It's been a hectic week of tight deadlines and last minute panicked legal worries. It was an endless round of multi-country phone calls and late working writing draft after draft, trying to get everything done.
But weirdly I wasn't stressed at all. Sitting back today with everything done and sent in, I wonder why such a crazy week wasn't stressful at all when others, with much less to do, are.
This week I had no time to think about the future, what I needed to do next week or next month or whenever. I had to focus at the job at hand. There simply was no time to think about anything other than what I was doing. Because everything I wrote needed legal checks I couldn't speculate about the next step until I had received legal advice. This kept me totally focussed on the moment, on the work I was doing at that point in time only.
And it was wonderful. I was living at the speed life was happening. My thoughts, my actions, my energy were focussed on what I was doing and not rushing ahead or sideways or all over the place as they usually are. I was simply doing the work as it needed to be done: I was living at the speed of life!
Now the deadlines and the unique set of conditions have passed I can feel my mind starting to jump about again and think about everything except what I am doing right now. To bring myself back to the present, I simply tell myself to live at the speed of life and focus first on what I see right now, then what I hear, then what I smell and taste and finally what I touch.
While I will no doubt drift off into the future again, repeating this exercise brings me back to the present to be without stress and ultimately more productive.
Your small improvement for today is to try this technique to live at the speed of life.