Productivity Boost: Responding To One Message At A Time

We live in a world of multitasking and scattered focus. This mindfulness exercise helps you deepen your focus and concentration and connect more deeply with others through technology.

Transcript

Welcome to this mindfulness exercise for reading and responding to one message at a time.

Practicing this exercise can help you to deepen your concentration and focus and connect more deeply with others through technology.

We live in a world of multitasking and scattered focus.

We probably don't even recognize all of the times throughout the day when we're mindlessly doing something like scanning a text message and quickly responding to it.

This practice is all about establishing a single point of focus and reading something from start to finish without interruption.

In other words,

Taking it one message at a time.

It's also about stopping to think about your response before automatically sending something back that you haven't thought through.

Before we get into the actual practice though,

I'd like to start out by doing some deep breathing.

Breathing deeply is a wonderful way to get into focus and center yourself.

Start by making sure that you're in a comfortable position.

Take a nice deep breath,

Breathing in deeply all the way down into your belly and then gently exhaling.

Feel free to close your eyes for a deeper experience.

Continue breathing deeply and as you do that,

Try and follow your breath as it makes its way through your body.

Breathe in deeply and hold,

Breathe out and notice where the inhalations connect with the exhalations.

Continue to breathe in and out.

Naturally and deeply and notice how the process of breathing is absolutely seamless and effortless.

As you continue your deep breathing,

Allow all of the muscles of the body to become loose and relaxed.

And now notice how relaxed you already feel.

If any stray thoughts come into your mind,

Gently acknowledge them and then let them go.

Practicing mindfulness is not about trying to empty your mind.

It's more about being present in your mind.

It's about being present in your mind and recognizing the thoughts as they come in and as they pass by.

Take another nice deep breath all the way down into the lower belly and gently exhale.

As you breathe,

Notice how the exhalations are coming in and out.

And gently exhale.

As you breathe,

Notice if any thoughts come into your mind and practice gently releasing those thoughts,

Like pushing away a cloud in your mind.

Try not to judge your thoughts as you notice them,

Not to label them as good or bad or pleasant or unpleasant.

If you notice any tension or discomfort,

Just observe what's here and see if it softens.

And now take one more deep breath in and then release and exhale.

And now focus on how you feel and honor whatever feelings you have right now.

If you're feeling unfocused or scattered in any way,

Take another deep breath to help regain some focus and calm.

And if your attention is wandering off at any moment,

Gently bring your focus back to the sensation of breathing in and out.

Now return to breathing naturally and normally and take a moment to notice how you feel after taking these deep breaths.

Take a moment or so to gauge how your mind and body are feeling.

See if you notice any differences from when you started this exercise.

And now let's practice the one message at a time technique.

You can go ahead and open up your eyes for the remainder of this practice.

Take out your smartphone and look for a messaging app that you use frequently.

This might be Facebook Messenger or text messaging or email.

Then open up the app and pick one message.

The key to this technique is to read that one message from start to finish without doing anything else.

Try that now.

Pick one message and read it with a single point of focus.

You may find your mind wandering from the message as you're reading it.

If you do that,

Gently pull your attention back to the message,

To your intention of reading just that one message and doing nothing else.

And if you're feeling a little tired,

Pull your attention back to the message,

To your intention of reading just that one message and doing nothing else.

Take as much time as you need.

Now before you reply to the message,

Pause and carefully think through what you're going to say in response to that message.

Many times we find ourselves quickly responding to a message without even thinking about what we're going to say or what we're saying while we're saying it.

Now start writing a response.

It may be short,

But again with the intention of writing that response from start to finish without interruption and without switching to any other task in between,

Even something as small as looking up something on the internet,

Focus for this practice on just writing that response with a singular focus.

And if you find that your mind starts wandering off as you try this,

Just gently bring your attention back to the response as you're writing it and take as much time as you need.

Now finish up writing that response.

If your attention wanders,

Bring it back again.

And when you're finished,

I'd like to ask you to do something that you may not normally do when you're writing a message,

Which is to go back and read what you've written at least once through from start to finish,

If not twice,

To make sure that what you've written is consistent with your intention,

That it reflects what you truly want to say.

This is not a simple intention that it reflects what you truly want to say.

This is not to make it perfect,

But instead to take that extra time with a feeling of spaciousness,

A feeling that you have all of the time in the world and aren't hurried to read that response that you've written and make sure it's consistent with what you want to convey.

And if upon reading the message,

You feel comfortable with it again,

Not that it's perfect,

But that you feel comfortable with it,

Send it.

And if there's anything about it that you don't feel comfortable with,

You have the choice and the option to just leave that draft there without sending it,

Knowing that you have the freedom of choice and the time to come back to it later and finish it.

And now whether you've sent your response or not,

Put the phone down and put it to sleep and put it away.

Good job.

Congratulate yourself on doing something that you may not normally do.

Many of us don't normally do,

Which is pick up your phone,

Read one message from start to finish without switching to anything else,

Carefully thinking through a response,

Writing it without switching to anything else,

Reviewing what you've written to make sure it reflects your intention and then sending it.

So how did this feel?

How do you feel right now?

How is it different from your normal way of texting and responding and messaging on the internet?

I'd like to encourage you to try this the next time you pick up your phone and read a message.

Taking a little extra time to think about what you're doing and commit your focus and intention to just engaging in one task at a time is both a great way to practice mindfulness and a great way to engage your full attention in whatever you're doing,

Including communicating with your friends and your family,

Co-workers and with anyone else so that you give them your full attention when you're reading what they've written to you and when you're saying something back.

Thanks so much for joining me today for this free guided meditation on reading and writing one message at a time.

Reviews

Good focus meditation

I love this! Great grounding exercise to be in the moment 😀

Thank you

Never occurred to me to mindfully read and respond to messages. Cant wait to use this approach! 🙏💕😊

A wonderful and practical application of mindfulness practice! Thank you! 🙏🏽💛☮️💫

I’m going to do this today

Thank you 🙌🏻💫❤️

Simple and powrful!

I highly recommend this teaching for those who multitask or who are easily distracted. 👍🏾