How to be present

I notice that I am always thinking about what’s next, and my minds is always racing. Although I believe that I am on the track, how do I be present in the moment, I am realizing that it’s starting to effect me mentally and it’s not great, for example I will have thoughts like (what should I do now that will help me be a top bucket next year when I start). Things like that…how do I essentially take the chill pill.

8 Comments
 

Maybe getting off of WSO will be a helpful start. Otherwise there are companies that make actual chill pills. Maybe speak to a doctor or someone who is qualified to determine if you should receive one of those. Good luck. 

 

I’ve found I go through periods of being more or less present and it entirely comes down to my relationship with work and my broader mindset at the time. When I’m doing lots of short smaller projects back to back I become less present and am bouncing around a lot more even in situations where it’s not called for, and vice versa for not being agile enough at other times. The solution I’ve found is be more intentional with all of your actions, not just those you want to change. If you want to be more present in your work, spend your leisure time doing things that force you to be more present to get you into that headspace (read a book or watch a movie instead of playing video games, put down your phone/computer away while you eat, etc). Yes it’ll feel boring and you’ll want to hop around between things, but you’d rather fight that inertia when you have the flexibility to than in critical work time

 

Give Mindfulness a try. I read something about it on social media and whilst being very sceptical thought I would try it.My commute at the time was 1hr - 40 minutes train, 20 minutes walk. By the time I was 5 minutes from my door, I was practically falling asleep whilst walking.It was basic stuff really, listened to a mindfulness playlist, closing eyes and deep breathing on the train part of my journey. On my walk, made an effort to fully take in my surroundings, trees, plants, interesting building features. Watching myself touch my fingers with my thumbs (a connectedness technique).It was crazy effective for me. Weirdly, as I'm 95% remote now, I don't get that time to decompress.

 
Most Helpful

A few thoughts: 

- Exercise helps me to quell the racing. Start there. Specifically cardio and/or running does wonders. 

- Start reading more. It forces your mind to focus on what is at hand. You can't multi task when you read. You can't think about other things, unless you aren't really reading which happens more often than you'd think. 

- Shut off social media. Limit it to 30 minutes on your phone. Whatever. At best, it simply serves as a distraction and gets your mind to start wondering. 

- Create small, short term goals for the day or week. Focus on those. They should be little things - cook three times this week, meet two new people, work out each day. 

- If you've read these forums, you generally know what will get you 'top bucket' when you start. If it helps, start setting small things now that you can do. As an example, I've started blocking off 30 minutes a day just to read industry items - market research, economic updates, etc. Otherwise they will pile up and I will, at best, skim them (though arguably we might all be better off if we only skim economic white papers). 

 

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