Mary Oliver was right
Awhile back, my friend Tami shared a method for doing a time audit – tracking how much time you spend doing the activities in your day (she said she found it to be a lot like a good diary -- very revealing!).
I recently discovered another kind of audit – an attention audit. While it's not dissimilar to a time audit, there are a couple of distinctions.
Our attention is related to time, but the gem here is that we can be giving our time to something without really giving it our attention.
Check it out:
Make a list of everything you value in your life. You could work from categories like:
relationships (list out the people)
home
work
health
spirituality / self-care / soul-care
community, volunteering or outreach
What or who is important to you in each area?
Some people like to use pen and paper or a spreadsheet, other people take a digital approach with an app like Toggl.
As you might imagine, an attention audit tracks how much mental energy you are giving the people, events and things in your life and the world. What you are thinking about.
The next step is to set a timer on intervals throughout the day, or do a check-in at lunch and before bed and ask: Where has my attention been? Remember, time is related to, but not the same as attention. Were you on the zoom call, but your attention was jumping around from what's for lunch to let me check email real quick?
As Mary Oliver said When you love something you pay attention to it.
I what I found most revealing about this audit was how easy it is to let relationships that truly value slide. Life gets "busy" and I keep meaning to send a text, but I don't.
Related... what else am I giving my attention to, if not the things I value? I certainly don't value social media, yet that's where a lot of my attention goes. What I really value is connection... so how can I use my attention to nurture relationships instead of empty scrolling?
Attention is closely related to intention, which we are familiar with in yoga practice. We can set an intention at the start of the day or a task, which will guide our attention.
Does this resonate for you? I'd love to hear. Just click reply.
With love,
Michelle
