Resonance – Episode 21
Verbatim Transcript
Speaker: Viktoria Levenberg
We can all be time benders if we are given the right tools. That one shoulder tap has just cost me
between 10 to 20 percent of my productivity.
How you treat your time is very much a mirror to how much you value and respect yourself.
From a Vedic perspective, there is a teaching on three different concepts of time. Again, I know
that some of you — like your head might be hurting right now — it’s okay. My head was hurting
the first time I heard this as well.
Welcome, and join me to learn the time management hacks that they do not teach you at school
or anywhere else.
To be frank, if you feel like you are constantly running out of time — maybe you’re one of those
people who’s always late to appointments and just constantly in a rush — this episode is for you.
Because today, I am going to share the time management hacks and insights that they don’t
teach you at school, so that you can accomplish everything that you set out to do and so much
more. Let’s dive in.
Welcome to Resonance — a podcast for ambitious, heart-led humans craving more balance,
depth, and aliveness in their lives. I’m your host, Vik — health coach, yoga teacher, facilitator, and
fellow high achiever learning to live in tune with my nervous system, not against it.
This space is here to remind you that you can have it all — the career, the success, the fulfilment
— all aligned with your truth. Through honest conversations, expert insights, and practical tools,
we’ll explore how to work with your body, mind, emotions, and spirit — not against them.
And the best part? You don’t have to stay stuck in survival mode to get there. Because true
wellbeing is not about being perfect — it’s about being in resonance. Let’s dive in.
Welcome, welcome.
Alright, well — this week, at the time of the recording of this episode, we have just gone into
daylight savings mode here in New Zealand. So the clocks have turned forward — um, we have
lost an hour. I always get confused, so I had to think there for a moment.
And you know what? That tends to throw a lot of people out of routine. I don’t know about you,
it definitely does for me. Because I have a wonderful routine, and this was the first year that I
really noticed actually how much even just like an hour can have a profound impact on my day-
to-day life.
And as I was sort of moving through the week, I was having these random thoughts of like —
time, time, who agreed that it is the time? Like, who decided that we’re all gonna move clocks?
And how did we all agree on this? Like, who’s making up this time? You know, it was kind of just
this fun little, um, I guess self-inquiry. Welcome to a day in the life of my head.
That was going on, and that’s kind of what is going to tie into today’s episode quite a bit.
You know, um — my mum always used to run late to everything. Meetings, appointments, flights,
trains, buses. It sort of — it was such an interesting experience growing up as someone who was
born into a very strict kind of family on one side, and then spent quite a lot of time in Germany,
which, you know, if there’s anything you know about Germans, it’s that they are very punctual
and very much on time.
And then I lived in Switzerland, which again — you know, Swiss watches and it’s — everything’s
just so like polished and picture-perfect, and the trains literally arrive like to the second on time. I
still don’t know how they do it — it’s wild, it’s like clockwork.
And then to have that kind of really opposite dynamic — and it was like this from early childhood
— and, to be honest, to this day is like still quite a big pet peeve of mine. But I’ve just learned
how to work around it. You know, I just say, “Hey, we need to be ready by 4:30,” when we actually
only need to be ready by 5:00. But then it means that we actually end up leaving on time. You
know, it’s like — it’s wonderful.
So this is actually a nice little life hack that I will add to the list, because it just came to me a bit
later on.
So look — this is a bit of the preframe.
Now, some of the hacks that I’m going to share with you today are super tangible. You can like
implement them right away, and you will already see benefits in how you operate, how you
perceive time, and how much you get done.
Some of these, however, are bigger mindset and perspective shifts. So just be mindful that I
might, um, throw some alternative ways of thinking — maybe some things that you haven’t
necessarily heard before — out there, and that is all intentional.
These shifts will take some time — pun slightly intended — so I hope you enjoy the episode.
Let’s get straight into it and begin with the definition of time.
Because like — what is time? You know, it’s like we’re always running out of time, but we never
really stop to think, “Wait — what is time, actually?”
And the funny thing is — it’s actually made up. Like, I — in preparation for this episode — was
doing a little bit of research, and it was so interesting to see that even the definitions of time
cannot agree on what time is.
Because really, there’s kind of what we have been indoctrinated to believe time to be, and that
we all collectively agree on, and hence kind of have a functional society around.
And at the same time, there is also this reality that all time is now — because you have nothing
but this present moment.
There is — like, as I just said that sentence, that’s already in the past. There’s — like, you are now.
You are here now.
