How does being present change how you feel towards time?

Being more intentional with your thoughts, words and actions will result in less stress, more openness, more patience, more gratitude, more thought put into what you want from each day. Taking those steps will cut out a lot of the noise that can make up your day to day life without you even realising.

When you’re just going through the motions you may instinctively check your phone as you wake up. Before you know it, 30 mins have passed. Those 30 mins could have been dedicated to helping you reach a goal of yours.

Another example, when you’re on the phone to a good friend who has a dilemma ahead of them, you might be tempted to quickly check your work emails at the same time. You tell yourself that you’re able to multitask and that it’s actually good of you to be ‘killing 2 birds with 1 stone’. In the name of optimistic productivity you are sacrificing your focus to carry out either task to your fullest. Ask yourself, did you hear all the details from your friend correctly? Are you sure you gave the best advice you could? Because if you were to put yourself in that situation again and give your friend 100% of your attention, you may have remembered a book you read that would be great to recommend, or realised you know someone who could provide the solution they’re looking for. As much as you’re happy to chat to your friend again and again about it, you could do them a huge favour and save both of you time, if you give them the best of what you have. And a lot of the time, that comes from being present.

Ask yourself how much of yourself you could give to an idea, friend, project, resolution or goal if you’d given it your full attention. My guess is, a lot.

Changing your habits and using intentions to make the most of your day 

Understanding what it means to be present is one thing but putting it into action can be challenging. In a world of phone notifications, friends making plans for 6 months in the future and deadlines popping up left, right and centre, it takes some practice to find out what ‘being more present’ looks like to you. Take it day by day and see how small changes can open you up to a new way of approaching and handling your time. Does a 20 min walk give you more motivation for the day than watching a 2 hour movie? Does spending the whole day phone free actually make the day feel like it stretches on for hours longer than usual?

I recommend going about this the same as you’d approach other times you’ve tried something new – it’s important to understand your ‘why’. Our ‘why’ is our constant and it keeps us focused on the task in hand. Write it down and place it somewhere you can see it and any time you catch yourself veering back to being distracted, bring yourself back to your ‘why’.

With your ‘why’ in hand, set some intentions behind your everyday tasks and slowly remove distractions from there. You won’t be present for every single second of the day, but you’ll start to have the tools to snap you back to now when you need it. Next, remember that being truly in the present moment is not just about the times when you’re with other people – you owe it to yourself to be present alone too. And my last tip is to try not to clock-watch during the times when you don’t have to – make the most of not knowing exactly how long you have left until you move on to your next activity. Whether it’s minutes or hours, you’re deserving of pouring your full self into you do and enjoying it for what it is.

Your time is a gift

I hope my experiences and advice can help you to approach each day with a respect and understanding of the time available to you and how being present can fulfil you more than trying to fill every hour in the name of productivity. Take time to slow down to speed up. Take the chance to disconnect to connect further. And let go to feel more in control.

I hope these 2 posts have helped you take important steps on how you view and use your time. We all want to be the most productive versions of ourselves and this is such an important part of what we do in our business too.

Hows your relationship with time? I can’t wait to support you!

Love, Jessica x