If you’ve caught yourself saying, “How is it already the end of the year?” you’re not alone. As life gets busier—career, family, responsibilities, routines—time can feel like it’s accelerating. Days blur together. Weeks disappear. And suddenly, another year is gone.
This episode focuses on an idea that feels almost universal as we get older: time seems to move faster, even when we’re doing “good things” with our lives. The good news is that while you can’t literally stop the clock, you can change how time feels—by changing what your brain chooses to remember.
Why Time Speeds Up as You Get Older
There are a few reasons time feels like it accelerates with age, but one of the most practical is this:
The more routine your life becomes, the fewer “distinct memories” your brain stores.
When days look identical—wake up, work, family logistics, dinner, bed—your brain doesn’t see a reason to “hit record” on anything new. The result is that life feels like it’s moving fast because your brain is replaying familiar patterns instead of creating new reference points.
Think about it this way:
- When you’re young, everything is new. New school, new friends, new experiences, new environments. Your memory fills up with landmarks.
- As you get older, your routines become efficient. Efficient routines reduce novelty. Reduced novelty reduces memory landmarks.
- When you look back on a year that had few landmarks, it feels like it vanished.
Time didn’t actually move faster—you just stored less of it.
The Real “Antidote” to Fast Time
The most consistent way to make time feel slower is simple:
Do new things.
Not necessarily extreme things. Not expensive things. Just new things.
Novelty forces your brain to pay attention. It creates new mental “snapshots.” It makes the year feel segmented instead of blended.
You don’t need a dramatic lifestyle overhaul. You need intentional disruption—small or big—so your days don’t all look the same.
The “Don’t Live the Same Year Every Year” Principle
A powerful mindset shift discussed in this episode is this:
Don’t live the same year over and over and call it a life.
That’s not meant as guilt—it’s a wake-up call. If every year is identical, the brain compresses it. If each year has a theme, a goal, a skill, a challenge, or a defining experience, the brain expands it.
A practical way to see this:
Many people can clearly remember the years when something changed:
- a move to a new city
- a new job
- a major trip
- a new challenge (race, skill, business expansion)
- a new season of family life
Those years feel “longer” in hindsight because they had distinct emotional and experiential anchors.
Use Segments to Make Your Life More Memorable
One underrated strategy is compartmentalizing your life into meaningful chapters.
That can look like:
- living in a new place (even if moving is annoying)
- changing a routine environment
- planning a few “break pattern” weekends per year
- creating a seasonal rhythm (quarterly experiences)
- building personal traditions you repeat annually
The goal is not chaos. The goal is distinctness.
When life becomes one endless loop, time accelerates. When life has chapters, time expands.
The “Word of the Year” Strategy
A simple and effective practice discussed is choosing a Word of the Year—one theme that filters decisions, goals, and priorities.
Why it works:
- It creates focus instead of scattered intentions.
- It creates a “memory container” for the year.
- It helps you measure progress by one consistent standard.
Examples might include:
- Discipline
- Stewardship
- Expansion
- Connection
- Health
- Presence
- Courage
- Simplicity
Your word doesn’t need to be trendy. It needs to reflect what you most need and what you want to become.
Set a Vision That Makes This Year Different
One of the most useful planning prompts in the episode is:
“If we were talking one year from now and you told me this was one of the best years of your life… what happened?”
That question forces clarity. It reverses passive living and replaces it with intention.
When you can name what “best year” actually means, you can reverse engineer it into:
- habits
- calendar choices
- quarterly milestones
- accountability checkpoints
- measurable wins
Why Accountability Makes Time Feel More Real
Time speeds up when it’s untracked.
A simple monthly checkpoint (with a coach, spouse, friend, or even a personal review) becomes a “marker in time” that forces reflection.
And reflection creates memory.
That’s why consistent check-ins matter. Even if progress isn’t perfect, it prevents years from slipping by unnoticed.
The point isn’t perfection. The point is not waking up ten years later wondering where they went.
Practical Ways to Add Novelty Without Overhauling Your Life
If you want time to slow down, pick 3–5 “new things” for the year. They can be small or big.
Here are options that work for busy doctors:
Micro-newness (low effort, high effect)
- Take a different route to work once per week
- Try one new restaurant per month
- Change your workout style for a season
- Host one new type of family experience monthly
Skill-based novelty
- learn a hobby (sourdough, guitar, golf, photography)
- learn a new investment concept or strategy deeply
- take a short course with a defined “end product”
Memory anchors
- plan one trip per quarter (even local)
- do a yearly “challenge” (race, hike, event)
- schedule a “new experience day” monthly with your spouse or kids
The goal is to create landmarks your brain will keep.
The Bottom Line
Time feels like it speeds up when your life becomes one continuous routine. But time slows down—emotionally and mentally—when you create novelty, meaning, and markers that make your year distinct.
You don’t need more time.
You need to store more of it.
If you’d like to learn more about this topic, watch our episode of Wealth Mavericks where we discuss further: https://youtu.be/YvlwT3QsOt8?si=9qBiWAqzRGCRs7ug