And that’s like — can be a little bit mind-blowing. It can be a little bit like, “Whoa, what just
happened?” for some people, and that’s okay.
Just stick with me. I promise you, we will get to the tangible hacks, and they are super good at
the end. But I purposely put them towards the end of this episode so that you stick around for
some of my woo interpretations of time first.
So let’s start with the dictionary — because hey, dictionary is like the rules, right? It’s like the
Bible of languages.
And so, according to the dictionary, I found two definitions of time that came up right away. The
first is the — um, actually it wasn’t the first, it was the second, which we’ll come back to in a
moment, but I’m gonna read it first.
So the second definition that came up, which most of us will probably agree with, is: time — it’s a
point of time as measured in hours and minutes past midnight or noon.
The first definition that came up, which I found quite interesting — because that’s kind of what
we’re gonna tap into a little bit — was a little bit more spacious.
That definition is: “Time is the indefinite, continuous progress of existence and events in the past,
present, and future regarded as a whole.”
And then in quotation marks, to give it context, it’s got “travel through space and time.”
So it is so interesting how even in something as commonly acknowledged and, I guess, basic as a
dictionary, there is this sort of dichotomy of time, which we will explore.
So look — this is where I really want to lead into with this.
And it’s the fact that time is relative.
So we all have our own perceptions of time. There is no one set right way — like, we all
experience it differently.
And it’s — it’s not finite or external. Like, someone cannot just give you more time. You know, it’s
like you hear the saying, “You can’t buy back time,” or like, if you’re like, “Oh, I only have this
much.”
Like, it’s not as linear as we would, I guess, like it to be.
And so not all units of time are equal.
My financial coach and mentor puts this so nicely — Kate Northrup. She speaks about how the
one minute that you spend — or the five minutes that you spend waiting in line for your coffee
— are very different to the five minutes that you may have spent holding a newborn for the first
time, or you know, some other kind of really intimate, purpose led experience.
Similarly, not all tasks are equal.
So there’s quite a bit for us to dive into, and we’re just gonna start with the perception of time as
the linear and all that is.
And I’ll give you two angles — both have very much a lot of crossover, both are valid, and again,
as everything on this podcast — if it resonates, amazing; if it doesn’t, that’s okay too, right?
Like, I’m only here to share what I have either learned or gained access to, and that I feel will be
of value to you, so that you can get closer to living the life of your wildest dreams.
So, let’s start with the Vedic perspective of time first.
Now, the Vedas are an ancient study of life, so to speak. It originates from India, and to be
honest, my personal belief is that a lot of the teachings that come through the Vedas and
through these ancient texts is how humanity used to perceive life for so long.
It’s just that throughout colonisation and all of kind of human development, you would have
heard of things like the burnings of the books and the witch hunts and all this sort of stuff. Like,
there was a conscious effort made to keep certain information hidden from the general public.
And the reason that most of this information has managed to be preserved in India is because of
the Himalayas. It’s so hard to get there. It is so hard to cross over and kind of dive in. At least,
that’s how I resonate with this explanation.
It’s also why Sanskrit — which is the ancient language, it is like the most ancient language that
we know and have kind of studies on to this day — also originated from Vedic teachings and from
this area. So, um, yeah — just a little kind of side tangent for you on where this is coming from.
So from a Vedic perspective, there is a teaching on three different concepts of time.
There is the idea of, of course, linear time — which is what most of us live and breathe by, right?
If you imagine it — and I learned this from my meditation and manifestation teacher, Emily
Fletcher — she put this visually so nicely for me in her Ziva Magic course that it just, like, kind of
opened something up.
So, if you imagine a line in front of you, and it is a horizontal line. In the middle you’ve got the
present, and then, wherever — on the left or on the right — you’ve got the past, and then on the
other side you’ve got the future.
So the linear perception, the Karmakhanda — which is the Sanskrit pronunciation of this — is this
perception of time that past, present, and future are all happening separately.
Now, in the Vedas, the teachings state that as we shift and change our states of consciousness
and awareness, we can start to emerge into this vertical sense of time.
So if you imagine that line, it does a little 90degree turn, where all of a sudden past, present, and
future are still happening separately, but they are happening simultaneously.
So they are separate, and yet they are also happening at the same time.
That is Upasanakhanda.
And a really great example of this is — in this vertical sense of time, you are here right now,
right? You are here in the present listening to my voice.
And as you have your awareness on my voice, you can also probably go back in your memory and
remember the moment that you pressed play on this episode, where I spoke to you about the
time management hacks they don’t teach you at school and gave you a little story about the
clocks turning and my mum and that sort of stuff.
