Life is short, and for some people, it ends much sooner than expected. In fact, according to some psychologists, the older you are, the more you tend to perceive time as moving faster. A leading proponent of this theory is Claudia Hammond, a psychologist and BBC columnist. Apparently, this all has to do with how quickly your brain processes information. When you are young, your brain processes information at lightning speed. Late in life, the processing becomes much slower. For some reason, that makes time appear to go faster. Days seemed to last longer in youth because a young mind receives more images during one day than the same mind in old age. When you are a child, everything is new and each day there are a myriad of experiences that your brain is constantly processing and storing. As adults, we experience fewer unfamiliar moments. This means we have more stored memories from our childhood than from recent years and the early years seem to have lasted longer.

The key point here is that by keeping your brain active through learning and doing new things, you can make time appear to slow down. It will be as if you are living longer. Bear in mind, time doesn’t actually go faster or slower. Living longer is all a matter of perception.

So there is a great reason here to plan your later years. Make yourself a list of things that will stimulate your brain. Travel, learn a new language, play bridge, do puzzles, learn how to paint or sculpt, and try not to get stuck in the same old routine. You’ll need a financial plan for retirement that will allow you to do new things. The sooner you start doing these new activities, the longer your life will appear to be.