As someone who unconsciously believed a full calendar proved my worth (and, to be honest, I still feel that way much of the time), I’ll give you three hacks I’ve used to claw back time or create a sense of timelessness.
1. Practice sporadic meditation. I try to do it every morning, even just for five minutes, and I particularly try to do it in the middle of days that are nuts. Meditation creates the illusion of space, and just following my breath takes me out of my brain. Five minutes can feel like five hours and it brings you into the present which increases our potential for happiness..
2. Schedule “spying on the divine” time. This hack I learned during Covid as I would put three hours in my calendar three times a week for me and my dog Jamie to explore a new part of nature in Baja with the prompt, “Nature, what do you have to teach me today?” Putting it on the calendar means I will do it. Don’t assume it’s a lower-priority activity that appears in invisible ink in your calendar. This is as important as anything else on your calendar.
3. Commit to a digital detox. Whether going on a week-long mule camping trek seeing ancient cave drawings in remote Baja or taking a “sabbath” on a Saturday or Sunday with an “out of office” message, there’s such a relief in unleashing ourselves from our devices.
As a bonus hack, if you truly want to change your relationship with time, find flow-creating activities that are timeless for you. For me, it’s writing. For you, it might be gardening or surfing. While I don’t have any evidence for this, I believe you don’t age one bit when you’re pursuing timeless activities that put you in a deep state of flow. Go ahead, try it for yourself.
If you want to understand how our relationship with time evolves as we age, I highly recommend listening to our friend Laura Carstensen (founder of the Stanford Center on Longevity) on a recent episode of the Hidden Brain podcast.