And at the same time, you can probably also project your awareness into the future, where you
will have finished this episode and you would have walked away with not only these learnings,
these teachings, and also some tangible action steps and strategies that you can use right now.
So this is Upasanakhanda — this is this simultaneity of consciousness where you can hold past,
present, and future in one.
And again, I know that some of you — like your head might be hurting right now — it’s okay. My
head was hurting the first time I heard this as well.
And this is where practices like mindfulness, like meditation — they equip you to be more
conscious and aware and capable of holding these multiple states of consciousness at the same
time.
So those are just two of the types or teachings of time from a Vedic perspective.
Now, you may have remembered I mentioned there were three, and that is what is commonly
known in, I guess, our modern world as like the Bliss Field or the unmanifest.
You may have, um, heard me speak about it in one of my other episodes — I think it was Episode
7 — where I talk about kind of you as awareness and in this kind of bigger picture of us.
So it is this Samadhi — this where all time, there is one time, and it is now. And there is only one
thing, and we are all it.
That state of consciousness is Gyanakhanda. It is where you are — to quote Emily Fletcher — you
are dancing in the ocean of time, and it is all it.
I know we are all the way in the woo, my friends — if you are still listening, thank you. It’s just
about to get even better.
So this is the Vedic perspective. I’ll also give you an ancient Greek perspective, because you might
be like, “Oh, this is like so left field.”
Well, I mean, we know that like the ancient Greeks were basically the founders of modern
civilisation as we know it, right? Like, they are the ones who set up the anthropology and law —
and I’ve actually literally got a statue of a Greek goddess in front of me, which is, um, so
interesting. Aphrodite is just like staring at me like, “Yes, we did, let’s go.” So anyways —
The ancient Greeks had two words for time. They had Chronos time and Kairos time.
Now, Chronos — and I, again, just learned this recently as I was researching for this episode —
still appears in our language to this day in words like “chronological.” Which is so interesting,
because it’s like yeah, Chronos time can be measured.
It is that linear time, right? It is the quantitative force of time that allows societies like ours to
function. Because you need structure, right? Like, you do need a balance of feminine and
masculine energies.
And it allows us to say things like, “We’re gonna meet at 1:30,” and we both have this anchor of
time, and we know when 1:30 approaches, and we meet at that time. So that is Chronos time —
linear time, basically. It’s, um, the Karmakhanda type of time.
And then the ancient Greeks speak of Kairos time.
Now, if Chronos time is quantitative, Kairos is qualitative.
I’m gonna say that again — if Chronos is quantitative, Kairos is qualitative.
Which is the moment — think the euphoria you feel after running a marathon, or holding your
baby in your arms for the first time, or having a really deep, meaningful, authentic, intimate
connection with someone.
And I, like, I had this just today, just a few hours ago, where I was so deeply immersed in
conversation with someone, and I felt like maybe a half hour had passed — but it had been over
an hour. I was like, whoa, where did the time just go?
Like, that is Kairos.
And there’s a quote from The Whippet, which, um, is a newsletter that kind of dove into this a
little bit, where the author wrote that Kairos time measures moments, not seconds.
And in addition to that, it refers to the right moment — the perfect moment — where the world
takes a breath, and in that pause before the exhale, fates can be changed.
I mean, hmm. Just let those words land. My goodness, they are potent and powerful.
So those are some of the different ways that you can perceive time.
And so, with that eyes open experience that you now have of like, “Oh, I guess time isn’t just this
like linear, chronological thing that we have been indoctrinated into,” I would love for us to step
into exploring your relationship with time.
Because the thing is, like, time management, it is such a buzzword that people throw around all
the time, right?
Oh my God — is “time” even a word anymore? You know when you like say a word so many
times and you just — it’s just like, what?
Um, anyways, this is happening in this episode for me.
So, your relationship with time — it’s complex. And yes, you have a relationship with time. Like,
you may have never thought of it in this way, shape, or form, but the reality is, just as you have a
relationship with your parents — so, for example, my business coach had a really great parallel,
where it’s like: you have a relationship with your father, and that might be one specific
relationship and dynamic.
And at the same time, your father also has a relationship with, like, his college buddies — where
it’s like from his crazy party days. Or it might be the relationship that he has with his partner, you
know?
It’s like — the father, or the person, is still the person. But they have a relationship with different
people.
