To live a full life we want to make the most of our time and pack our day doing things we enjoy that will give us purpose and meaning. Time is the one thing that we cannot reverse, we must make the most of it. Our decisions and quality of life improve significantly if we reflect on the day gone by and learn to unpack the day.

It allows us to review the decisions we made and sometimes see them in a different light. When deciding in the midst of activity, we often don’t see things as clearly as we do later in our time of silence. Unpacking the day helps us see what we could have done better, and better prepares us for the future.

It is not just what we did, but the emotions we went through that equally determine the quality of our life. Unpacking the day and re-living the emotions we went through brings to our conscious awareness the deep-seated emotions that often surface, interfering with giving our best.

So many things are happening all the time that we often miss out on fully understanding the significance of people’s behavior. When we unpack the day and see in our mind’s eye who we interacted with and how things went, not only do we understand the world better, but we are also better prepared for the future.

Sometimes we surprise ourselves with ideas, creativity, and stepping up to a situation. We display a brilliance that even we didn’t know we were capable of. Unpacking the day allows us to go deeper to understand what brought out the best in us and maybe learn how to tap into that deliberately rather than accidentally.

Water that runs off the field without seeping in cannot nourish the roots. Food if not digested well cannot give us the energy we seek. A pressure cooker without a release valve for steam will explode. Systems need space.

Creating space and allowing ourselves the time to review, reflect, and rededicate ourselves nourishes, energies, and develops us. But we can only do that when we realise the value of those few vital minutes daily to unpack the day.

(Picture – Resort in Batu Ferringgi, Penang)