Who hasn’t heard—or said—a few times in their lives that time goes by so fast?

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	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Hello & welcome to the Out of Office—your inspiration and guide for a life that feels more alive, inspiring & creative. 🌳🎨 Special announcement: Our new group coaching program is now live, kicking off Oct 15th! If you’ve been following along and are looking for a sign to lean into this community, and design a rhythm of work and life that recharges you daily — fueling creativity, sustainable success and clarity in everything you do, apply now 🧡 Apply now Notes from the Field: On Time Who hasn’t heard—or said—a few times in their lives that time goes by so fast? Alice Katter Sep 5   READ IN APP   Who hasn’t heard—or said—a few times in their lives that time goes by so fast? It’s something that always makes me cringe a little. Even more so now that I have a baby. Out Of Office Network is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Just the other day, my husband and I were meeting a couple from Milan with a 3-year-old daughter. After asking how old our baby was, they said: “Awww, enjoy it—it goes by so fast.” I’ve never fully bought into that belief. In Today Was Fun, author Bree Groff recalls a similar moment in Tuscany. She mentioned to a local woman how quickly time passes, and the woman responded, “No. If you enjoy your time, it’s long enough.” As Bree writes, “Have we anaesthetized ourselves with busyness? Can we not feel all the richness and tiny, beautiful moments because we’re always trying to finish ‘this one thing’?” Over the years, I’ve noticed this: when I’m living on autopilot—commuting, rushing from task to task, sitting at my screen for hours without looking up—time really does blur. Whole weeks slip by. But when I’m awake to my days—present, engaged, noticing the small shifts around me—time doesn’t just fly. It feels full. In fact, science backs this up: our brains don’t measure time with a clock, but through attention and memory. Novelty stretches time. When we’re immersed in something new, our brain lays down more memory markers, so those days feel expansive in hindsight. Repetition compresses time. Routine days create fewer distinct memories, so we look back and it feels like time disappeared. This is why vacations feel so rich when you remember them—and why everyday life can feel like a blur if we’re not careful. The truth is: you don’t have to travel far to experience fullness. You can shift your routine, engage with your surroundings, notice the flowers blooming on your street, like me observing the changing season of the passionfruit plant on my daily walk with my baby. It’s the accumulation of these little moments, that makes my days feel alive—versus the blur of rushing through the workweek, being too tired to do anything at the end of the day, and just counting down the days to the weekend. That’s the kind of rhythm I want to help people create. A rhythm of work and life that recharges you daily — fuels creativity, sustainable success and clarity in everything you do. I designed my program Creative Ways of Living to help you break out of autopilot and design a way of working and living that feels vibrant, spacious, and energizing. Inspired by all the different meanings of what “living creatively” can mean, together, we’ll help you spark your inspiration around what’s possible (without quitting a full-time job if that’s your preferred mode of work), explore how to build rhythms, rituals, and daily practices that stretch time and fill it with presence, creativity, and energy. ✨ Applications for the next group are open now. If this resonates, I’d love for you to join us. Apply now I’ll close this month’s note with a quote from Today Was Fun that I love: When we race to the end of the week, the quarter, the year, we also race to the end of our lives. Or in the words of the luminary Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Out Of Office Network is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Alice Katter is a Creative Work Culture Consultant and Founder of Out of Office. Originally from Austria, she has lived in Vienna, London, and NYC. And in between, has spent months investigating work and life in Mexico, California, Cape Town, Italy, and Barcelona, to name a few. To access more interviews like this, creative travel guides, resources, and curated locations to work, play and connect, upgrade to our paid plan 🧡 Become a paid subscriber   Like Comment Restack   © 2025 Alice Katter Brooklyn, NY Unsubscribe