Seven Minutes

Whether your desk is in your dining room or on the 7th floor of a downtown office building, have you ever had one of those days where you’re looking at a stack of something (papers, laundry, unanswered emails and text messages) and you know that’s what you need to focus on, but you’d rather do this other thing? But you don’t feel good about doing this other thing because you have that stack staring you down. So you go around and around and around, never accomplishing anything.

I love what Anne Lamott says: “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes…including you.”

It may very well seem that even the THOUGHT of unplugging is unfathomable to you – how could you possibly unplug when so much and so many rely on you to do your job and be everywhere at once?

It’s at that point that we find ourselves on autopilot. I take that back – when we’re on autopilot, we no longer “find ourselves,” we just go through the motions. Muscle memory kicks in and we know what to do, without even thinking about it. Without being present. Without being fulfilled.

Can you spell B-U-R-N-O-U-T?

Whether that takes two weeks or two months or two years, it’s hard to be on autopilot for too long before the inevitable happens. And then you are no good to anyone. Nothing else changes – the piles and stacks and demands are still there – but your ability to address them falters.

The answer is to unplug. Just like Anne Lamont says. For most of us, in order to do that, we need permission. But you’re the only one that can give you permission. Chances are even if your BFF or your mom or your boss told you to unplug, you wouldn’t listen. As women we grow up to be super-heroes in our own immediate worlds. It’s what we know. It’s multi-tasking at it’s finest. It’s also a myth.

To be all things to all people all the time is simply exhausting and unsustainable and ill-advised.

Pause. Breathe. Deeply. Now do that again. (Once more please, they say the third time is the charm.)

Now allow yourself to unplug. If the idea of it is already making you shake, start with only seven minutes. Right now. Give yourself permission. Set a timer. You can do anything (or in this case do nothing!) for seven minutes. Everything can wait. Everything will wait.

Consider this your reboot. After seven minutes, take another deep breath and return to where you left off, but notice what’s different. Are your thoughts clearer? Are you calmer? Do the words flow more freely? Does it feel easier to meet the demands of your day?

Maybe for now, it’s only a seven-minute reboot. Most days. Maybe, as you exercise your permission muscle, it will get stronger and it will be easier to take one hour away from your desk. To unplug. Take a walk. Read a magazine. Catch up with a friend you’ve been meaning to call. (Please note, I have never mentioned social media. So many of us are not only plugged in 24/7, we’re hard-wired!)

Taking care of ourselves is not selfish. It’s mandatory.

As a Type A (to my core!) my Dad used to tell me “sometimes good enough is perfect” and if seven minutes is what you’re able to permit yourself, then seven minutes is more than good enough – it’s perfect.

Start now. And let me know what you feel below!