Someone asked me recently how I manage to do all the things I do.
Honestly? I am not sure I actually do that much.
But it seems it just looks that way.
That question stayed with me. I’ve always been curious about how time works. Why do some days stretch endlessly, and others disappear in a blink.
And that’s when I remembered the experience that made me see TIME differently forever.
The German Learning Period
Years ago, I decided to learn German while working full time.
So I enrolled in an intensive A1 course.
Four hours a day, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., after my 8-hour workday.
Every weekday. For a month.
(I know, it sounds crazy).
When I first saw the schedule, I laughed. There was no way this would work.
But I thought, it’s only one month, I’ll survive.
The first week was brutal.
The second was bearable.
By the third, I was in a rhythm.
By the last week… almost enjoying it.
I started thinking: Maybe I could actually keep this pace forever?
(Thankfully, I didn’t.)
But the strangest thing happened after the course ended.
Suddenly, I had those four hours free every evening.
And within a week… poof… they were gone.
Filled. Packed. Vanished.
With what? I honestly have no idea. I can not even remember.
Emails. Errands. “Little things.”
Stuff that felt urgent but wasn’t actually important.
And that’s when it hit me:
time hadn’t changed, I had.
We don’t actually “run out” of time. We just fill it differently, depending on what we value and notice.
The Great Illusion
We often say “I don’t have time” as if time is this external thing that abandons us.
But Time does not simply disappears. it’s our attention that leaks.
We think we’re sleeping and working, day in and day out.
But if you really look at it… that would mean we sleep eight hours and work sixteen.
Which in most of the cases would be absurd.
So where does the rest go?
It goes into the cracks… the mental tabs left open, the “just five minutes” scrolls, the conversations that solve nothing but eat everything.
We don’t lack time.
We lack conscious use of it.
And once we notice that, it’s both terrifying and liberating.
Because if time is elastic, so are we.
When Science Joins the Time Party
Neuroscience actually backs this up.
Our perception of time isn’t fixed, it’s constructed by our brains.
yes, CONSTRUCTED.
When we’re engaged or inspired, our brain compresses the timeline.
That’s why an hour can feel like ten minutes.
When we’re anxious or disconnected, the opposite happens, minutes feel endless.
This is called temporal dilation, and it’s the same mechanism that explains why children experience time more slowly: their brains are constantly learning, processing new information, stretching every second into meaning.
So what if we could reclaim that childlike expansion through presence?
What High Achievers Know (And is easy to forget)
Over the years, I’ve noticed that people who seem to “have more time” don’t actually do more.
They decide more clearly.
They:
- Focus on energy, not hours.
- Guard their attention like it’s oxygen.
- And see rest not as “lost time,” but as “charging time.”
Stanford researchers found that our brains are 30% more efficient when we align work with our chronotype. the natural peaks and valleys of our energy.
You can’t “schedule” inspiration at 9:00 a.m. if your mind comes alive at 4:00 p.m.
Time bends to clarity, not calendars.
My Ongoing Experiment
Since that German course, I’ve been running my own “time experiments.”
Every few months, I pick one small change and watch how time reacts.
Sometimes it’s cutting screen time before bed.
Sometimes it’s walking without headphones.
Sometimes it’s doing absolutely nothing for ten minutes, and resisting the urge to fill it.
And you know what?
Every time I take back awareness, I somehow get more hours.
Not on the clock, in life.
In experience.
In presence.
In peace.
It’s not magic. It’s management of meaning.
So, let’s be honest for a second.
How often do you say “I don’t have time,”
when what you really mean is “I don’t have clarity”?
How often do you pack your day so tight that silence feels suspicious?
And how often do you wake up and realize that busyness has become your comfort zone?
Yeah. I’ve been there too.
I don’t believe in “time management” anymore.
I believe in time awareness, the art of noticing what actually matters.
you’re aware, you start to see time not as something to chase or conquer… but as something to co-create.
Because maybe the real trick isn’t to control time.
It’s to remember that it’s never really running out, we are just running past it.
So if you could bend time. even just a little, what would you make more space for?
Think about it.
Your next hour might be waiting for you to notice it.
– Diana
Founder of N3XU
Fellow Traveler. Systems Nerd. Believer in Thoughtful Change.
