You know how it always seems to take longer to GET somewhere than to do the same trip home? Scientists have finally figured out why.

A group of scientists in Japan studied the phenomenon, and they came up with three reasons why the trip home always feels shorter than the trip there.

1. When you’re excited to go somewhere, you’re paying more attention. On the way home, you kinda zone out, so the time you’re spending doesn’t hit you the same way.

2. On the way somewhere, you’re doing mental calculations of when you’re going to get there, and planning on what that means for the rest of your day. That keeps you extremely focused on the time.

On the way home, you probably don’t have a bunch of exciting things lined up, so you’re not doing those calculations.

3. And on the way there, the scenery is probably new to you, so you pay more attention to it. On the way home, you’ve already seen it all, so it’s not engaging you and you can stay zoned out.

In other words, you don’t really notice time passing when you’re on the way home . . . so it seems to take less time.