Zen and the Art of Time Management

We all know that feeling of your mind lurching into fifth gear as soon as the alarm clock goes off. Mine still does, but those 30 minutes give me the time I need to slow my mind down and focus on one thought or inspirational passage.

It’s a lot harder than it sounds. How often do you focus on the same project, the same reading material or even listen to the same PowerPoint presentation for 30 minutes with your full attention? If you could, you would get a lot more done. Here are three ways to be more focused and productive.

Manage the weight of time

For most of us, our time is money. Even if you are a cog in a giant corporate machine, your boss bases your performance on how much work you can get done in a certain amount of time. How you compare to your peers in this regard is equally important.

If you can get more done in less time, that raise or bonus buys a new plasma HDTV, or at least you stay employed. So how do you be more productive?

Find a better way to track your time. Most people are great at keeping to-do lists. As these lists multiply in size and width, though, they become more unwieldy and less helpful.

As I learned from Julie Morgenstern in the book, Time Management from the Inside Out, most to-do lists are useless because they don’t include the most important component. They don’t describe how long things take.

This was an eye-opener for me. Originally, my task list in Yahoo was perfectly ordered by day, category and client. But for some reason, the red items on my task list continued to grow. I hadn’t given my tasks the weight of time.

Now I list my tasks along with my estimate of how long they will take. I don’t just list "Contact Carolyn P. about collaboration opportunity." I’ve created a custom category on my task list to include a time estimate.

Now when I plan my day and my week, I can move the items around like blocks. I can only fit eight hour-long blocks into my day. If I have more blocks than space, something has to give.

Sometimes that means working at night when my son is asleep. Sometimes it means giving a different deadline to a client than the one I would like to give. But the deadline is now realistic because I am not just estimating the task. I am estimating my own time.

Scare the monster called multitasking

What a gift it is to live in the early 21st century. So many modes of communication. So little time to use them all. Right?

Most of us work with several modes of communication open at the same time. They lay dormant on our PC, ready to distract us with the most banal information or requests.

What is it about hearing a little "ding" and seeing the little envelope icon that makes us drop what we’re doing and lunge for the mouse to check our email?

Instant messaging is even worse. Once a coworker (or friend) pops in to distract us, you quickly forget your work. No matter how many times you promise yourself you’ll chat "just for a few minutes," those few minutes usually linger into 10-, 20- or 30-minute blocks of time you can never get back.

Consider the following example. Let’s say you need to write a new direct marketing brochure. You perform due diligence and estimate it will take four hours. You lock yourself in your office and hunker down with a pot (or two) of coffee, ready to write.

The first time you get a new email, you pull away from the brochure to read and answer the message. When you come back to the brochure, you have to mentally get back up to speed and continue where you were. If you answer the phone or start instant messaging, the effect is the same.

The time you spend away from the project at hand isn’t the big problem: It’s the time you must spend getting yourself back into the flow of the project. Those distracted minutes quickly add up.

Julie Morgenstern recommends focusing on one task at a time. If you are writing a piece, close your email application. Don’t answer your phone. For goodness’ sake, lock down your instant messaging application.

If you can turn off all those distractions, you might find that you get more done in less time. Giving your full attention to that brochure, you might finish it in three hours instead of four. Then you can give your full attention to your email and phone calls, without feeling guilty or annoyed that you aren’t working on the brochure as you had planned.

You can’t prevent distractions. You can decide how you react to them. Consider time your greatest asset and begin to guard it ferociously.

Receive the gift of the present

During my morning meditation, I try to focus on a word or passage with my complete and total attention. As you get better at meditating, you train your mind not to follow ancillary thoughts. The meaning of the words worms its way into your mind through repetition, not by consciously forcing it to happen.

This is where I add my own existential twist to the time management conundrum. Meditation teaches you the importance of living in the present. Most of us could accomplish more — and be happier doing it — if we brought this zen into our workplace.

Living in the present means taking Julie Morgenstern’s advice one step further. As you work on one project, remove any other distractions — really focus on that project. Don’t worry about the other projects waiting that afternoon. Avoid fretting about the costume you need to make for your daughter’s dance recital. Just keep your mind focused on your work right here, right now, in the present.

This is not an easy thing to do. After the economic downturn of the early part of this decade, most companies forced employees to take on more work. Many of us have discovered our workload is the same or greater. We have had to pick up the slack from our laid-off counterparts.

At the same time, more technological options give us more flexibility. If we don’t finish a task at work, we can drag our laptop home and finish it while watching TV.

This flexibility is a blessing and a curse. We can work in more places and at more times of the day — but should we? Can you really create the best marketing brochure possible while listening to the caterwauling of American Idol?

For most people, the answer is no. Taking a giant step back and living only in the present is the best way to produce quality work. It doesn’t mean robotically typing for three hours. It means giving yourself time to think and rethink ideas until you really produce your best work.

By keeping your mind in the flow of only one task at a time, that task gets your full brainpower. You complete the task in less time, adding a sense of satisfaction to your newfound peace of mind.

Living in the present is not easy in today’s hyperactive corporate culture. If you can find your own personal zen, however, productivity and new ideas can flow naturally.

Peace, harmony and Barney

Adults find the televised Barney cloyingly sweet and the children saccharine. But if you watch with the eyes of a toddler, you find wonderfully positive messages about the power of imagination.

That power to dream is something few us take time to do. We are too distracted by flashing icons and the beeping insistence of text messages.

Technology is a powerful tool. I don’t know anyone who would willingly give up email or instant messaging. How we use these tools to boost our own productivity is entirely up to us.

To gently gain control of your time, create a to-do list that estimates the time it takes to complete each task. With that realistic estimate in mind, turn off all other distractions until that task is complete.

Finally, enjoy living in the present. Keep your mind on that task or project, without giving in to other thoughts or worries.

You may not find eternal happiness. But you will find yourself with projects completed on time — and quite possibly more time at the end of the day to do the things you really enjoy. That can only lead to enhanced harmony for you, and the people around you.

Bill Koch is a Minneapolis-based freelance writer who frequently writes for the financial, health care, technology, marketing and medical research industries. He is an experienced executive speechwriter who has also worked in training development and PC support.