The Stretched Thin Myth

Bauback Yeganeh, Ph.D.

It feels as if you have more and more to do, and no time to do it all. I have yet to meet a client who doesn’t resonate with this statement. However, the notion that we are "stretched thin" can be deceiving. In the context of your development the idea is that if we had more time, we will be more likely to reflect, which means we would be more likely to change our behaviors. However, realistically we spend about 90% of our time on auto-pilot, regardless of how much free time we have. The things we do well and the things we aren't great at are mostly done without thinking about what we are doing at all. While on auto-pilot, we fill free time with mindless thoughts and behaviors. Thus, carving out free time may not be the simple solution that we think it is.   

Mindfulness practices that get us out of auto-pilot such as focusing our attention on breathing and attending to the five senses can be done at any time and don't require extra time in our schedules. Further, when leaders focus on micro-actions®, they find that they change trajectories of interaction within three seconds, and this can be practiced anytime.

Perhaps intentionality is less about having free time and more about doing something intentionally, right now.