The ’90s rock group Smash Mouth captured a universal truth when they sang in their hit single “All Star,” “Well, the years start coming, but they don’t stop coming.” As we step into 2026, many find themselves pondering where 2025 went—and the years before it. This phenomenon raises intriguing questions about how we perceive time, why some events seem to fly by while others drag on interminably, and whether we can manipulate our experience of time.
How We Perceive Time
Dr. Peter Riggs, a physicist and philosopher of science at the Australian National University, explains that we experience time as a passage. “We human beings live out our days in the present moment which seems to advance into the future. This is how we subjectively ‘perceive’ time,” he says. Temporal markers, such as events of personal or societal significance, help establish this sense of time moving forward.
However, Riggs points out that there is no objective time. “Our perceptions of time need not reflect time’s actual structure. There is no consensus about time’s nature, and the passage of time may not be physically real but only a psychological phenomenon,” he notes. This perspective is echoed by Professor Hinze Hogendoorn, head of the Time in Brain and Behaviour Laboratory at Queensland University of Technology, who emphasizes that unlike senses such as smell or sight, we have no organ dedicated to perceiving time. Instead, our brains infer it.
“There’s no time particle or wave that can be detected. So technically, we don’t perceive time as such, but we infer paths of time from the fact that things unfold,” Hogendoorn explains.
The Time Paradox
One puzzling aspect of time perception is the difference between prospective and retrospective time—how our brains infer time in the moment versus time in the past. Consider the last time you did something monotonous, like enduring a long-haul flight or waiting for water to boil. In the moment, time seems to drag, but in hindsight, it may feel like it passed in a flash.
Conversely, the adage “time flies when you’re having fun” holds true, yet a year filled with excitement and novelty can feel slower in retrospect. “This is something that always breaks people’s heads because there is no objective time for our brains to detect, and we infer time on the fly,” Hogendoorn says. “If you sit on the floor and stare at the wall or clock for an hour, that’s really hard because you get bored and that makes time crawl. You need distraction to make time pass.”
Retrospectively, in the absence of significant distractions or moments, our brains tend to collapse months and years together, creating the illusion of time passing quickly.
Why Some Events Pass Faster Than Others
As each year passes, many feel like time accelerates. A common explanation is that as we age, each year constitutes a smaller fraction of our lives. Hogendoorn suggests that while this may be a factor, a more significant reason is the absence of novelty and significant milestones.
“Young kids are doing things for the first time. They go to school for the first time, they have their first relationship, they have their first job. All those things are exciting,” he explains. “But at some point, our days become full of routine, and for parents, for example, at the end of the week, they might have nothing particularly new to report and can feel like there’s not enough time in the day, but at the same time, time flies by.”
Riggs adds that our moods and emotional states also influence our perception of time, which is why time seems to slow during traumatic or near-death experiences. “The ‘passage’ of time does seem to pass more slowly during brief, dangerous events, such as car accidents,” he says. “This is related to the brain recording such events in greater detail than usual.”
How to Slow Down Time
Hogendoorn offers a somewhat tongue-in-cheek solution for those wishing to slow down time: “Sit down on the floor and stare at the wall if you want to slow down time,” he suggests. However, research indicates that spending time in nature may help stretch out our minutes and hours. In one experiment, researchers asked university students to take walks of the same length in urban and rural settings. Those who walked in the city reported time passing more quickly than those who walked in nature.
Clinical psychologist Dr. Rebecca Ray advocates for mindfulness as a way to be more present. “Start by noticing. Bringing attention to small moments helps, like tasting your coffee, taking a breath before the next task, or stepping outside between meetings. You can’t create more time, but you can experience it more fully,” she advises.
Slowing down time in advance may be more feasible. Hogendoorn suggests introducing novelty and spontaneity into our lives to break up routine, which tends to make time fly by. This could involve something significant, like a holiday, or something minor, like changing your route to work. However, he acknowledges that for neurodivergent individuals, for whom routine can provide stability and calm, significant changes may not always be desirable.
As we continue to explore the mysteries of time perception, it remains clear that our experience of time is as much a reflection of our psychological state as it is of the events unfolding around us. Whether through mindfulness, novelty, or simply a change of scenery, we all have the power to influence how we perceive the passage of time.
