Is it me or is time moving faster?

“I can’t believe it’s summer already!”

We’ve all said it, or heard it, so many times it’s part of our daily small talk. But behind the cliché is something real. Time is flying. And it’s not just our imagination.

As a kid, summer felt endless. Two and a half months off school stretched on forever with long bike rides, evenings under the sun, trying out a new rollercoaster, or meeting a new friend who just moved into the neighborhood.

Those days felt infinite.

Now? Summer hasn’t even started, and I already know it’ll vanish in a blink.

So why does time feel like it speeds up as we get older?

First there’s math

When you're five, a three-month summer is 5% of your life. At forty, it’s just 0.6%. Proportionally, the same stretch of time feels much shorter to an adult.

This proportional perception means that each passing year makes up a smaller fraction of our total life experience, making time seem to accelerate as we grow up.

Check out this chart below to see the percentage of time that one year represents by age.

No wonder those childhood years felt so slow and long.

What psychology says

Then there’s the psychological side. Children live in a world full of firsts—new experiences that stand out and stretch our perception of time.

Vacations give us a taste of this as adults. You might feel like the trip flew by in the moment, but when you reflect on all the new things you saw and did, it feels long. Psychologists call this the Holiday Paradox, where a period feels short while you’re in it, but long in hindsight because your brain stored so many novel moments.

Newness breaks the blur. That’s why doing something even slightly different can make a regular weekend feel memorable.

Finally, the brain science

Beyond perception, there’s actual neuroscience at play. As kids, our brains absorb more detail. We take in the world with more attention and speed, like a camera capturing more frames per second.

As adults, our brains filter out familiar information more quickly. That’s why a flipbook of your childhood has more pages than one from your thirties—the brain is processing fewer distinct “frames,” so time speeds up.

So no, it’s not just you. Time really does feel like it’s speeding up.

You can’t slow down time but you can stretch it

Here’s the hard truth: Each year, it’s going to feel like life is moving faster. That can be an emotional realization especially as a parent. You want to savor this time. You don’t want it to blur.

The enemy is autopilot. Doing the same things the same way each day makes the weeks and months blend together.

Here are three ways to fight back:

1. Break the Routine

Inject novelty into your week. Take a new route to work. Sign up for a class. Plan a spontaneous day trip with your family. New experiences create anchor points in your memory that stretch out your perception of time.

2. Be in the Moment

Multitasking makes time disappear. Watching a show while scrolling your phone? You’ll look up and wonder where the hour went. Focus on one thing and let yourself be in it. That presence helps time slow down.

3. Celebrate Small Wins

Mark time intentionally. Celebrate more often. Create rituals to punctuate your days. These markers become memories, and those memories stretch the timeline of your life.

Time flies. But with intention, you can make the most of it.

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