S3 Ep04 - Mindful Time Management

Welcome to the Zen Habits podcast, where we dive into how to work with uncertainty, resistance, and fear around our meaningful work. This is for anyone who wants to create an impact in the world and cares deeply enough to do the work. I'm your host, Leo Babauta, creator of the Zen Habits blog.

***

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode. In this episode, we're going to talk about mindful time management. Remember, we are in the season called the Zen of Productivity, and time management is a part of productivity. Productivity is really about how we make the most of our time so we can have the impact we want.

It's not about being perfect. It's not about churning out the most number of widgets. It's about actually making the impact we want. To do that, we need to manage the time we have each day. Each day is fleeting and precious. We don't have a lot of them here on this earth.

That might sound pretty trite, but it's why this is so important: mindful time management. Of course, we don’t actually manage time. Time passes like a river. So, that's one way to look at it. But the other thing is, how are we making the most of the time? How are you using it?

How are we taking the time we're given and creating an impact from that time? Let's talk about that. And you know, if you have other things you’ve done that I don't talk about here, great—share them with me. Put them either below in the comments of this video, if you're watching it on YouTube, or if you're listening to the podcast, send me an email at [email protected]. I get every single one of those emails. I read every single one. I don’t reply to every one, but I reply to most. So send me your time management tips that work. Maybe you have some systems or a book you'd like to share. I'm always down for that. But this is what I think is important.

So, I’m going to talk about a few different things. One is a Zen approach to managing time. Of course, I don’t speak for all of Zen Buddhism, but I’m speaking from a particular Zen student’s perspective, based on what I’ve been learning. We’ll also cover techniques to stay present and focused. Then we’ll talk about how to avoid multitasking and embrace single-tasking.

We’ll talk about structure as it relates to time management and what we can learn from Zen forms and structure.

So, let’s start with the Zen approach to managing time. First of all, there isn’t one strict Zen approach. It’s not like there’s a rigid formula. But something I’ve noticed is there’s a schedule. If you go to a Zen monastery or any kind of Zen center, they will have a schedule. The beautiful thing about a schedule is that it’s not about creating a rigid life where everything is perfect. It’s about saying, "This is the time we start meditating," or "This is the time for meals." When we structure our day that way, everyone is on the same page. We can all practice showing up on time and dealing with whatever comes up that makes us unable to meet that commitment. A schedule is a shared commitment.

Let me share a couple of things I find really interesting. One is about being on time. My teacher, Susan, has a teacher named Reb. Reb’s teacher was Suzuki Roshi. "Roshi" means respected teacher. His son, Shunryu Suzuki, wrote the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. That’s my lineage—he’s one of my ancestors. Reb, my teacher’s teacher, was studying under Suzuki Roshi. Reb tells a story about how Suzuki Roshi got really mad at a group of students, including Reb, for not showing up on time. Even though there was a mistake with the bell ringer—the person who rings the bells to let everyone know they have 10 minutes to get to the zendo (the meditation hall)—people didn’t take it seriously. They looked at their clocks and thought, "It’s fine, I’ll get there later."

I’m telling this story badly, but the main idea is that Suzuki Roshi, who was so calm, got angry at his students. He didn’t physically abuse them, but he gave them a little whack to wake them up.

What Reb took from this was love. Suzuki Roshi cared so much for his students, had so much compassion, that he was waking them up. His lesson was: when the meditation starts, you should get there before it starts. You should be 10 minutes early. You need to do what you need to do to leave your room and get there on time, so you are early and not late. He saw this as a compassionate teaching, even though it might look like anger or frustration.

I really love that teaching because it made me examine my own relationship with being on time.

I’ll tell you another story. My teacher, Susan, shows up on time for everything. At the time, I had a habit of showing up a few minutes late—three or five minutes. I’d say, "Oh, I’m sorry I’m late. I set off at the wrong time, and I didn’t want to rush." She told me two things. One was, "You can move quickly without rushing." I appreciated that because it showed me I could move faster toward the meeting place without rushing. I knew I was late, but I thought, "It’s fine." But she taught me, you can move quickly and still be fully present in the moment.

The other thing she taught me was about commitment—showing up on time and not being loose about it. I’d think, "It’s okay, she won’t mind if I’m two or three minutes late." But now, when I show up for my teacher, I’m ready a minute or two before. I wait until the right time, and then I start.

I’m sharing this with you because a lot of us have a different relationship with time. The Zen approach, as I’m summarizing it (again, I don’t speak for all of Zen), is to hold to our time commitment. Show up on time. Leave earlier, so you can be on time.

