--- title: How to Increase the Number of Hours in Your Day description: Nothing can actually increase the hours in the day. That’s impossible. But you can do things to trick your brain into feeling you have more... canonical: https://time.com/3136647/how-to-increase-the-number-of-hours-in-your-day/ author: Eric Barker article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-25T04:01:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T07:51:18.150Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Increase the Number of Hours in Your Day og:description: Nothing can actually increase the hours in the day. That’s impossible. But you can do things to trick your brain into feeling you have more... og:url: https://time.com/3136647/how-to-increase-the-number-of-hours-in-your-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19c7c92e2d8cab34/6986a095d0b6f20ceb305cd8/185921376.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: 185921376 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Increase the Number of Hours in Your Day twitter:description: Nothing can actually increase the hours in the day. That’s impossible. But you can do things to trick your brain into feeling you have more... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19c7c92e2d8cab34/6986a095d0b6f20ceb305cd8/185921376.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Increase the Number of Hours in Your Day > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Eric Barker](https://time.com/author/eric-barker/) ## Eric Barker Aug 25, 2014 4:01 AM UTC  Hanging clocks in sitting room Hanging clocks in sitting room Anthony Harvie—Getty Images by [Eric Barker](https://time.com/author/eric-barker/) ## Eric Barker Aug 25, 2014 4:01 AM UTC Nothing can _actually_ increase the hours in the day. That’s impossible. But you can do things to trick your brain into _feeling_ you have more time. More often than not, that’s really what we want: [relief from the stress of time pressure](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/if-money-cant-buy-happiness-can-time). Time is immutable. Time _perception_, however, can be downright funky. And we can use it to our advantage. ## Car Crashes and Getting Old People often say that during car crashes and scary situations “time slowed down.” They’re not crazy. When we’re afraid, our brain attempts to remember as much about the situation as possible so we can avoid things associated with it in the future. That biological hard drive starts working double time. Because of this, our perception is distorted and life seems to _slow down_. Via [The Courage Quotient: How Science Can Make You Braver](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470917423/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0470917423&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20): Chess Stetson, Matthew Fiesta, and Eagleman believe that this sensation of time slowing is a by-product of the fact that our brains simply remember more information during traumatic experiences. Just as your computer hard drive occasionally backs up every single piece of data you have, traumatic events kick the brain into a type of hyperdrive where the tiniest details are stored for later use. **Thus when you go bungee jumping or skydiving, time runs at the usual pace but it seems slower because your brain is filling in so many details that the experience seems to expand and your later memory of it is also particularly detailed.** You know how older folks say “time speeds up as you age”? They’re not crazy either. Studies show it really does subjectively _feel_ like that. Via Oliver Burkeman’s [Help! How to be slightly happier and get a bit more done:](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0857860267/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0857860267) We all know that time seems to speed up as we grow older – but according to studies at the University of Cincinnati in the 1970′s, this effect is so pronounced that **if you’re 20 today, you’re already halfway through life, in terms of your subjective experience of how time passes, even if you live until you’re 80\. And if you’re 40 – again, assuming you live to be 80 – your life is 71% per cent over. Basically, if you’re older than about 30, you’re almost dead.** So, yes, you have some inaccurate beliefs about time. (And, no, men do not think about sex [every 7 seconds](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/do-men-really-think-about-sex-every-7-seconds).) Perception of time and how you react to it just aren’t as straightforward as you think: * Believe it or not, we prefer websites that take longer to load over quicker ones [if it seems like the site is “_exerting effort._“](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/do-we-prefer-websites-that-take-longer-to-loa) * Feeling that “time = money” makes it [harder to appreciate leisure time](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-time-equal-money). On the other hand, thinking _quickly_ can [improve your mood](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/can-thinking-quickly-make-you-happy). When something is making you miserable, counting down the time left will make you feel better. When something is making you happy, [that’s a bad strategy](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-knowing-how-long-a-bad-experience-will-l). * Researchers believe we may experience life in [3 second chunks](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/do-we-experience-life-in-3-second-chunks). Hugs, goodbye waves, infants’ bouts of babbling, breathing, nervous system functions… all average around three seconds. Multiple studies among humans and other species point to 3 seconds as one of the most fundamental units of life and what defines our feeling of “now.” Okay, enough theory and trivia. _How can we use this info to improve our lives?_ Two things have been shown to make us feel like we have more time: ## 1) Use Time to Help Others Ironic, huh? A good way to feel less busy is to _give away_ some of your time.[Spending time on others makes us feel less time-constrained](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/is-giving-time-away-the-best-way-to-deal-with): **Four experiments reveal a counter-intuitive solution to the common problem of feeling that one does not have enough time: giving some of it away.** So if you absolutely feel like there are not enough days in the week, then you should probably devote one of those precious days to volunteering. ## 2) The Experience of Awe Maybe this is related to the car-crash-effect, I’m not sure. Research by Stanford professor [Jennifer Aaker](http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/) (author of [The Dragonfly Effect](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470614153?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0470614153)) and colleagues found that experiencing awe makes you feel less crunched for time. [Wray Herbert](http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/making-time-stand-still-awesome.html) (author of [On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307461645/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307461645&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20)) summarized the results: **…those who were primed to feel awe—those volunteers also saw time as much more expansive, less constricted. They felt free of time’s pressure.** I’m guessing people who live near the Grand Canyon probably feel like days never end… ## So what if you _really_ don’t have enough time? Sounds like an efficiency issue. [Here](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/6-things-that-will-make-you-more-productive) is everything you need to know about increasing productivity. There’s also plenty of [research](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-should-you-spend-your-time-in-order-to-in) showing how you should spend your time in order to increase [happiness](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/here-are-the-things-that-are-proven-to-make-y). And it’s helpful to know when the optimal times to do most things are. Via [Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon: A Guide to the Best Time to Buy This, Do That and Go There](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061730882?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061730882): * **Best time to get a human being on the phone when calling a company’s customer service line:** As early as possible (lowest call volume) * **Best day of the week to eat dinner out:** Tuesday (freshest food, no crowds) * **Best day to fly:** Saturday (fewer flights means fewer delays, shorter lines, less stress) * **Best time to fly:** Noon (varies but pilots say airport rush hours coincide with workday rush hours) * **Best time to have surgery:** Morning (4x less likely to have complications in the morning than between 3-4PM) * **Best time to exercise:** 6-8PM (body temp highest, peak time for strength and flexibility) * **Best time to have sex:** 10PM-1AM (skin sensitivity is highest in late evening) One last thing: there are moments where your perception of time is dead-on accurate. For instance, [people _really do_ take longer leaving a parking spot when they see you waiting for it.](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/do-people-really-take-longer-leaving-a-parkin) **_Related posts:_** [**_How To Be Resilient: 8 Steps To Success When Life Gets Hard_**](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/07/how-to-be-resilient/) [**_What 10 things should you do every day to improve your life?_**](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/05/what-10-things-should-you-do-every-day-to-imp/) [**_How To Make Your Life Better By Sending Five Simple Emails_**](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/07/make-your-life-better/) Join over 90,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email [here](http://eepurl.com/o6uAD). _This piece originally appeared on_ [_Barking_](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/)[ _Up the Wrong Tree_](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3136647/how-to-increase-the-number-of-hours-in-your-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3136647/how-to-increase-the-number-of-hours-in-your-day/"},"headline":"How to Increase the Number of Hours in Your Day","datePublished":"2014-08-25T04:01:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T07:51:18.150Z","description":"Nothing can actually increase the hours in the day. 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