How does time move for you?

This is one I am always curious about really.  How does time move in the games that other people run?  Is it a day to day thing or is it more fluid?

In my games, time is very fluid.  Sometimes... it will come down to the very minutes and I'll have a stop watch running, only stopping it when an out of character question is asked.  Other times, I might hand wave off entire weeks if they are waiting on the repairs to a boat or a new item to finish being crafted and they are somewhere secluded and safe.  I might let a year pass if there is a lull in the adventures and they are wanting to pursue individual desires for a bit.

I think this is why like almost 1400 years 'in game' have passed.  There have been some time jumps in there between particular campaigns... namely if they resolved the big problems in the world and set everything on course to be stable for generations to come.  It's happened...  twice now?  Not a very good success rate...  but no matter... entropy eventually wins and new problems rise up, new ambitious people or people no longer bothering to listen to now lackluster words of wisdom.  Question... is looking back at the 1800's considered ancient yet or just old?

But the thing is, time also seems to make the players feel... invested in the world.  Yes, it is ultimately my decision on what happens or not but suddenly, when you offer the players the possibility that their decisions might have ramifications centuries down the road... they become... cautious.  Suddenly, they aren't so head strong towards racing into all things that might kill them.  They want to live... possibly forever... or at least a few centuries... just to see what they have done and how it turns out.

Now, this doesn't mean that I don't have time tables.  I do.  I have certain events that I would like to happen in the stories.  Might even go as far as to say what days they fall on.  This is always a loose framework at best.  Giving the players room to be able to work, research, investigate and travel makes players very happy.

This is a very difficult thing sometimes though to balance.  How much time do you give?  Well, how much do you want to have your players do?  I know I have had trouble juggling all this in the past.  Infact, I have had a rather heated argument with my players, all of them, where they said that they were too scared to do anything because the plot would move without them.  I'll touch on the world moving without the players in a future post.   Needless to say, I learned through pain that they want to be able to feel free to do something but not left bored...  and thus, the game greatly benefit from it.

I think I'll touch on this again later, this is enough for now.