“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Buddha
The present moment is the one time and place where you can be in total control of what happens next.
But most of us still spend a lot of our regular days lost in memories, reliving moments where we thought we were the happiest or focusing on an old conflict or negative situation over and over.
We get lost in scenarios about what could happen in the future. Maybe through wishful daydreams.
Or maybe by building monsters in our minds as thoughts go round and round and create scary and dangerous mountains out of molehills or just air.
Or your thoughts may become split and unfocused between several different things and tasks.
If you spend a lot of time in the future or the past, or you find yourself daydreaming resulting in having a difficult time focusing, then maybe you want to learn to live more in the present moment.
Here’s are a few tips that worked for me to learn how to let go and live in the moment.
1. Single-tasking
I’ve often read and thought about the importance of multi-tasking of your work to get it done more efficiently.
But I have found that it becomes easier for me to zone out, causing more mistakes, and essentially miss what’s going on around me. So, I introduced the method of single-tasking to stay focused on the present and found that throughout my day if I single-tasked everything as best I could, everything just turned out better.
That means not using multiple tabs as a place holder to come back to it later but to just be fully engaged with one thing online at a time. This included not pivoting back and forth from my smartphone to my computer. Context switching was causing a lot of unneeded stress.
Fighting the need to check my Slack, e-mail, text, etc during during or a conversation.
Get a good start to your day and set the tone for it by doing one thing at a time as soon as you wake up.
If you have to multitask, then try to set off some specific time for it during your day. Keeping a calendar put into perspective that there are only so many hours in a day and what should I consider a “priority”.
2. Slow it down.
Most of us don’t stop. We just keep pushing and rushing through our day as if there is a win at the end.
When you wake up and start your routine, slow it down a bit. Things can actually wait and tasks aren’t going anywhere.
Start your day and and incorporate the things you need to do at a healthy and calm pace. In reality it will probably not take that much longer than if you do it quickly. My Grandpa used to say, ” There’s no sense in rushing to a red light. You only save a few minutes and you actually end up risking your life speeding.”
Slowing down will allow you to stay present more easily, to focus on each thing you do and who you are doing it with. Give yourself time to find a simple joy or stillness in it.
Do that instead of increasing your stress right away and getting stuck in worries or though loops about what may happen today before you even have had your breakfast. In fact – I made it a rule not to read emails while eating. Eating is a time for you to fuel your body so if you’re using energy before you give your body/mind a moment to relax/re-energize you can feel exhausted earlier in the day.
Take your time.
3. Use present tenses.
As I do something I remind myself that it is happen at this very moment: Now I will X.
For example, if I am going through my inbox, I tell myself: Now I am going to clear out my inbox.
This habit is maybe most important when doing things where it is easy to drift away to the future or past. It could be as simple as taking off for lunch, or head to the gym or when you are preparing a meal.
I don’t apply this to every second or every situation all of the time, but I sprinkle it in a couple of times throughout my day when/where I can.
4. Limit what you let into your head throughout the day.
If I check my email, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other websites online early in the day then I have found that I will have more thoughts bouncing around in my head.
And so it becomes a lot harder to concentrate on anything, to stay present and to not be dragged away into some endless thought loop.
So a great habit has been to not check anything early in the day and limit what I check throughout the day.
And to check things as few times as I can.
If I minimize my time online then my day becomes lighter and simpler and I not only stay present more easily but I also tend to get more things of importance done.
5. Say No.
The four tips above can help when trying to stay in the present moment and to use it and enjoy it fully.
But change doesn’t happen over night and at times still I drift into past thoughts or become split between different things.
As quickly as I notice that my thoughts have drifted away I say to myself: No.
Then I quickly follow that up with focusing on just my breathing or just on what is happening around me right now with all my senses for a minute or two to draw myself back into this present moment.
