Recently, I went on a week-long vacation to Japan. Besides being a ton of fun, something that stood out was how long the trip felt. One week in Japan felt like three weeks of my regular life. I've thought about why this is and found that the amount of time felt is greatly related to the number of memories created. This checks out because I've been feeling recently that my work week blows by, leaving me with a feeling of time blur. What has happened is that I've gotten into such a standard routine day to day that nothing really different happens. The feeling of being lost in time is probably worsened by working from home and not getting a lot of in-person interaction during the work week.
After making this revelation, I decided I wanted to feel my week more, similar to how it was in Japan. To do this, I've been purposefully breaking my routine and trying my best to have at least one memorable event each day. Working from different locations and taking different morning running routes has been a good start.
Interestingly, I found that the memory doesn't necessarily need to be good. For example, I was working at a Starbucks when an incident occurred between the manager and a customer, resulting in a yelling match. Although it was uncomfortable to witness, I was thankful that it made my day memorable.
Although I'll probably never recreate the feeling of being in Japan during my work week (it was a vacation, after all), this has been a worthwhile change in my life. It does make the weekend feel further away, but luckily I enjoy my job, and it makes me feel that I am living each day.