Enjoying the passage of time ⏳
Length: • 5 mins
Annotated by Tahsin Khan
Hey friends,
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written a fresh issue here - for the past few weeks, I was first on my honeymoon in Costa Rica (which was awesome) and then spent a week in the Nevada desert for Burning Man (which was... different). I’m now writing this from Hong Kong where me and the wife are planning to spend the next few weeks to months (maybe even years 👀), depending on how we like it - btw, if you happen to be in HK, I’m looking for friends so please do reply to this email if you’d like to hang +/- with any recommendations for things to do / places to stay etc.
Anyway, over the past few weeks the main thing I’ve been focused on is enjoying the present moment. Before my wedding, I asked lots of married folks for wedding day advice, and 80% of responses were along the lines of: “Make sure you enjoy yourself and stay as present as possible, everything else will take care of itself”.
So, true to form (because I like to actually follow advice when I get it), I tried my best to stay present on my wedding day. There were loads of things I could've been stressing about - whether the guests were having a good time, if things were running on schedule, or if it was too hot. But whenever I caught myself thinking "uh-oh, this isn't going according to plan", I just tried to relax into the moment and accept things as they were.
I applied the same philosophy to the honeymoon. For the first time in ages, I decided I wasn't going to do anything that looked like work and just focus on enjoying myself. It was pretty nice to have nowhere to go and nothing to do. Super relaxing overall.
Even so, I ended up reading a bunch of books and browsing stuff on Substack. And somewhere along the way, I came across this quote from a song:
“The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time."
Turns out the quote is from a James Taylor song called "Secret O' Life". I'd never heard of it before, but after stumbling across it, I gave it a listen. It's a pretty chill, folky tune - not usually my go-to genre, but the lyrics really hit home. Here’s how it starts:
"The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time
Any fool can do it
There ain't nothing to it
Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill
But since we're on our way down
We might as well enjoy the ride"
The quote really hit home for me. I realised that's kinda what being in the present moment is all about - just enjoying the passage of time. When people gave me wedding advice, they said "just enjoy yourself". Same thing for the honeymoon. And at Burning Man, with no signal and nothing to do, I was basically forced to focus on enjoying the passage of time.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Even now that I'm chilling in Hong Kong with more stuff to do, I keep coming back to this idea. Whether I'm writing this newsletter, doing work, or having a meeting with my team, I've got this thought in the back of my mind: the secret to life is enjoying the passage of time.
It definitely vibes with my philosophy for Feel-Good Productivity - to be more productive, focus on enjoying yourself. But in a way, it goes deeper than that. It's like, literally, the point is to enjoy yourself. The secret to life is to enjoy the passage of time.
So I'll end with a question for you: When was the last time you really enjoyed the passage of time? What were you doing? And how can you bring more of that into your daily life?
For me, it was probably sitting on the beach in Costa Rica, watching the sunset with my wife, with absolutely nothing on the agenda. But I'm trying to recreate that feeling even in busier moments - like right now, as I'm writing this newsletter.
Hit reply and let me know your thoughts - I'm genuinely curious to hear about your experiences with this. And who knows, maybe we can all learn a thing or two about enjoying the ride 😉
Have a great week!
Ali xx
PS: After the success of VoicePal, my team and I are doubling down on new productivity software ideas. We’re looking for an awesome product designer to join us. If you’re interested, let me know in this form & we’ll be in touch if we think there’s a fit :)
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