Time itself is neutral…
Early this morning, I had to deliver a 15 minute presentation virtually to our global team for work, and then at noon, when I went to the gym, the workout of the day, or “WOD,” as they call it, was also 15 minutes. The 15 minute presentation felt like a race, trying to get all of the content in before my time ran out in the carefully curated agenda. The 15 minute WOD, which had a goal of completing a workout sequence within the time frame, felt like an eternity, like it would never end. It wasn’t until I started doing Crossfit about five years ago that I learned that 5 minutes or 10 minutes or even 15 minutes can seem like FOREVER when you are filling it with box jumps, burpees, and kettle bell swings. This has helped me to realize that, if we can focus on what we are doing in a given moment, our days are actually comprised of an endless stream of short sprints.
How long does it take to make three kids lunches? 14 minutes
Training session with a puppy? 5–10 minutes
Call my parents? 15 minutes
Meditation? 10 minutes
Make a coffee? 1 minute
Text a friend? 30 seconds
That’s how long it takes if I’m being present in those moments. A definition of mindfulness is “paying attention on purpose to the present without judgment”. Much of my waking life is admittedly not mindful, but more of a multitasking fiasco, where it takes 2 hours to clean up the kitchen because I’m also doing a million other things.
Is this lack of being in the present why we feel like we have such little time? I recently read this piece on Mellody Hobson, President and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, and the chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation, that centers around how the practical advice she received from her hardworking mother about the value of time has shaped the way she approaches life each day:
“She organizes her weekly schedule by packing meetings tightly together, leaving herself uninterrupted chunks of time within each day to write, reflect and read. She keeps office hours, like college professors, so she can stay accessible to anyone who needs her while limiting distractions the rest of the week. And she wakes up every day at 4 a.m. to squeeze in her workout to maintain the stamina and the physical strength she says she needs to get through the year. She’s always prioritizing and reprioritizing, breaking things down into what’s urgent or what’s important — knowing they’re not always the same thing — making sure that everything she does is aligned with her overall purpose and intent, making sure no moments are wasted.”
She sounds intense, sure, but I would bet that she also makes time for rest and enjoyment and has some amazing experiences along the way. Time is the great equalizer, we all have 24 hours in a day, but we don’t know how much time we have on this earth. As parents, we are told that “the days are long, but the years are short.” This creates an urgency for the time we have with our kids to be special, creating memories, exposing them to new ways of thinking, and talking together. This weekend, a family discussion about groceries turned into an elaborate taste test of apple varieties with a score board that would make any excel expert proud, made by my 7-year old Lara, and the winner was an apple I’ve never heard of, aptly named Sugar Apple.
How can we be a little more selfish about our time, when so many people ask us for it? I, for one, am horrible about saying no, always wanting to please.
I come back, time and time again, to this quote by MLK, Jr.
“Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively… We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
Especially with so much crisis in the world, how can we focus on productive uses of our limited time? I have been heartened to see the outpouring of support for the Ukraine, with drives throughout the community for the refugees fleeing their homeland for safety.
Maybe we all have more time than we think, if we can try our best to be present, to focus more on what we want to create and whose lives we want to positively impact, all the while giving ourselves the grace to know that the goal is progress, not perfection. And find more time to have fun and recharge in the process, so that we can show up at our best.
And just like that, my 15-minutes of writing is up.