And just as we have different relationships with different people, we also have a different
relationship to time — depending on who we are, how we grew up, the environment, the things
we were taught, you know, the things we believe in, and I guess the programming that runs our
little monkey mind.
And the great example of this that I’ve got from my real-life experience is — I noticed this once
between my mum and I.
So I kind of spoke to this earlier, and one year we were both on holiday, and we had a clock in
front of us, and we had like different activities and stuff planned, etcetera, right?
And so I’d be like, “Okay, well, we need to make sure we’re there by like 4:00.”
And it’s 3:45, right?
And my mum’s there like, “Oh cool, okay, so we have like half an hour.” And I’m like, “Okay, we
gotta go in like five minutes.”
And so it was just so interesting to witness.
And I observed that dynamic for that whole holiday, as I was kind of looking at how we’re both
looking at the same clock, right? Like, we’re both looking at the same arrowhead, etcetera.
But our perception, our relationship with time, and how we relate to what that arrowhead
means, was so different. Because in my mum’s view, it was like, “I’ve got all the time in the world
— sweet, perfect.”
And then in my view, it was like, “Okay, well, you know, gotta make sure I’m early — this is like,
we’re running out.”
So that was quite interesting.
And time scarcity is something that so many of us struggle with. I’m gonna be honest — like, I am
far from perfect. I still deal with this every single day.
I’m working on, you know, the programming, the limiting beliefs, etc., that are in there, and I’m
doing my best to make a conscious, concerted effort to experience time abundance.
Because it is — like, we can all be time benders if we are given the right tools, stay consistent,
and do the work, you know — do the mahi.
And the reason that this is so important — like, the reason it is so important to heal your
relationship with time — is that time is your greatest asset.
Like Chronos or Kairos, Karmakhanda or Gyanakhanda, we in this physical 3D reality have an
expiration date.
And there is a set amount of time that we have between now and that expiration date. We don’t
know when that might be — that could be tomorrow, it could be in 50 years. We don’t know.
But the thing is — you cannot buy your time back.
And so many people spend so much of their life worried about making more money and being
more, quote unquote, successful, or whatever it is, while they’re sacrificing the quality time with
their loved ones and their life and their wellbeing and their health.
All for what? Because like, you’ve never heard someone on their deathbed say, “I wish I worked
more,” right?
It’s like — most of the stories that you hear, and there’s a study — I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard
of the study — where someone interviewed people on their deathbed.
And I believe there’s a book written about it as well — do a bit of research, and if I find it, then I’ll
link it up in the show notes.
But effectively, it was all these reflections of people who — it was heartbreaking, because it was
like, “Oh, I actually wish that I’d just enjoyed the present moment more. I wish that I’d been more
playful, that I wouldn’t have taken myself so seriously. I wish I would have told my friends and my
loved ones that I love them more.”
It’s things like that.
And yeah — you’re never going to be able to physically buy time. Like, it is your most valuable
asset.
And so what I have noticed is that how you treat your time is very much a mirror to how much
you value and respect yourself.
Because if you don’t value — and this might be getting a little bit much for some of you, I
understand that — like, sometimes I know that I will say things and they could trigger you. That’s
because I’m just a mirror.
Like, I’m just saying things, and whatever kind of might come up right now in this moment is just
a reflection of what is hiding, perhaps, in your sub or unconscious mind.
So at the end of the day, like, it could be that on some deeply unconscious level — like, I’m not
saying that you know and you’re consciously doing this, okay? Most of our behaviour is
unconscious, and it is like happening without us even knowing about it.
So if on some unconscious level you feel like you are not worthy, or not good enough, or you
don’t respect or value yourself and your contribution to this world in some way, shape, or form
— that will reflect in how you spend your time.
So if you spend your time overworking, you know, doing ridiculous hours, or you are numbing
away in front of the TV, or you are doom scrolling, and you are not happy with how you treat
your time, it is somehow a mirror to something deeper that’s going on within you.
And there’s also another component of it that is — you know, we spoke earlier about people
running late and just having a different perception of time. Like yes, there is the perception piece,
and there’s also again — it comes back to your unconscious beliefs, desires.
And there is a book that I will link up in the show notes — it’s called Existential Kink by Caroline
Elliott — which talks about how a lot of the things that we experience in life that we don’t enjoy
are actually driven by our unconscious desire to experience them.
So what do I mean by that? It’s that the fact that like, say, you’re always running late for
appointments, for example. There’s a part of you that loves the rush of running late.
And it’s like, “Oh my God, am I gonna make it? Am I not gonna make it on time? Oh my God!” —
and it’s like ooh, it’s like activating and exciting.
