There are days when no matter what you do, time doesn’t seem to move quickly enough. Maybe the day is slow, or perhaps you are stuck at a tedious job. However, that does not mean you must feel miserable the entire day. You can make the best use of your time in several ways.
The more you feel you want the day to get over, the slower it tends to move. You spend a considerable time thinking that at least a quarter of an hour must have passed since you last looked at the clock, only to discover that barely a few minutes have passed when you recheck the time.
When the day seems to move too slowly, you also find yourself constantly irritated with the environment. This distracts you from your job and reduces your quality of work. No matter how monotonous you find your job, you cannot afford to lose focus and do poorly.
That is why it is crucial to forming healthy patterns that excite you about your job. You do not just have to sit through the day wishing for it to end. You can use the time you get each morning to be productive and happy at work.
Adopting some tips will help you move through the day faster. By following specific techniques, you can ensure that the day doesn’t seem so slow to you anymore.
Why Do You Think That the Clock is Moving Slowly?
Time, of course, moves at its own pace. There are still 24 hours a day, and 60 seconds still make a minute. So, of course, the clock hasn’t slowed down at all. So why do you feel that the hours are not moving fast enough?
Before you learn about how to make time move faster, you have to understand why time feels slow all of a sudden. Here is why.
1. You Focus Too Much on Time
The moment you obsess about something, it consumes all your focus, which is all you have in your mind. When you check the time too often, the time can stop.
When you stop focusing on your surroundings and start focusing on each passing second, you will become aware of the time it takes from one minute to change to the other.
This heightened awareness of time can slow it down for you, and you are bound to feel that the day is moving slowly.
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2. You are Not Engaged
You tend to focus too much on time because you are not engaged enough. Whatever work you have in front of you is not interesting enough for you.
Your mind constantly wanders, and you wish you were somewhere else. And since you cannot leave your desk before work hours, the day seems to drag.
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3. You are Not Too Familiar With Your Surroundings
When you become too familiar with your surroundings, you do not find anything new in them to engage you anymore.
The exact route of commute, the same morning routine before coming to work, the same kind of projects, and answering the same emails daily can indeed seem monotonous after a while.
Lack of breaks due to a hectic job, and yet the job becoming monotonous by the day can trap you in a vicious cycle from which you want to get out. But of course, you cannot. And all you do is think about why the day doesn’t move fast enough.
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4. You are Not Mindful
When you go through the day unmindful of your surroundings, you will feel like the day will never end. How often have you tried to become aware of what is happening around you?
Do you look at the other people commuting with you during work? Have you ever raised your head from the desk and noticed the little changes made to the workroom?
When you stop taking an interest in the details of your surroundings or even your actions and move through the day mechanically, the day seems to be moving too slowly.
5. Sensory Deprivation
One of the reasons you can become unaware of your surroundings and feel disassociated with them is that you could have sensory deprivation. This could be caused by some medication you were taking for an illness.
Or, trying to combat the monotony you suffer from, you choose to numb yourself by depending on substances like alcohol or drugs. However, instead of making you feel any better, it will only result in a more distorted sense of time.
The drugs and alcohol might give you a sense of high for a minimal time, but then you still have to come to work, and the day will seem unbearable.
The only thing your brain will keep seeking is the sense of freedom and detachment when you are on the substance, and the absence of it in the workplace will only make things worse for you to bear.
How to Make Time Go Faster at Work: 5 Tips
If you have constantly been struggling with the feeling that the day isn’t moving fast enough, then there are certain things you can do to speed up time.
The seconds and minutes will, of course, move at their own pace, but the tips will help you change your perception of time and make you feel that the day is moving faster.
1. Don’t Look at the Clock so Much
The main reason why you notice whether the time is moving slowly or not is because you are excessively focused on it. The minute you observe something, you become more aware of it, and time is no different.
Stop looking at your watch so much. Even if you feel the urge, don’t do it. Keep your watch inside your drawer and hide the clock feature on your devices if you can. Let some time pass before you look at the clock again. If you must, put tape on the screen to block the time from view.
2. Work on Your Internal Time
Instead of focusing on the clock time, try working on your internal time. After spending some months or years at work, you are now familiar with the office routine and have a reasonably good idea of how much time it takes to accomplish each task.
But instead of constantly looking at the clock to accomplish the task, do them with your sense of time.
That way, you will be more focused on yourself and completing the task rather than looking at the clock and getting things done. Over time, you will keep going through the motions predictably, focusing on one study and then the next, and time will not become a factor.
You will see that the day has also ended by accomplishing all your tasks.
3. Practice Deep Focus
You achieve a flow state when you practice profoundly focusing on your task. It means you are only thinking of that task, and nothing else can distract you until it is over.
When you achieve a flow state, you automatically move from focusing on one task to the other, and time becomes of little consequence.
Stop worrying about the time, and it will move faster. One day you will find things have completely turned around, and you will find yourself wishing there was more time!
4. Break Up Your Tasks
The monotony of the tasks you have to handle at work is one of the reasons why you feel that the day is moving slowly. However, instead of tackling the job all at once, and feeling overwhelmed that you might achieve nothing, try breaking the task into smaller chunks.
Complete one small part at a time, and you will feel good at achieving it. Then move on to the next block of work. Make a short trip to the coffee vending machine and quickly chat with your coworkers over a cup of coffee.
Then come back to the next set of work. Divide and conquer, and you will find the day looking up!
5. Put On Something Interesting in the Background
When the day feels slow and monotonous, one of the best things you can do is to put on your favorite music or listen to an exciting podcast while working.
While you cannot lose focus on your work, there are periods when work is slow, and those hours are the hardest to sit through.
Having something exciting and fun to listen to will take your mind off things, and you will not notice that you spent a chunk of time without thinking about time moving slowly.
In the same way, you can take a break from work by doing something joyful for a few minutes. Solve a puzzle, read a few pages of a book, go through a mental challenge, or doodle.
You can do many little things whenever you start feeling frustrated, and you will be relaxed when you get back to work.
Conclusion
It can be psychologically nerve-wracking when you feel stuck in a place. You might feel dejected even in your workplace, where your coworkers surround you.
Sometimes things also become too overwhelming, and you might want to be anywhere else but at your office desk.
The 9 to 5 routine of a corporate job, or any job for that matter, can become monotonous sometimes, and it is not your fault that you feel this way. It does not make you incompetent.
However, if you cannot quit your job so quickly and find something exciting to do instead, or if it is not the best time to ask for a leave and go for a change of scene, then the best you can do is to adopt certain practices that make the work more exciting and bearable.
It will make time move faster at work and, eventually, help you acquire better habits to cope with labor.
