What is your perception of time?

It moves fast when you’re happy, slowly when you’re not. I don’t like mine wasted but I’m learning to live more in the moment. There were points in my life (when I had postpartum depression, for example) when time didn’t move the way it always did…I thought I was stuck in one minute forever.

I went through a phase when I was 16–17 where I was irrationally depressed because it felt like life was slipping by at a tremendous rate. After a while I realized it was slipping by so fast because I was having a great time! I don’t think it’s unusual to feel this way every now and then.

If you are anything like me, you will get a little older and time will slow down, speed up, and remain constant sporadically.

@sadconfusion: “Deathly afraid of wasting it.”

I know the feeling all too well. Something to consider, however – you are wasting it if you spend your time worrying about wasting it.

The way I see it, we have no idea how much time we have. We only have the present. And I certainly have a tendency to miss the present moment while it is happening, only to mourn the loss once it has passed, missing the present moment again while I mourn.

You’ll likely have many, many years and so many experiences that your current relationship with the concept of time will change (like others have mentioned). Note your current relationship with it now and get back to experiencing the present.

Trust me, you’re gonna get to 50 something in a nano second. LOL
Just savor the moments, try to always be really present in the now. Time goes even faster when you’re running on rote programming, not fully present in the moments. As a middle ager now I can say that when you slow down, so does time. The trick is to slow the f—k down! ;-)

It kind of used to scare me, but what can you do? It’s going by, either way. I guess you got to make the most of it, and recognize happiness when it’s currently happening, instead of spending your life trying to chase it. At least that’s how I see it, anyways.
I guess a lot of that depends on what’s important for you though, and what it is you want to do with your existence.

You can’t waste time. You have to trust that you are making the best choices you can at all moments of life. If you are doing something you think might be wasting time, then either you are channeling your mother or father, or you are channeling a minority point of view inside you.

Why are you playing a game instead of studying or working? Because the game provides rewards now, and you need those rewards. The long term benefits of studying are uncertain. So sometimes we go after more immediate benefits. That’s not wasting time.

I think in months, which is normal when you pay the bills.
Time does go by quickly, and I am a bit concerned that the end of the road is ahead. I don’t fear it, though.

@wundayatta That reminds me of this article I read last year in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. About how the brain craves reward for effort, and how video games offer this in a way, through the passing of areas, beating games, gaining experience points and levels, finding rare items after hours of searching for them and whatnot…must be why I’m such a trophy whore on the PS3. Ha. GA. :)

Clock

Time doesn’t exist, in my opinion, in the grand scheme of things. However, the fact that you’re aware that, as a human being, your existence is short… You just try to make the most of things. For me, I try to channel it into love. Friendships and relationships in general. Because even if you don’t make a lot of money or land a dream job or get whatever other materialistic thing in life you can think of… You’ll get the most rewards from love. So time, whatever it is to you, whether or not it moves fast or slow, will at least be meaningful. The beauty of it all, ultimately is consciousness.

I wish life was longer, but it’s not, so I will love.

When I was your age, I didn’t have a clue about it, but now, from the opposite end of the spectrum,———Ha, Ha, I still don’t

Time is slow for me, quick but slow. Everything seems drawn out but at the same time, 10 years ago seem like I just blinked and now I’m here.

It goes by faster and faster. How can you slow it down?

Moments in my life come and leave before I’m ready to react.
The rest are stretched a very long distance away, and my longterm stamina seems questionable… I’ve got enough for now, I think, for leaping over that right there, and turning…
...

Time to me is more within. It’s my body growing and changing in a soup of growingess and changingness. It’s unrecorded but progressive, building on itself as the previous moments slip away, as their results pave. It’s looking up at the words I have above this, and continuing to type more, watching them stack into, hopefully, something.
...

It’s an ochestra blasting a symphony that I’m not nearly loud enough to shout over, but I try anyway and go hoarse. The conductor’s wand’s enormous, unbelievably so, lying on the ground, and I can’t see the end of it, I don’t know if there’s an end to it, but the orchestra doesn’t seem to need it, I don’t know that it ever did. I worry the volume will break my eardrums. But sometimes I like the music enough that the damage is okay. Sometimes I even try to etch the music onto the ground by my feet, save some glimpse of it… Mostly I just stand there, waiting for my cue, but I think it might have already played.

Mankind is obsessed with it & that can only be a negative, in my book anyway.

It goes by so quickly and even more so as you age. Being happy and busy just made it seem to go by even faster. I say love and appreciate every single day.

You might be wasting your time by having ruminations about wasting your time. Relax.