One's ongoing experience tends to limited to small periods in which one's attention is directed at some thing or event, which have some felt duration, but as a rule last short even if much may be crammed into them: A few seconds to a few minutes at most, apart from exceptions.

Indeed, part of the reason this is so seems to be due to the orientation reflex animals have as well: One is rarely totally committed to one task and one interest, and even if one is one tends to check periodically whether one is safe.

One of the interesting things about the specious present - which one can indirectly see when considering people with Alzheimer's disease - is how very much of what one (thinks one) is depends on one's memories, including rapid access to them.