Yeah, the pause function is great and I'm really grateful for that.
But i found something even more useful - TIMESCALE.
It is hidden patch - meaning it was not announced with the patch notes and it is not intended to be used for regular gameplay. However, now that i know about it I cannot stop using it.
Timescale is a command you enter in the command line (after you have enabled devcommands) and it allows you to change game speed. I find this super useful for sailing, AFK farming, running long distances, etc.
You can completely freeze the game (same function as pause), slow down the time for easier fights and the most useful part - speed up the game up to 3 times. I just love how good it works to speed up some tiresome parts of the game.
For players who want to know how to use it, read the guide below.
Hit F5 to open command line and type "devcommands" to enable commands. Then type "timescale X" where X represents a number between 0 and 3 (you can enter 100 but from my experience the speed is the same at 3 and at 100). Default value is 1. Any number below 1 will slow down the game speed and any number above 1 will speed it up. 0 will freeze the game including your character.
Its best to use it with command "bind", so you can assign it to numerical keyboard and change the speed of the game easily by pressing one button.
e.g. "bind keypad0 timescale 0", "bind keypad1 timescale 1" etc. Bounded keys will be remembered after you quit the game, but you will have to enable devcommands every time you start the game.