A new study in the psychology journal Acta Psychologica suggests that improving your working memory changes your perception of time and makes it seem like time moves faster. Working memory controls your ability to pay attention, plan and remember things. It’s also a skill you can improve.
Photo by Erik Fitzpatrick.
The study suggests that people who can allocate their working memory to primary tasks forget about time-keeping and concentrate on the task at hand, which makes time feel like it’s moving faster. Those with low working memory were splitting their thoughts between the time-management and the task. This slowed their perception of time and caused their test scores in the working memory tasks to be lower.
Thankfully, it’s not too difficult to boost your working memory. As we’ve highlighted before, simple tests remembering numbers can help boost your concentration and improve your working memory. The purpose isn’t to improve your memory so you stop forgetting where you left your keys. It’s to improve your ability to pay attention to a primary goal in front of you and effectively make time move faster.
Time flies faster if a person has a high working-memory capacity [Acta Psychologica]
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