Perception of time

[Paiva]

I does seem like some people feel like they need to fill out their time, or they will get bored. And some even feel like it's other people's job to entertain them.

Personally, I've never felt like this. I always have so many interests, there's never enough time to do everything. Even if I don't have something to do, I can easily keep myself busy by thinking about stuff and coming up with new ideas. A friend of mine once complained that she hadn't heard from me for a long time. I thought I had visited her a few days earlier, but when I looked it up in my planner, it had actually been weeks. I had just been so caught up in my own thing, I hadn't even noticed.

I'm not sure if this is an aspie/NT thing or an introvert/extrovert thing, though.

 

[wyverary]

If you ever want to have what is called, in current popular culture, a "mindf***," read Sean Carroll's From Eternity to Here. It approaches the concept of time from a scientific, cosmological perspective. (Spoiler alert: we still don't know really what it is.)

 

[DuckRabbit]

But on the people front and dating ....it drags out like eternity!

This is a good distinction! If Aspergers are engaged in some solitary personal project (creative, technical, intellectual, physical etc.), time flies but if they are engaged in something social, it drags. Maybe for NTs time goes more quickly when they are doing something that involves social interaction but if they have do a task alone, time drags. Or do you think this a gross/unfair simplification?

 

[Liambruno]

This is a good distinction! If Aspergers are engaged in some solitary personal project (creative, technical, intellectual, physical etc.), time flies but if they are engaged in something social, it drags. Maybe for NTs time goes more quickly when they are doing something that involves social interaction but if they have do a task alone, time drags. Or do you think this a gross/unfair simplification?

I don't know about the NT side, but my own experience seems to support what you're saying for aspies. I notice that a lot of things seem to take longer for me than other people. Most of these things are not difficult or complex activities; they could be as simple as eating a meal. Maybe I pause between bites and fail to realize that I've paused, who knows. People have described me as "meticulous," and my dad's favorite phrase for anything I did as a child was "slowly but surely" (really hurtful for a kid who knows he's the last to finish everything). When I'm around other people engaged in similar activities, I sometimes notice that I'm moving more slowly, but when I'm by myself and not thinking about how long anything takes, I have found that time seems to pass more quickly.

 

[wanderer03]

Time seems to fly by. I would like it to slow down some.

 

[DuckRabbit]

Time seems to fly by. I would like it to slow down some.

I'd go further wanderer03 and say time is an adversary!

 

[wanderer03]

I'd go further wanderer03 and say time is an adversary!

Time is not on my side. I'm used to racing the clock anyhow because I'm a truck driver.

 

[DuckRabbit]

Time is not on my side. I'm used to racing the clock anyhow because I'm a truck driver.

Sounds stressful. Do you have any activity or preoccupation that enables you to lose track of time? I think it's important to not be aware of time all the time. Personally I'm more often harassed by it than floating dreamily around in it. But maybe if we weren't so often stressed we wouldn't appreciate or even notice those atolls of 'timelessness'!

 

[wanderer03]

Sounds stressful. Do you have any activity or preoccupation that enables you to lose track of time? I think it's important to not be aware of time all the time. Personally I'm more often harassed by it than floating dreamily around in it. But maybe if we weren't so often stressed we wouldn't appreciate or even notice those atolls of 'timelessness'!

Ironically, it isn't stressful for me - even in heavy traffic. I take the safety approach and no load is worth jeopardizing mine or anyone else's. Driving is mostly relaxing to me.

 

[Dreadful Dante]

I can lay down and silence my mind for a whole hour.

When I get up, 14 minutes have passed.

For anything else, it goes by and I don't even see it. I think NTs experience it too, when you say "This will take around half an hour" and after 2 hours just half of it is done.