I’m sure some of you listening now are like, “Oh yeah, shit, I think I experience that.”
Or it could be a thing of like — you know, maybe you don’t respect the person, or you feel like it’s
a power kind of dynamic, that you’re like, “Oh, I can be late because I’m more important.”
Or maybe it’s an avoidance. It’s like, “I don’t wanna do this, so I’m not gonna show up or not
gonna show up on time.”
So there’s like so many layers to this, my friends.
And so I just wanted to kind of make a note to your relationship with time, and just perhaps
maybe to start to explore what that looks like.
Because you can read all the time management books and listen to all the time management
podcasts and whatever in the world — but at the end of the day, if you have limiting beliefs of
scarcity around time, you will always feel like you are running out of time.
That is a capital T truth.
But awareness is the first step to change.
You are still listening right here, right now — which means that you are already in the present
moment changing your future. Like, you are — all time is now.
And just by listening to this moment, to this podcast, you are already changing your relationship
to time.
So I know this is quite loaded — with that in mind, I’ll now sidestep and give you some of those
practical tips that I actually promised at the start of the episode.
Because look — I’m a woman of my word. I’m gonna deliver what I promised.
And there are definitely a few things that I want to talk to that will be really helpful — time
management hacks that they don’t teach you at school.
Because I really — I have a lot to say about that, but I’m just gonna park it for now.
Okay — so, some practical tips.
Tip number one is: become aware of the phenomenon of context switching.
It is insane.
So context switching is the loss in time, effort, and energy when you switch between projects.
And that loss of time, energy, and focus when you switch between projects or tasks that you are
doing is between 10 to 20 percent, because you step away from that flow state, right?
So if you think about it — like, I’m sure many of you can resonate with being at the office and
you’re like really deeply into a task, you’re in the zone, or you’re writing this email, or you’re
working on a report, or whatever it is — whatever you’re doing, you’re just in the zone, you’re in
the flow state.
And then it’s like, “Oh okay, well I gotta do this next thing.”
Or — like, my biggest pet peeve at the office has always been people shoulder tapping me.
And it’s like, “Hey, do you have a minute to chat?”
And it’s like, “Do I look like I have a minute to chat?”
But anyways — that, in fact, even just that one shoulder tap, has just cost me between 10 to 20
percent of my productivity.
It’s a big reason why I’m a strong advocate and supporter of people working from home —
because you actually get more done, and you can use your time more wisely.
But anyways — yeah, it’s just debunking that myth that multitasking is so great, because no —
you actually lose momentum.
And in fact, there are studies that have been done on context switching that show it takes up to
23 minutes to recover from interruptions.
So call it like your “cost of context switching,” right?
So if your day is structured in a way where you’re working on this task, and then you’ve got to go
to this meeting, and then you do a couple more bits and pieces on that task, but then you’ve got
another meeting, and then oh damn, the deadline came up, so you’ve got to switch to the other
task — like, you are losing so much time.
It is all going to take you so much longer than if you structured your days and your weeks in the
way of grouping all of these things together.
So say — and I’ll kind of do a little asterisk because I’ve got something to add to this — but like,
let’s just say you do this one particular task for a couple of hours first thing in the morning, and
then you have a specific time block in your calendar that’s open for meetings.
So people know that this is the only time they can book meetings with you.
And then you have like this other piece of time that you have for another task that requires — so
yes, there is still context switching, but it is not as frequent, it is more structured, and you don’t
lose as much productivity.
So that is my tip number one — be aware of context switching, and thereby also, with the
intention of structuring your day in a way that you bulk, you know, as much time as you need to
complete a task or a project.
And we’ll talk about that in a moment as well.
My second tip — and that kind of ties into what we’ve just spoken about around context
switching — is to use your energy wisely.
So, we are all different chronotypes.
If you don’t know what a chronotype is, it basically means whether you’re like a morning person
or a night owl, or there are people in between as well.
So, we all have different times of peak productivity moments throughout our days.
And most of you listening probably know when that is. Like, I don’t know about you — I am a
morning person.
I know people who are total evening people, and there’s also an Ayurvedic link to all of this that I
will probably talk about in another episode, because I don’t want to go off on too much of a
tangent.
But effectively, what I’m trying to say is: know when you are at your peak energy levels so you can
use that to your advantage.
So, for example — me knowing that I am a morning person — I will generally do my most
focused, resource, energy-intensive work first thing in the morning.
