We talk about time at work as if it’s a fixed resource: something outside of us and something we either “manage well” or “never have enough of.” People genuinely believe the clock is the problem. But the more you look at how the brain processes experience, the less true this becomes.
People don’t feel pressured because they have too many tasks. They feel pressured because their brain is constructing time in a way that makes everything feel urgent or impossible to catch up with.
Modern neuroscience has been pointing to this for a while. Our experience of time—what feels fast, slow, overwhelming, or “not enough”—is not a reading from an internal stopwatch. It’s a story the brain builds using prediction, memory, emotional state, and identity.
In other words: your brain doesn’t observe time. Your brain generates it. Or we can say it another way. The brain predicts time, not measures it.
Instead of tracking time objectively, the brain uses patterns and context to estimate how long things take. It relies on memory and sensory information to create a timeline that makes sense. But the problem is that those internal estimates shift dramatically depending on what’s happening inside us.
When your system is stable and regulated, your internal sense of time widens. You can think clearly, make decisions from the part of your brain built for problem-solving, and move through your day without constantly feeling behind. In contrast, when you’re stressed or mentally overloaded, the brain speeds everything up. Time “contracts” and you lose the feeling of agency. Minutes disappear and even simple tasks feel rushed.
The external calendar hasn’t changed, yet your internal clock has.
