Leadership Coach, Musician, Educator
Here is something that has helped my coachees achieve better work-life balance. Many of us use an online calendar to block our time. Time for professional activities like calls and meetings. But not for personal stuff.
Start putting important personal stuff on your calendar. Get a better view of your day. Balance it better.
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
There are two types of time. Clock time and psychological time.
Clock time is timeless. You are in the present moment. You access past or future when needed. Deal with it for practical matters. Once done, you move back deeper into the present moment.
Psychological time is when you identify with the past or keep projecting into the future. You are no longer in the present moment. The past or future consumes you.
Happiness comes when you free yourself from psychological time.
Gratitude to Eckhart Tolle’s teachings from where I learnt this.
“I know many time management frameworks and techniques. But I feel trapped in time”, said one of the CXOs I was coaching.
How does one free oneself from time?
We are often either preoccupied with our past or with the future. The past is gone. The future is yet to come. Yet we live through past memories or anticipated future states.
The key to freeing ourselves is to understand that what we truly have with us is just the present moment, the “now”. Nothing happened in the past. Nothing will happen in the future. Everything happens only in the now.
Started feeling free?
“I have a busy schedule. I find it very difficult to sit and practice for even 30 minutes. Is there any way out?” asked a participant in my workshop yesterday on fun with music, math and rhythm.
This is something I struggled with for a long time, given especially my penchant to get into many things.
One way that has worked for me and the people I coach is to leverage the power of small steps. Small consistent steps soon add up as captured in this picture. The best part is you can apply this to almost anything, be it music, work, meditation or any subject you are learning.
For example, you can practice music for a few minutes in-between other activities. If you play an instrument, keep it unpacked and in a place where it is visible to you. Out of sight is out of mind! Practice in small chunks many times a day.
Where can you use this in your life today?
I love Sundays. When I was in a full time corporate job, the weekdays used to be like a flooded river. Not that they are any different now 🙂 But, Sunday was when the river would calm down a bit. It was when I was able to access stillness and start understanding who I am. Once it became a habit, everyday started looking like a Sunday. Now every moment seems to have a Sunday in it that I can access.
There is a saying “We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.”
Today is a Sunday. Your chance to see your reflection. To connect with yourself. Go ahead!
Ramkumar R 