Build in reflective time

Hitting pause for a few minutes can make time feel expansive

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about why and how you should build
reflective time into your schedule. I define reflective time as

(00:25):
consciously chosen moments when you pause and think about your life.
You think about what you've done with your time and
what you'd like to do with your time. And sure,
people wind up ruminating unintentionally those moments that two am
when your thoughts are spinning about something regretted or dreaded.
But I'm talking about something more intentional, which generally involves planning, journaling, or,

(00:51):
for those with a more spiritual bent, meditating or praying.
In my research, I found that choosing to carve out
these moments is associated with feeling like you have more time.
From my book Off the Clock, I had nine d
busy people track their time for a day. I asked
questions about how they felt about their time. I found

(01:13):
that the people with the most abundant perspective on time
were highly likely to engage in these reflective activities, whereas
the people who felt most starved for time we're likely
to never engage in these activities. And by the way,
it's not that the former group had more leisure time.
The rushed and harried sorts actually watched more TV and

(01:34):
spent more time online. But if you think about it,
time keeps passing, whether we think about how we spend
it or not. We're all on canoes in the middle
of a rushing river. Unless you pull yourself over to
a calm spot, it's really hard to figure out how
to direct our crafts through the current. Reflective moments give

(01:56):
us a chance to do that, And so it turns
out that spending discretionary time reflecting on life makes time
feel more calm than using the same quantity of time
to say Peru's Twitter. So that's the why. Now let's
get to the how. The first approach and what will
work best for most people is structural reflection. Doesn't need

(02:20):
to take a ton of time, but we do need
cues to remind us to do it, or else will
just flip from one thing to the next. Long time
listeners know that I like to plan my weeks on
Friday afternoons, and I think this is a great time
in general to think about the week that's just past,
and the seven days are so to come, what needs

(02:41):
to happen? What would I like to see happen. Until
you get in the habit, it might help to set
an alarm for a certain time, say three pm on Friday.
If that doesn't work because you're still stuck in a meeting,
set a back up time. But spending a merre ten
to fifteen minutes on this weekly planning well add slutely
change your life. Then you can build in smaller structural

(03:05):
moments for reflection. I like to think through the next
day as I'm ending the day before. You can do
this before you leave work or at night before bed,
think about what went right and wrong in the previous
day and what would you like to see happen in
the coming twenty four hours. When can those things happen.

(03:26):
Some people might prefer to start their days in reflective mode.
If that's used, set your alarm for ten minutes before
you have to be up and use this time to
read something uplifting or to set your intentions for the day.
Between a weekly reflective time and smaller daily reflective times,
you can start to feel a lot more calm, and

(03:48):
then if you'd like to take things up a level,
you can try to find other reflective opportunities. Some people
pray or meditate in the shower it's time. Our minds
tend to wander anyway, so why not direct that wandering.
You can count your blessings while stuck in traffic, and
any bit of found time, like while you're waiting for
a phone call to start, could be good for writing

(04:10):
in a journal. The good news is that as you
build in these reflective movements, your relationship with time we'll
start to change. You'll start making more positive choices, You'll
feel more like you are directing time rather than it
directing you, and you'll probably feel less rushed and harried.

(04:32):
These are pretty amazing outcomes for what amounts to less
than five to ten minutes a day. So why not
give it a shot today? Think about when you can
build in reflective moments into your schedule, hold yourself accountable
for today, and then do it again tomorrow. I'm betting
that the payoff we'll soon have you hooked. In the meantime,

(04:56):
This is Laura. Thanks for listening and years to making
the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,

(05:22):
then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media
dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

(05:44):
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