Alex Payne, writing about exercising:
I listen to podcasts while I work out to make the time go faster, and to sometimes learn something. Ninety minutes in the gym can feel like wasted time. Of course, maintaining one’s health is far from a waste, but for geeks, time not spent working or learning usually feels squandered.
That’s an excellent point, and it holds true for many tedious activities, like mowing the lawn, washing dishes or shoveling snow.
I believe the same effect can be observed while teaching. I’ve often thought that when entertaining my kids with some inane child-level activity, time drags on slowly, because the things kids usually do are generally uninteresting to everybody else. They want to read the same book five times in a row, for instance.
But teaching them something, like how to build a certain form with their blocks, build a train track, or get through a maze—that’s much more interesting and time seems to travel more quickly.