How many hours per day do you spend on your phone? Recent studies show that the average American spends over 5 hours on their phones per day. Half of this time is spent on social media. Think about that for a second next time you say that “you don’t have time” to do something. It’s more likely that you haven’t prioritized spending your time on the task in question. We don’t HAVE time — we TAKE time.

Our smartphones have enabled us to do practically anything on our phones, from talking to our loved ones and sharing our lives on social media to do online shopping, banking errands, car parking and dinner reservations, etc, but have you ever thought about what you are missing in the real “offline” world when you are stuck in the online world? The singles out there swiping on Tinder on their phones might simultaneously walk by the love of their lives on the street. The time spent texting friends on the phone while sitting with other friends “in real life” prevents you from being fully present with them.

Today I walked into the beautiful University library at my old university in Lund, Sweden just a few blocks away from my law school. I have spent five years of my life studying in this building, but not a single time looked up. Up from my phone. Up in the sky. Always up in my head planning my next study session, or soaked into the phone of something catching my attention in the online world. This made me completely miss the beauty around me.

Today I was not on my phone. Today I looked up. Today I was fully present in the present moment. Surprisingly, I saw a weird man hanging on the wall right above the university library door. The fact that he has been hanging there every day for five years (well, actually since the year 1666!) without me noticing, made me wonder what else I have been missing. So from now on, I will make it a habit to look up every day. There are apparently pretty cool surprises waiting to be found!

Try it yourself! Dare to beat the statistics of 5 hours per day and dare to be fully present in the offline world. The greatest gift someone can give me is their attention; their full offline presence. Today I gave mine to the weird man on the wall!