Do you remember what summer used to feel like when you were a child? For me, it felt like a never-ending, sunny horizon stretching out in front of me. Instead of the routine of class, recess, and after-school activities, each day held something new and exciting. Playing in the sprinklers, climbing trees in the neighborhood, swimming in my aunt’s pool, making arts and crafts with fuzzy pom poms, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. Upon waking up, anything could happen.

“Do you remember what summer used to feel like when you were a child? For me, it felt like a never-ending, sunny horizon stretching out in front of me.”

Now, each year seems to pass faster as I grow older. The three measly summer months come and go before I can fully register their arrival. I never can believe it when the time comes for class to start back up again in August. Didn’t summer break just begin for those kids?

It’s not just me. As it turns out, there are several reasons that time used to move slower during our summers of youth. Although time moves forward at an objective pace, our perception of its passage is wildly subjective. Insights from neuroscience have confirmed this. Read on to find out why this is — and how you can use it to savor your experience.

First, our perception of time isn’t objective

Several factors contribute to our subjective perception of time — and they’re all fascinating. For one thing, each year represents a smaller percentage of our lived experience as we get older. When I was four years old, a year made up 25% of my life. But when I turned ten, a year represented a reduced 10%, and so on. When you think about it this way, it makes sense that time seems expansive and long-lasting when you are young. 

“It makes sense that time seems expansive and long-lasting when you are young.” 

Enjoyment is another factor in subjective time perception. Anyone who has held a plank in a workout class can testify to how the clock slows to a tortuously slow speed in certain unpleasant situations. Meanwhile, a single minute dedicated to an enjoyable activity such as socializing with dear friends will pass in a flash. Hence, the old adage: “Time flies when you’re having fun.” And as we age and take on work and other responsibilities, we spend less time simply enjoying ourselves.

And finally, novelty is another underlying influencer of time perception. Some experts argue that it is the most impactful, and that’s what I want to spend some time unpacking next.

How does the novelty effect influence us?

The novelty effect is the phenomenon of encountering new, original, or unusual experiences that slow down our subjective perception of time. 

“The novelty effect is the phenomenon of encountering new, original, or unusual experiences that slow down our subjective perception of time.”

I spoke with Dr. Darya Frank, lecturer and Senior Research Fellow at The University of Manchester in the Division of Psychology, Communication, and Human Neuroscience about how the brain reacts to novel experiences. 

“Experiencing novelty involves engaging a state in the brain that is more tuned towards processing inputs from our senses,” says Frank. “You might think of it as a heightened attention state in which we put increased weight on the information we get from the outside world, as it is highly informative.”

Key regions of memory formation are activated in this process — including the sensory cortex and hippocampus — resulting in memories that are more “robust and longer lasting,” she said.

Matt Johnson, PhD, professor of Psychology at Hult International Business School and host of the Human Nature Blog, told me that novelty is actually the primary driver behind our subjective perception of time. “As we age, fewer experiences are truly novel, and the brain tends to compress repetitive or familiar events, making them seem shorter in retrospect,” says Johnson. “This phenomenon is linked to the way our brains encode memories — new and unique experiences are richly encoded, making time feel expansive.” This is another reason that time seems to move faster as we grow older.

“As we age, fewer experiences are truly novel, and the brain tends to compress repetitive or familiar events, making them seem shorter in retrospect.”

– Matt Johnson, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Hult International Business School

Frank said there are theories that cognitive decline in aging may even be linked to this phenomenon. Because we don’t engage our brains with novelty like we did at younger ages, our everyday experiences don’t turn into robust memories — perhaps leading to patchy short-term memory formation in older people. 

Does having a routine limit our experience?

The human brain is always trying to find patterns, connections, and shortcuts to make cognitive processing more energy-efficient. Have you ever completely zoned out on your well-worn drive to work, emerging eerily back into consciousness when you arrive? This is a result of routine. 

“Have you ever completely zoned out on your well-worn drive to work, emerging eerily back into consciousness when you arrive? This is a result of routine.”

“On the one hand, routines make our lives easier by taking the deliberate thinking out of a series of actions,” Johnson says. “The things we do on a daily basis — such as driving our daily commute — quickly become a habit, which means we can complete them on autopilot.”

Habits are helpful, reducing the amount of energy our brain needs to expend. However in regards to time perception, routine is the main culprit for the speedy passage of time. Johnson says that habits are the lowest novelty experience that we can have, resulting in perceived time moving extremely fast. 

