My previous experience with time perception has been assumedly quite similar to most other minors to my knowledge. Fun times seem to pass with great speed, while the more boring instances seem to take loads of time. I’ve found that the current mindset of a person has a direct relationship with the speed at which they perceive time to pass. This seems to be true for extended periods of time such as an entire season as well as short moments in a day.
I’ve had numerous experiences where time seems to pass in no time at all, and I would consider them all highlights of my life. Several vacations come to mind at my grandparents’ beach cottage. These were all positive experiences as I remember them and I was very rarely inactive at any time of these vacation periods. My mind was constantly stimulated by new people, scenery, and activities I couldn’t partake in at home such as playing in the waves or ocean fishing. Also, my trip to Ireland in 2008 lasted three weeks, yet it seemed like less than twenty four hours in hindsight. Football season always seems to pass much faster than the rest of the year and it is also my favorite, busiest, and most exciting season of the year. It seems that at my most enjoyable times are the ones that last the least amount of time. That is strictly that way it is perceived, however.
Conversely, the moments in life that I enjoy the least seem to last the longest. Whenever I got in trouble at school, I was generally taken away from an activity and made to wait or talk with a correctional teacher. Either way, I was taken out of an activity I would rather do, and therefore I was subconsciously counting the time until I could get back to my previous activity. The fact that my mind was not fully engaged in an activity made it seem like a longer period of time. Similarly, my least favorite classes seemed to take the longest because I was much more conscious of the clock and eager to get to my next class. It seems that when I am engaged in a less enjoyable activity, I am more likely to focus on the passing time to help gauge the amount of time I have left in that activity.
The perceived speed of time passing, in my experience, has everything to do with the amount of stimulation in my mind at the time. The more I am occupied, the faster time moves. This would explain why time is much slower when you are consciously staring at a clock rather than daydreaming mindlessly. Staring at a clock involves little mental activity whereas daydreaming allows your mind to subconsciously reflect on previous events or prepare for upcoming ones. An occupied mind is much more active than a mind set on an elementary task or a mind with very little to think about. This is why an occupied person would never think to look at a clock to see how much time it has left. They would just enjoy their activity for as long as they can until they are forced to stop. On the other hand, a bored person will periodically check the time because they are eager to change to an activity where they are more active and satisfied. For example, the hardest part of writing a paper is coming up with an idea to phrase. In this stage, you have to actively get your mind to produce thought and get on track with what you want to accomplish. This may take more time for some rather than others, but it consistently feels like the longest part of writing a paper. If I get sidetracked, I have to restart the process of getting my mind on topic and active and this is what seems to take forever in writing. Once I have a topic in my mind, it is easy to just hold that thought and transfer it into phrases on a computer. This is the task my mind would rather be doing as opposed to creating ideas from scratch.
Recently, I have begun to take the advice of “living in the moment,” and it seems to be working out quite well for me so far. In every activity I do, I treat it like it would be my last thing to experience on Earth. This relates to time because it has made everything I do seem to happen faster. I’m not sure if it has improved the quality of my activities, but certainly has enhanced my production and engagement. I’ve noticed that it has, in fact, made most things seem easier and less stressful because I’m thinking less about where I’d rather be or what I’d rather be doing. That’s not to say I’ve been focused enough to think this way in all my recent activities, but from what I can tell, it’s been quite helpful. My schoolwork seems to take less time; my football practices seem to end much more quickly; and weekends seem to have no effect at all in terms of perceptional time. It seems like a positive way of thinking, but it is too difficult to apply it to all the activities I perform.
In conclusion, my experience with time perception is roughly consistent with those of my peers. Fun times such as extended vacations seem to last very little amounts of time, while the more boring events in life like paperwork in school seem to take long periods of time. Negative events in my life also seem to take longer than usual. Time also is perceived to slow down when I am actively aware of the clock or am thinking about the passing of time. Finally, I have found that time perception can be manipulated if a certain mindset it used towards less enjoyable activities.
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I think your idea of how active someone is thinking about a certain thing can effect how fast or slow they are percieving time is a very great point and very relative to many peoples lives. When you percieved time slower when looking constantly at a clock, I also thought this was a good observation that when thinking about the actual time passing, it seems to occur slower than when not worrying about the time. I feel that the fact that you are trying to “live in the moment” is a great attitude to have and its effect on seeming to speed up time in your life and increase your engagement I found very interesting.