Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about why and how you should build
Speaker 1: reflective time into your schedule. I define reflective time as
Speaker 1: consciously chosen moments when you pause and think about your life.
Speaker 1: You think about what you've done with your time and
Speaker 1: what you'd like to do with your time. And sure,
Speaker 1: people wind up ruminating unintentionally those moments that two am
Speaker 1: when your thoughts are spinning about something regretted or dreaded.
Speaker 1: But I'm talking about something more intentional, which generally involves planning, journaling, or,
Speaker 1: for those with a more spiritual bent, meditating or praying.
Speaker 1: In my research, I found that choosing to carve out
Speaker 1: these moments is associated with feeling like you have more time.
Speaker 1: From my book Off the Clock, I had nine d
Speaker 1: busy people track their time for a day. I asked
Speaker 1: questions about how they felt about their time. I found
Speaker 1: that the people with the most abundant perspective on time
Speaker 1: were highly likely to engage in these reflective activities, whereas
Speaker 1: the people who felt most starved for time we're likely
Speaker 1: to never engage in these activities. And by the way,
Speaker 1: it's not that the former group had more leisure time.
Speaker 1: The rushed and harried sorts actually watched more TV and
Speaker 1: spent more time online. But if you think about it,
Speaker 1: time keeps passing, whether we think about how we spend
Speaker 1: it or not. We're all on canoes in the middle
Speaker 1: of a rushing river. Unless you pull yourself over to
Speaker 1: a calm spot, it's really hard to figure out how
Speaker 1: to direct our crafts through the current. Reflective moments give
Speaker 1: us a chance to do that, And so it turns
Speaker 1: out that spending discretionary time reflecting on life makes time
Speaker 1: feel more calm than using the same quantity of time
Speaker 1: to say Peru's Twitter. So that's the why. Now let's
Speaker 1: get to the how. The first approach and what will
Speaker 1: work best for most people is structural reflection. Doesn't need
Speaker 1: to take a ton of time, but we do need
Speaker 1: cues to remind us to do it, or else will
Speaker 1: just flip from one thing to the next. Long time
Speaker 1: listeners know that I like to plan my weeks on
Speaker 1: Friday afternoons, and I think this is a great time
Speaker 1: in general to think about the week that's just past,
Speaker 1: and the seven days are so to come, what needs
Speaker 1: to happen? What would I like to see happen. Until
Speaker 1: you get in the habit, it might help to set
Speaker 1: an alarm for a certain time, say three pm on Friday.
Speaker 1: If that doesn't work because you're still stuck in a meeting,
Speaker 1: set a back up time. But spending a merre ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes on this weekly planning well add slutely
Speaker 1: change your life. Then you can build in smaller structural
Speaker 1: moments for reflection. I like to think through the next
Speaker 1: day as I'm ending the day before. You can do
Speaker 1: this before you leave work or at night before bed,
Speaker 1: think about what went right and wrong in the previous
Speaker 1: day and what would you like to see happen in
Speaker 1: the coming twenty four hours. When can those things happen.
Speaker 1: Some people might prefer to start their days in reflective mode.
Speaker 1: If that's used, set your alarm for ten minutes before
Speaker 1: you have to be up and use this time to
Speaker 1: read something uplifting or to set your intentions for the day.
Speaker 1: Between a weekly reflective time and smaller daily reflective times,
Speaker 1: you can start to feel a lot more calm, and
Speaker 1: then if you'd like to take things up a level,
Speaker 1: you can try to find other reflective opportunities. Some people
Speaker 1: pray or meditate in the shower it's time. Our minds
Speaker 1: tend to wander anyway, so why not direct that wandering.
Speaker 1: You can count your blessings while stuck in traffic, and
Speaker 1: any bit of found time, like while you're waiting for
Speaker 1: a phone call to start, could be good for writing
Speaker 1: in a journal. The good news is that as you
Speaker 1: build in these reflective movements, your relationship with time we'll
Speaker 1: start to change. You'll start making more positive choices, You'll
Speaker 1: feel more like you are directing time rather than it
Speaker 1: directing you, and you'll probably feel less rushed and harried.
Speaker 1: These are pretty amazing outcomes for what amounts to less
Speaker 1: than five to ten minutes a day. So why not
Speaker 1: give it a shot today? Think about when you can
Speaker 1: build in reflective moments into your schedule, hold yourself accountable
Speaker 1: for today, and then do it again tomorrow. I'm betting
Speaker 1: that the payoff we'll soon have you hooked. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening and years to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.
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