Memory and recollection also play a role in time perception. 

“As we go through the same experiences over and over again, the representations of these events become more similar, making it more difficult to create distinct memories,” Frank says. 

She describes routine memories as being stored next to each other in a filing system, with little to differentiate the two. It’s difficult to recall your memory of a specific commute to work, for example, because they are mixed up with other memories. When you recall a daily routine, your only frame of reference for differentiation are the possible novel events that occurred — a memorable podcast or a frustrating highway closure, for example. 

“When you recall a daily routine, your only frame of reference for differentiation are the possible novel events that occurred — a memorable podcast or a frustrating highway closure, for example.”

Therefore, because the brain does not kick into the “heightened attention state” that it engages for novel events, the brain perceives routine experiences to move more quickly through time, both in real-time and in memory.

I see this phenomenon play out in my own personal experiences. When I was growing up, my family would go to the same small town in Colorado for nearly every vacation, racking up decades of memories. Over time, we’ve accumulated our favorite hikes and our preferred restaurants that we like to visit each time we go. Sometimes, a friend is able to join me on a trip, and that friend is always able to recall the details of the vacation with much more accuracy. My memories in Colorado tend to blend together. But my friend who visited for the first time remembers their trip clearly, as everything about their visit was novel. 

“My accumulated time visiting the same place has gifted me a sense of comfort and belonging.”

That being said, it’s not as if routine is an objectively “bad thing.” My memories of Colorado are fond memories, if not always specific ones. My accumulated time visiting the same place has gifted me a sense of comfort and belonging — a place for connection with family and friends. 

Routine can also be grounding for those who have grown up in or been negatively impacted by a chaotic, unpredictable environment. The predictability of habit can be healing. And as we already touched on, habits are convenient for cognitive processing and efficiency. 

Tips on using the novelty effect to slow down time

If you want to make more distinct memories and “slow down” time, try incorporating more novelty into your routine. Life is all about balance, so don’t feel the pressure to make every single moment of every day a novel experience. Balance the soothing practice of routine with the exciting pursuit of the novelty effect for a well-rounded experience. 

“Balance the soothing practice of routine with the exciting pursuit of the novelty effect for a well-rounded experience.”

Novelty comes in all shapes and sizes. You don’t need to go skydiving or travel every weekend to encounter novel experiences (although go for it, by all means, if that’s your thing!). Here are a few ways, big and small, that you can incorporate novelty into your days. 

  1. Learn new things

When we are in school or starting off in our career, we’re constantly learning. But the older we get, the less we tend to gain new knowledge or skills organically. You may need to make more of an effort to learn something new, like signing up for a pottery or dance class. You could attend a local language course, or download a digital one. 

  1. Go new places

Seeing a new place engages all of the senses – new sights, smells, sounds – which leads to heightened data collection in the brain and rich memories. Depending on your desire and capability, seeing a new place may mean choosing a new walking route or hike, or traveling to a country you’ve never been to. 

  1. Try new things 

When you open your mind to it, day-to-day life is constantly presenting opportunities to try something new. Try an unfamiliar cuisine, or even a new dish at your favorite restaurant. Strike up conversations with new people, like the checkout clerk at the grocery store or barista at your go-to coffee shop.

  1. Incorporate small novelties 

“Embracing novelty in our daily lives offers a simple yet powerful way to slow down our perception of time.”

Adding new things to existing behavioral routines is a valid way to incorporate the novelty effect. It doesn’t have to be a big change, in other words. You can just make little tweaks and additions to your routine. “On [your] commute for example, instead of going a completely different route, one could also listen to music they’ve never listened to before, or call an old friend they rarely speak to,” says Johnson. 

Embracing novelty in our daily lives offers a simple yet powerful way to slow down our perception of time. By mixing in fresh experiences — whether it’s learning something new, exploring unfamiliar places, or making small changes to our routines — we can make our days more memorable and expansive.

Mary Cate Long is a writer with a focus on travel, food and lifestyle. She was born and raised in Texas, received her journalism degree from Pepperdine University, and has lived abroad in both London and Australia. In between new adventures, she now calls Santa Monica homebase, where she enjoys reading novels on the beach and doing yoga in the park. You can follow along on Instagram, and see her published work here.