How to make the most of an hour

1 hour, 60 minutes, 3600 seconds.

That is what many of us in Australia are currently restricted to in terms of outdoor recreation.

While you may not be able to change the actual duration of that hour, you can change how you perceive that hour and you can control what you make of that hour.

Remember the last time you were stuck in a traffic jam or waiting at the doctor’s, how long did that hour feel?

And remember how quickly that hour passed when you were rushing to get that presentation finished or how time seems to fly when you are having fun?

How can you change your perception of how fast time passes?

1. Calibrate time: increasing how often you check the watch can create a time distortion that slows the speed of time. Try this exercise:

How much time will it seem to take to travel 5 km in one hour when you check your progress
- every 10 minutes?
- every 1 minute?

2. Calibrate distance: checking your progress more often can create a time distortion that slows the speed of distance. Try this exercise:

How much time will it seem to take to travel 5 km in one hour when you check your progress
- every 1 kilometre?
- every 100 metres?

3. Internal vs External Focus: When you calibrate time and distance, it requires an external focus of attention. Increasing your external focus of attention can slow down your experience of time and distance. So the more you think and focus internally, the faster time seems to pass. And the more you focus externally, the slower time passes.

If changing your perception of time does not work, try these tips:

1. Plan for that one hour, make it something to look forward to, get excited about it.

2. Make that one hour about you. Negotiate with your partner that this one hour is ‘you’- time.

3. Go outside for that one hour. Run. Walk. Smell the roses. Watch the clouds. Breathe the air. Touch the trees. Listen to wind and the birds.

4. Can you hang loose for that one hour? Can you notice things as they are just as you are in the moment? Letting go of the tendency to want things to be different from how they are right now. Allowing things to be exactly as you find them at this time? Allowing yourself to be exactly as you are at this time?

What can you do in that one hour each day that will enrich the quality of your life and set you in the direction that fits your values and visions?