Another teaching she gave me was about learning when you need to leave to be on time. She learned to count back, saying, "I need to leave 20 minutes before the meeting to be on time." She learned in her body that 20 minutes before the meeting was the time to start moving.

So, she learned to count back the time, which is a different relationship to time than most of us have. A lot of us have a loose relationship with time, like, "Oh, it’s fine. I’ll do my writing later, even though I said I’d do it at 8 AM. I’ll get to it in the afternoon sometime." Or we think, "I’ll show up to this meeting, but it’s okay to be a few minutes late. They won’t even notice—they’re so busy with other stuff."

But that’s not really showing up for our commitments. It’s not being fully committed to what we agreed to.

You might think that mindful time management means letting go and not being stressed or attached, and it does—but it also means not being too loose. We can be really tightly wound when it comes to time management, or we can be way too loose. I would say the Zen approach leans toward showing up for those commitments as solidly as possible.

Now, of course, we’re human. We’re not perfect. We’re going to make mistakes, and things happen. But for the most part, one of the most important things is showing up for that commitment.

The other thing is structuring time. If you go to a Zen monastery or Zen hall, they will have a schedule: this is when we eat, this is when we meditate, this is when we clean, this is when we do whatever else we do. Each thing is set. It might be different on different days, but the schedule is posted online or in public spaces. So, everyone knows when things are going to happen.

Your life might not be that simple or clean, but what if you could start to schedule your life like that? What if there was a regular rhythm, and everyone you work with or live with knows the rhythm? I think that’s an interesting idea.

Again, you don’t have to exactly follow that, but I wanted to share it.

Okay, let’s imagine you started managing your time with a schedule and some commitments. "I’m going to show up for my writing here. I’m going to meditate here. I’m going to exercise here. I’m going to do meals here. I’m going to meet with my team here. I’m going to hang out with my partner or kids here."

So, you schedule these times and have these commitments. Now, within those commitments, we can practice staying present and focused. Let’s talk about that next—techniques for staying present and focused.

First of all, when I show up, I am present and focused on what I’m focusing on. If I say this is writing time, then I’m not going to focus on email, text messages, or social media. I’m focused on writing. So, if this is the scheduled time for writing, the practice for being present and focused is to really give myself over to this commitment to write and do nothing else.

Nothing else in the world exists during the time I’ve committed to writing. Of course, we’re not going to be perfect at this—everything I’m talking about assumes that. But what if we could practice showing up fully for the thing we said we would do? If I say I’m going to check email, I’ll open one email and be fully present and focused on that email until it’s done. I’ll reply, send it, put it on my master task list, or archive it, and then move on to the next one, being fully present with it. One thing at a time.

This is called single-tasking, also known as unitasking. I also like to call it "full-focus mode." I sometimes refer to it as "full-screen mode" because in some apps, you can press a button, and it goes full screen—that’s all there is. What if we could do that with everything?

As I’m recording this podcast, I’m not checking my phone. As I’m driving, maybe I’m listening to music, but I’m not making phone calls or trying to get stuff done while driving. If I’m talking with someone, I’m not talking to them while also checking messages.

Now, if I need to check messages, I might say, "Hey, I need to take a break to answer some things. Would you be okay with us pausing for five minutes?" Then I can be fully with my messages, and afterward, fully back with the person.

So, I can switch tasks, but it’s an intentional switch. If I’m going to change something, I’ll state it to the person or to myself: "I’m going to take a break from writing to get some water, stretch, use the restroom, and then I’ll come back in 10 minutes." That’s an intentional switch. It’s not just switching on a whim.

That’s what I recommend. How can we be more intentional about moving from one single task to another? If I’m eating, I’m just eating. If I want to read, I just read. If I want to watch TV, I just watch TV. I don’t watch TV while I’m on my phone. A lot of people do that—watching TV, but not really watching it because they’re also scrolling on their phone, messaging people, or looking at social media. They’re only half-watching the show. They might glance up or hear some things in the background—that’s multitasking.

But what if I decided, "If this TV show is worth putting on, I’m going to be here with it. If this person is worth spending time with, I’ll be fully with them, not just sitting next to them while scrolling through my phone."

I’m not saying you can never have your phone on next to someone, but it’s about being intentional. Am I spending time with this person right now, or am I messaging?

This is something that rarely happens these days with our phones and socializing. We often multitask, but it pulls us away from staying present and focused. It will happen, and that’s not a problem. What I’m suggesting is to notice when you get pulled off, just like when you’re meditating on your breath. You’re going to notice when you’re planning your day and think, "Oh shoot, I’m not on my breath anymore." You simply come back to it.