And by the way, that also includes like going to the gym or something, because it is so freaking
hard for me to do that in the afternoon. I’m like, “I’m fried, I’m done, I’m spent.”
And that also goes for meetings, for example. If it’s a more important meeting where I need to be
switched on, I’ll probably pop it in the morning.
If it’s like one that is just — you know, those meetings that are just for the sake of having a
meeting — I’m sure we have too many of those in our calendars (myself included) — I’ll put
those in the afternoon.
Because I’m like, “I’m not using my peak productivity for that. Why would I do that? That’s such a
poor use of my time.”
So that’s number two.
Number three is: honour your ultradian rhythm.
Now, what is your ultradian rhythm?
So you may have heard of circadian rhythms, right? Like when you fall asleep and you go through
different sleep states, where you’re kind of in this theta state to start with — which is like this
kind of half-waking, half dream state — and then you drop into deep sleep, and then you’re in
rapid-eye movement sleep.
And for those of you who have fancy little monitoring devices, you’ve probably seen the little
charts that show how many sleep cycles you’ve gone through. Hopefully, it’s at least four — but
anyway, we’re all unique and different, and that’s enough content for another episode once again
(which I am taking diligent notes of).
Because I think it’s pretty cool how all of this is coming up. So we’ve got Ayurveda and sleep to
talk about in one of the upcoming solo episodes at some point — we’ll find out.
Okay — so your ultradian rhythm is basically your daytime version of your circadian rhythm.
And we’re, again, all quite unique, but it generally runs on like a 90-minute cycle, roughly —
some people more, some people less.
And it’s basically saying that there’s a wave of peak productivity that you have for a specific set of
time, and then that starts to wane, and your body and your mind need a break.
Like, you just need to take a break.
And I don’t mean like scrolling or going to the bathroom — that’s not a break. That’s just like, you
know, I mean yes, for some of you it might already be extreme.
I know — I facilitated a podcast interview today where someone shared that they timed how
much time they would have in the bathroom. And you’ll hear this soon — it’s coming up in a
couple of weeks’ time.
But it’s like — a conscious effort to take a moment.
Even if it’s just a few minutes outside.
Personally, myself you know, my meditation, yoga, nidra practice play a big role in that.
But even just sitting down and like — ahh — just give yourself a breather.
And your body needs this.
Like, in a perfect world — and I know you’re gonna be like, “Oh my God, what is this woman on
about?” — like, in a perfect world, what your body would love is like a 10 to 20-minute eyes-
closed break.
Whether it’s a nap, whether it’s a meditation, mindfulness — whatever.
Now, I understand — like even myself, right? — we’re all busy people, we all live in this modern
world, many of us don’t have the luxury of structuring our days this way. That’s okay — just do
the best that you can.
And even if that is like one minute, and that is how I started.
So, we’ve spoken about ultradian rhythms.
And the thing is — what happens is that most people — ahh, and this is bringing back so many
memories of a previous experience in a really busy job — you’ll just work and work and work and
work and work and work and work and work and work.
And it’s just like — you’ve only had a moment to go to the bathroom, you’re not even taking
lunch breaks, right?
Like, I was at this burnout panel a couple of weeks ago, and 10 percent of the women in the
room put their hand up when they were asked whether they take a lunch break or not.
Like, it’s ridiculous. It infuriates me, because your body, your mind — like, you just, you need that
break.
And you are losing productivity by the minute.
Like, if you actually honour what your body needs and you take that break, you are gonna be so
much more productive, you’re gonna be so much more effective, you’re gonna get so much more
done, and perform better than ever.
And I know it’s probably going against the grain of what every bone in your body is telling you to
do — because we’ve just been conditioned to keep going.
And like, all these back-to-back meetings — like, I’ve been there. And I’ve also seen firsthand how
unsustainable that is.
And until, you know, society at large and corporate culture at large start to wake up to this and
equip us in a way where we don’t need to hide in a bathroom stall or a sick bay to do our mindful
practice or to take a moment of peace and quiet for ourselves — you’ve got to take the agency
and take your power into your own hands.
And be like, “Okay, well — what is it that I can do while I am still in this environment that is not
necessarily setting me up for optimal thriving? What can I do myself so that I can put me first?”
So those are my first three tips.
Now, I’ve got a couple more for you — just two more.
So, you may have heard me mention this on the podcast a couple of times here and there, but
there’s a phenomenon called Parkinson’s Law. I’m pretty sure it’s Parkinson’s — we’re just gonna
go with that.
