Slow Time Through Full Engagement
Make time feel fuller by engaging deeply and registering emotion
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 95%
Galloway offers two practical ways to make time feel slower: engage fully with the activity in front of you and register the emotions it produces. He illustrates the first by entering his child's interests even when the activity does not appeal to him, rather than retreating into email while waiting for it to end. He illustrates the second by deliberately noticing laughter, tears, guilt, anger, and inspiration after years of emotional restriction. The proposed mechanism is richer attention: active participation and felt emotion create more salient experience than distracted endurance. This concerns subjective time and presence, not literal control of time. Emotional engagement should also be paced safely; the transcript supports Galloway's personal practice, not a universal clinical intervention.
Origin
Galloway developed the approach while trying to be present with his children and confronting how quickly the previous three decades seemed to have passed. A visit to a life-size Monopoly attraction became his example of entering a child's interests rather than escaping into work.
Core principles
- 01Wishing an experience away makes it disappear from attention
- 02Deep participation creates richer memories
- 03Emotion reveals what matters
- 04Presence may require entering another person's interests
How to run it
- 1
Remove the escape
Notice the urge to check email, rush ahead, or mentally leave. Set the distraction aside for a bounded period.
Pro tip Choose a clear interval so full attention feels manageable.
- 2
Enter their interest
When sharing an experience, engage with what matters to the other person rather than requiring them to adopt your interests. Learn enough to participate sincerely.
Pro tip Ask the other person what detail they find most exciting.
Watch out Participation should be genuine, not mocking or performative.
- 3
Amplify participation
Respond, cheer, ask questions, and take part instead of waiting passively for the event to finish. Give the experience enough attention to become distinct.
- 4
Register emotion
Notice what makes you laugh, tearful, guilty, angry, inspired, or moved. Allow the signal to register without immediately analysing it away.
Pro tip Name the emotion and the event that triggered it.
Watch out Seek appropriate support if engaging with emotion becomes destabilising.
- 5
Recover the meaning
Ask what the activity or emotion reveals about your values and relationships. Use that answer to decide where future attention belongs.
In the wild
At a life-size Monopoly attraction, Galloway initially wanted to ignore the event and check email. He instead tried to enter the game, engage with his child, and respond enthusiastically to what happened.
→ He reports that deeper participation made the experience feel slower and more present.
Common mistakes
Trying to finish the moment
Treating an experience as an obstacle encourages distraction and leaves less distinctive memory of it.
Demanding shared interests
A relationship weakens when participation depends on the other person caring only about what you already value.
Forcing emotional intensity
The practice is to notice authentic emotion, not manufacture distress or overwhelm yourself.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for busy people who want family time and ordinary experiences to feel more present and memorable.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as a claim that attention literally changes clock time or as pressure to intensify overwhelming emotions without support.
From the transcript
“I find you can slow time down by getting into stuff”
“leaning into your emotions slows time down because it makes you more present”
From the episode
The Number One Reason This Generation Is Struggling: Scott Galloway