In the same way, if we’re trying to focus on our breath, count our breaths, and then we start planning our day, we can notice that and come back to the breath.

A technique for staying present and focused is to notice when you’re checking messages, when you’re on social media when you thought you were going to write or check emails. You can notice that without beating yourself up. Just come back, take a breath, and return to your intention.

Okay, to close, I’m going to talk about Zen forms and structure in our day. Zen forms are similar to what I was talking about at the beginning of this episode—there’s a schedule and a commitment. These forms are created for a reason. We don’t make them to be perfect or just to be disciplined. We do them because the forms show us where we’re getting pulled.

Let me give you an example. In the type of Zen meditation that I practice, there’s a form: you sit cross-legged, and there are different forms for that. But you also hold your hands in an oval shape, with the fingers of one hand on top of the fingers of the other, and your two thumbs touching. Your hands form a circle, or an oval kind of circle, and your thumbs lightly touch.

If you watch the video, I’m actually showing it. One hand rests on top of the other, and the thumbs just touch. The touching isn’t hard pressure, but it’s also not slouching—it’s just touching lightly.

Having this form isn’t about having to do it perfectly every second of meditation. It’s simply the form we aim for. If we’re not doing that—let’s say our hands are fidgeting—we can notice that because there’s a form we’re meant to follow. Then we can say, "Oh, my hands are fidgeting. What’s going on here?" Maybe there’s some anxiousness or thoughts we’re dealing with.

It’s not that having thoughts or fidgeting is bad. It’s that, because we have a form, we can notice when we’re not following it. That gives us the chance to notice and then practice coming back.

If you’re doing the kind of meditation where you follow your breath and count your breaths, that’s a form. You follow your breath, count to ten, and then start over. If your mind wanders, you go back to one. This form helps you see when you’re not following your breath or counting. You can notice what’s happening with your mind—"Oh, I’m worried about that meeting later,"—and then come back.

Through this, we can see our mind’s tendencies and our body’s tendencies. For example, "I’m slouched over. That’s a sign of tiredness or laziness." Not in a judgmental way, but as a way of noticing. Then we can get curious about that, and if we want, we can return to the form.

This isn’t about judging yourself for not being perfect. It’s about having something to notice. In Zen, the forms I’ve mentioned are only some of the forms—there are actually a lot. There’s a specific kind of eating ritual during some meditation retreats. There are chants, prostrations, walking meditation forms, and even bowing to another person when you pass them. There’s a meal verse that’s said before eating.

There’s a lot of structure. Showing up on time is a form. These are all ways of committing to practice in a certain way. If we don’t show up on time, we can say, "Oh, what’s going on here? What’s causing me to not show up on time?" Maybe it’s a feeling of being loose in my commitments. Maybe I’m not taking them seriously or I have some kind of delusion that it doesn’t matter.

That’s how forms work in Zen. They show us our mind’s tendencies, patterns, fears, and attachments.

In our daily lives, we can create structure. "I’m going to write at this time. I’m going to do this at that time. I’m going to report to other people at a certain time." That’s accountability, which is a form. If I don’t report, it shows me, "Oh, I’m not taking this seriously. I’m not committed." I can investigate what’s going on.

If I do report, but the accountability says, "I haven’t been meditating or exercising or writing," it helps me see where I’m falling short of the structure I committed to.

When we talk about structure, people often think it’s restrictive, but I actually think it’s a powerful tool for understanding ourselves—where our attachments are and where we get pulled off course. It helps us practice with all of this.

How do we bring this into our lives? I’m a big fan of having a calendar and blocking things off. I’m a fan of having a form where I start each day by reviewing the calendar and then making a plan for the day based on what’s on my task list and calendar. Then, I stick to that plan as much as possible and notice when I’m falling off.

I also make a plan and commitment each week and month, sharing that with others. Holding myself accountable to those commitments helps me move forward and create the impact I want, without being too loose or too tight.

That’s what I’ve got for you today. I hope this was helpful. Next week, I’m going to talk about dealing with distractions. We touched on that today, but it’s a big enough topic to dedicate a whole episode to. I’m looking forward to that.

Thank you, my friends. Have an amazing rest of your day.

Thank you for listening and watching. I really appreciate you. I’ll talk to you later.

***

If you haven't already, please subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. If you found this episode useful, please share this podcast with someone you know, who cares deeply. That would be really meaningful to me. And, if you'd like to dive deeper with me into this work, please check out the blog at zenhabits.net or get in touch at [email protected].

Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join me every Wednesday for more episodes of the Zen Habits podcast.