Which is that work expands or contracts to fill the time allotted.
So what does that mean? It means that if you just show up at the office and you’ve got this big
project and you’re just gonna keep working on it, and it’s just gonna take as long as it takes — it is
gonna eat up all of your time. And you’re gonna be like, “Oh my God, where did the day go?”
Versus — let’s say if you structure, right? Like, context switching. If you structure your day in your
calendar and say, “Okay, these three hours I’m devoting to this specific task or this specific
project — it needs to be done by then.”
Boom. All of a sudden, it gets done.
It’s like this magical phenomenon that occurs — and I guarantee you, it works.
You just gotta try it for yourself.
I started to implement this actually many, many years ago. And the more I did it, the more it
worked.
And the more I just saw how I myself started to become a time bender — and like, things just get
done.
So that is my tip number four.
Tip number five is: opt out of urgency.
Urgency isn’t gonna help you.
Like, if you are trying to be more productive and get things done when your nervous system is
out of whack — you’re not sleeping well, you’re not eating well, your mind feels scattered, and
you just don’t even know your hand from a tree — you’re not gonna be producing really great
work.
And so if you can, I would really encourage you to just opt out of urgency of this, like, need to
rush.
And it’s like, you know what I mean — that kind of clenchy feeling in your chest, and you’re kind
of just constricted. You’re like, “Oh my God, I just need to get this done and go away from blah
blah blah.”
Like guys — oh my gosh — guys, girls, whoever is listening:
There’s a reel that I share every now and again on social media that’s like this visual of the planet
— just a planet spinning — and there’s a caption on it:
“The planet before your end-of-day deadline.”
And then, “The planet after your end-of-day deadline.”
And guess what? The world’s still gonna keep on turning. Everything’s the same. Everything’s
fine.
Deadlines are arbitrary.
I’m gonna tell you something — people are just making ish up all the time.
The things, the processes, the meetings, the reports — like, it’s all made up.
It’s all being created by people in boardrooms and meetings. And they might have a title and
maybe a couple more zeros on their paycheck — but like, it’s actually all just still being created by
people.
There is no need for you to bend over backwards and sacrifice yourself, your well-being, and your
health to meet some arbitrary deadline.
If you need more time, please ask for more time.
And I’ve just got like this immediate download of like — you know, perhaps there’s this inner self-
talk of not being good enough, or being incompetent, or being judged, or not meeting your job’s
expectations, or whatever.
Seriously — the amount of women I have spoken to over the years, and I still continue to speak
to every single day, who are sacrificing their lives to tick a box… it is heartbreaking.
And so, you can just make that declaration now — that you choose to opt out of urgency.
And the things will still get done.
But it just means that you don’t necessarily need to be frying your nervous system and sacrificing
your life for it.
So those are kind of my five practical tips, right?
The first one is: be aware of context switching, and how there is a massive loss of your
productivity when you’re trying to do it all at once — when there’s just too much on the list.
Then there’s using your energy wisely and choosing your peak energy exercises or times.
The third one that we spoke about was the circadian–ultradian rhythm, so actually taking a
break.
The fourth one was Parkinson’s Law — giving yourself a specific allotted amount of time to get
something done, and trust me, it will get done.
And the fifth was opting out of urgency, and coming into resonance with your nervous system.
Now, what I did just want to also talk to is honouring your cyclical nature, which is actually an
episode that was released just two weeks ago. So if you haven’t listened to that, I highly
recommend it.
It is almost sort of a bonus, advanced, really mind-blowing, incredible way to work with your
body.
And I tell you what — if you implement what you’ve learned here and in that episode, you’re
gonna be unstoppable.
I mean, you already are unstoppable. You are everything, and you are incredible as you are.
And with additional tools — implementing these tools — man, it’s like the world is your oyster,
my friend.
So, as we kind of prepare to bring things to a close, I just wanted to give a few examples of how
these concepts and theories look when they’re practically applied in my own life.
And again, as I mentioned earlier — still a work in progress, right?
These limiting beliefs they take time to digest and dissolve, and you just have to be ready to let
go of them.
Like, I can’t make that decision for you — no one else can make that decision for you.
You are the only one who can make the decision of like, “Okay, you know what? This time scarcity
mindset is not serving me anymore. I am ready to let it the f*** go.”
And so for me, for example, I really noticed the tie of it being linked to this idea of never
enoughness.
And so I just keep doing my own inner work — like, this is why I myself have coaches, and I do a
lot of personal development things, and I read and do like 20 million different things, right?
