Awakening in Time

We need a discipline—a ritual—that can help us stay centered and grounded throughout the day. We need something to remind us who we really are. Who we want to be. For me, that something is a beep. Each morning, I set my watch—you can also use a phone, computer, or timer—to beep every hour. At the sound of the chime, I take one minute to ask myself

When we don’t acknowledge or respect our work’s flow, we fall prey to multitasking. After a while we lose touch with a task here, a task there. We rush through one thing to get to the next, striving for quantity (productivity) when we know quality (effectiveness) will surely suffer.

Only if we know that everything is taken care of, from the important to the trivial, can we let go and focus on what is right in front of us. Only if nothing else is lingering in our working memory and taking up valuable mental resources can we experience what Allen calls a “mind like water” - the state where we can focus on the work right in front

Or perhaps your problem isn’t being too busy but insufficiently busy, languishing in a dull job,