Attractive Distractions

Think of the various parts of your life.  Which parts are getting too much attention? Which parts aren’t receiving enough attention? Are you spending enough time on the things that really matter, or are you busying yourself with trivia?

The problem with trivial matters is that they often *seem* urgent, or are attractive distractions.

While some days are filled with urgent matters which overwhelm the most carefully constructed agenda, most of the items we treat as urgent probably aren’t that time-sensitive.  We allow events, other people, and our own confusion to overwhelm us with artificial urgency, instead of stepping back and assessing the situation to decide for ourselves if the fate of civilization actually rests on whether the task is accomplished. Despite what people think, the world will not end if their request is not fulfilled in the next five minutes.

Attractive distractions abound: watching the world go by, watching TV, taking Facebook quizzes. While it’s important to have down time and to do fun things to refresh ourselves, it’s far too easy to lose multiple hours—day after day—to unproductive distractions.

How do you spend your time?  No, really.  What do you do all day?  What do you have to show for each 24 hours the universe grants to you?

We all have days where the best laid plans go awry, despite our best efforts to stay on track —the train is late, the car blows a tire, the colleague has a family emergency and leaves you to finish the presentation by yourself, the child gets sick and you have to leave work in the middle of the day to pick them up from school—any number of things can—and do—happen. But that’s not reality most days (thank the Gods).

Most of the time we lose is time we’re not aware of losing. We choose to cruise Wikipedia for hours, instead of doing our own writing. We opt to take Facebook quizzes rather than call a friend for a real conversation.  We automatically plop on the couch to watch television because we’re “too tired” to do anything meaningful.

Some days are dreadful, and curling up with a beverage of choice and staring out the window is the exact right thing to do. In taking time to be still and be quiet, we release the tension and aggravation, returning to our center, so that we can appreciate the rest of the day that remains.

We all need down time, we all need time to have fun. Not every hour is billable. Only you know what is truly important to you. I encourage you to look honestly at what you do with your time, and make choices that are better for your mental and emotional health, and better for your life and your soul.

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