Because we’re always working on ourselves.
I do my top 5% activities in the morning, most times.
Like, I really do my best to do my best work in the morning.
Although I’ve also noticed, in my ultradian rhythm, that I also have another productivity peak in
the late afternoon kind of time.
So I know these things about myself, and I schedule my life around that.
I also — as I shared in another episode that I’ll link up below — focus on a maximum of three
priorities on my todo list every single week.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there are no other things on the to-do list, right? It’s just that these
are my key core priorities. This is where my focus lies. Everything else is a bonus.
And the great thing is, ever since I’ve implemented this discipline, nine times out of ten, progress
is made on these priorities.
Because I don’t overwhelm myself with this context switching.
Some of the other things I do that I’ve spoken about are blocking out chunks of time in my
calendar to stay focused on a task.
So for example, recording this podcast episode — gotta put it on the calendar, gotta give it a good
chunk of time, be in a roll, you know?
And just use the fact that not only is the setup all there, but I’m also in the flow of speaking and
sharing this with you.
And I also — to take it back to some of the teachings that we dove into earlier about time, and
linear time versus all time is now, and Chronos versus Kairos — I take a lot of time to reflect on
how I spend my time.
It’s like time sextoning.
And whether it’s in my weekly planning rituals, my monthly planning, or my seasonal reflections
— whatever it is, I take the time to look back, not just look ahead at where I’m going.
And I take that moment to reflect on whether what I’m doing day to day is pulling me away from,
or closer to, what matters most to me.
And I course-correct if needed.
Because, you know, we’re just like this ship kind of floating in the sea — and it’s the same as life.
Like, we are all these sailors on a boat, and we’re navigating the ebbs and flows and the tides and
the storms.
And sometimes we veer off, even just one degree off of our centre — and so we gotta course
correct, we gotta renavigate so that we come back to our path.
Like, that’s life.
So this reflection is really valuable for me.
And if ever in doubt, just coming back to presence — this is where the Kairos lies.
This is how you can bring your nervous system into resonance.
So those are just some examples of how this shows up in my life.
And I’m certain that many of you already have things that you do that you’re like, “Oh, I didn’t
realise this actually really helps me — I’m gonna do more.”
And perhaps there are things that I shared today that you’re like, “Oh, I’ve never thought of it this
way — let me give it a little try and experiment.”
And for your next action step from here, for this week, I would really encourage you to think
about how you can create spaciousness in your life and your calendar.
And just try it on.
Try it on.
What would it be like to not cram everything in?
What would it be like to not feel like I constantly need to do more — because more isn’t more?
And here’s the thing about Kairos: Kairos can’t be planned.
These moments that you remember on your deathbed, at the end of your time here — they’re
not the ones that are on your to-do list.
They’re not the ones that are on your calendar.
They’re not the appointments.
They’re those moments of presence, of virtue, of true human-to-human, or human-to-animal, or
human-to-nature connection.
So I would just leave you with that.
Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode.
I’m sure that there’s quite a lot that it may have stirred in you.
So if there is anything that you would like to chat about, just send me a DM on Instagram.
And if you are curious about this work that we’ve touched on, let me know — because there’s
quite a lot that I weave into my group coaching program that really relates to our relationship
with time, and so, so much more.
So what you’re hearing here today is really just like a little snippet — a little preview — a little
cherry on top of this really, really juicy, delicious cake.
So without further ado, have a beautiful week ahead.
I am so excited to listen — oh my God, what am I excited to— I’m excited for you to listen to me
next week, I guess!
I’m excited to record my next episode at some point.
I’m just excited to be alive — like, life’s good.
So have a beautiful week. So much love. Bye for now.
If the word “mindfulness” has ever felt vague, overwhelming, or just a little out of reach — I
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Over 8 days, you’ll receive short, grounded lessons and simple practices that you can weave into
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The link is in the show notes below, or through the link in my bio @lvnhealth — because
presence isn’t something you have to earn.
It’s something you get to return to.
The views and opinions expressed by guests on Resonance are their own and do not necessarily
reflect the views of me, Viktoria Levenberg, LVN Health, or anyone working within the LVN Health
brand.
This space welcomes a diversity of ideas, experiences, and stories — and part of Resonance is
learning to take what aligns, and gently leave the rest.
Also, while I am a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach and deeply passionate
about wellbeing, this podcast is intended for educational and inspirational purposes only.
Resonance does not substitute personalised medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice.
Always seek guidance from qualified professionals for any physical, emotional, or mental health
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