by Caryl Teh
For most of us, the past year and a half has crammed our office and home spaces into one. But even when it was easier to separate our professional and personal concerns by location, sometimes they still crept back to preoccupy our minds until we couldn’t focus on just being in the present moment. While there’s no one-stop solution to make everything better, here are four things you can try to help you slow down and be present.
1. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and SLOWLY count to 10
Most people work by inertia. Meaning you feel more “productive” when you stay on a work tab. You also might be scared to break your “flow”. But in actuality, it might actually be more helpful for you to take a 10-second breather. Your brain needs an occasional rest to get a clearer perspective, and staring at a screen non-stop for the whole work day risks making your eyes dry and tired.
So if you feel tension building up in your head, be kind to yourself. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and slowly count to 10. Your brain, eyes and overall wellbeing will thank you for it.
2. Read messages out loud, especially the long ones
Messages and emails normally don’t politely wait until we’re done with the previous one to drop into our inboxes. That means you might miss important information, especially if it’s hidden in a long block of text.
If you can relate to this problem, reading the message out loud might help slow your brain down from its sprinting speed so it can properly process what you’re reading.
3. Write down one take-away each day
More than ever before, it’s easy for our days to mesh into each other. Before we know it, a year has passed and we’re not sure what we achieved over the past 365 days. Rest assured, you are still growing and learning. And it’s important to remind yourself HOW you are growing.
Maybe you picked up a new skill from working on a group project, or gained a new insight from a book chapter, article, video, podcast, or just a casual conversation with a friend. Whatever it is, make it a point to write down a take-away a day. If you feel like that’s too big a commitment, start with a weekly takeaway. After a while, you’ll feel the difference – this habit highlights in black and white your steps of growth over time.
4. Avoid “multitasking”
Multitasking is a bit of a myth. You might feel like you’re doing two things at one time, but in reality, your brain is switching quickly between the two. A similar thing happens with work playlists — they might help when a task requires you to stay in a certain headspace or flow for a long, uninterrupted block of time, it isn’t always the best thing for your brain if you’re trying to tackle a few short tasks. A non-work equivalent that you might have heard of is Netflix.
So to prevent time from slipping away from you, try to be aware of these multitasking traps and avoid them when you feel that what you’re doing doesn’t warrant it.
In a pandemic season when days seem to pass so quickly, we hope these four tips help you slow down, be present and find more meaning in each day. Have faith that things will get better if we all stick together and do our part to be responsible.
