Every Moment Deserves Our Attention

There is an abundance of boring tasks in many jobs.

Recently, I’m going through each page of a textbook and write down exam questions for our students. It’s a time-consuming task that comes with the feeling of not achieving much. Sure, creating a good pool of exam questions will serve us for several years. But knowing that doesn’t help much.

At some point, I began wondering whether I am wasting precious time of my life. Couldn’t I do something more worthwile?

It reminded me of an idea I think I read from Jon Kabat-Zinn: Everything that we do, or better, every moment is equally part of our life and worth paying attention to. Mindfully, without judgment.

It’s all part of this one life.

The time you are doing the dishes as much as the time you defend your PhD thesis. The moment you cross the finish line at a marathon as much as the moment you step into the train to commute to work on a Monday morning.

Yes, we can ask ourselves whether we want to do more or less of something in our future and then take steps towards one or the other. But in the moment, while we do something, it’s all part of our life’s story and judging it won’t help.