Words From Paul: Summer Edition

Why is Summer SOOO Short? 

We’ve been doing a series of Summer posts on our blog and social media, and it got me thinking about Summer Vacations when I was a kid.  Back then, it seemed like Summer Vacation lasted forever.  Yet today it seems as though the weeks, months, seasons, and years just “fly by.” 

I often find myself thinking “next month is only 10 days away”, or “Christmas is only 5 months from today”, and that it seems to be here before we know it. 

So why is this?  I thought I’d ask our friend Microsoft Copilot about it – 

Here’s the prompt that I used – “Why does time seem to fly as we get older?” 

And Copilot’s response? 

“It often feels like time speeds up as we get older, and there are several reasons for this perception: 

• Proportion of Life: When you’re young, each year represents a larger portion of your life. For example, a year is 20% of a five-year-old’s life but only 2% of a fifty-year-old’s life. 

• Routine and Novelty: As we age, our lives often become more routine. New experiences create more detailed memories, making time feel slower. When days blend together, they seem to pass more quickly. 

• Cognitive Processing: Our brains process information more slowly as we age. This slower processing means we perceive fewer mental images in the same amount of clock time, making days and years feel like they pass more quickly. 

• Memory and Heuristics: We build heuristics, or mental shortcuts, to navigate life. This efficiency can make time seem to pass faster because we aren’t processing each moment as deeply. 

It’s fascinating how our perception of time changes with age, isn’t it? Do you have any specific memories that feel like they happened just yesterday?” 

OK, then. 

I can understand the “Proportion of Life” reason and there’s not a lot to talk about there.  And I’m a little insulted by the “Cognitive Processing” part and “Memory and Heuristics” seems a little deep.   

So, let’s dig into “Routine and Novelty”.  I’m beginning to think we do this to ourselves.  Have you noticed that it seems we have almost every minute of each of our days scheduled?  Breakfast, a few meetings and phone calls, lunch, a few more meetings and calls, dinner, maybe a little TV or something, then time for bed and repeat it all tomorrow.  Even the weekends are similarly scheduled.  Think about the last vacation that you took, did you schedule every minute of it?  I took one this summer that wasn’t that way.  It seemed like that week lasted as long as two or three “normal” weeks.  That’s probably because there was no set agenda for each day.  In fact, the two “fastest” days of the trip were the day we arrived and the day we left.  The day we left is the biggest blur because it was so intensely time focused.  We had to check out by this time, get to the airport by that time, and we’ll be home by 9:00 pm. 

This means that it’s my fault that time moves so quickly in my life.  It also means that I’m somewhat in control of it.  Time to make an effort to be more present in everything that I do, to spend less time living by the clock, and to leave room for novelty and randomness in my life.  I’d encourage you to do the same.