As the pandemic was raging, we may have wished the year 2020 to pass sooner. Actually, the rotation speed of Earth was faster than usual in 2020.

Since the record, the shortest day before 2020 was 5 July 2005. On that day, the time required for the Earth to spin once was 1.0516 milliseconds faster than the average. However, this record was broken 28 times in 2020. The shortest day was 19 July 2020, which was 1.4602 milliseconds faster than the average. As a whole, the year 2020 was the fastest one in the past 50 years.

In fact, the rotation speed of the Earth is affected by factors such as the atmospheric and oceanic activities at all time. Since the development of precise measurement technology, we know that the Earth's rotation speed is slowing down gradually. Therefore, scientists have introduced a leap second since 1972 so that the astronomical time, which is the time for the Earth to complete one rotation, would be consistent with the time of our clocks. However, the phenomena of Earth's decreasing rotation speed is reversing slowly. Some scientists estimate that the Earth will spin even faster in 2021. If the situation persists, we may have to use a negative leap second.

More information: https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-was-spinning-faster-last-year-than-at-any-other-time-in-the-past-50-years