Two other suggestions to slow down time are making an effort to live in the present and not rush. Looking at the environment around us and enjoying the taste of food while eating are ways of having more intense feelings. Taking time off and stopping to live in the future and the past are strategies to reduce pressure and make your time last longer.