Eli5: Why, if at all, does it seem like the years go quicker as you get older?

Question

I hear a lot of people making that remark, that the years go by quicker as you get older.
For me, at least, it seems like that’s only the case if nothing much changes in my life in that year.
To me, years seem to feel like they go slower if there’s lots of new/different things happening.

In: 348

Answer 1

As you get older, you gather more stuff and more people into your life. That means you have more things to think about. Thinking about those things requires concentration. And doing that means you don’t notice time passing. And when you are not thinking about the people in your life, you need to be doing laundry, shopping, and preparing food. You have to clean and do maintenance on the stuff you own.

And if you are lucky like me, you have a few minutes to spend on Reddit replying to ELI5s.

And then you die!