Ending the Tyranny of Time
managing time mindfully
Although the ticking of the clock is linear, the way time passes is subjective.
By changing the speed and nature of our thoughts, we can alter the passage of time and get more done with less of it.
Managing Time Mindfully explores the use of mindfulness meditation as a practical tool for improved time management. When we take control of our Personal Time Machine—our mind—we can take the passage of time under our control.
Mindfulness meditation techniques can be used to get more done in less time, and with less effort. When we are mindful about how we spend and invest our time, we free ourselves from a self-imposed enslavement to time.
“This book is a temporal tour de force. It is ahead of its time and takes the reader back in time to its roots and first tickings. My relationship with time has now changed forever.”
Just like the face of a clock, and the Earth’s seasons, the book is naturally divided into quarters.
Quarter 1 : First Tickings
The first quarter, entitled First Tickings, explores how we have become so time poor in our modern day society. It takes a trip back to the dawn of time to give perspective on how time itself began. This first quarter concludes with the story of how the very invention of accurate time measurement led to our current obsession and entrapment in temporal chains of our own making.
Quarter 2 : Perceptions of Time
In the second quarter, Perceptions of Time, the subjective nature of time is explained and explored. Our left and right brains ’see’ time’s passage differently. Not all areas of our body are in sync, and some even operate ahead of time. It turns out that our amazing ability to think and talk to ourselves gives rise to the illusion of the passage of time. This is why mindfulness meditation, which quietens our inner chatter, is the key to stretching and elongating time.
Quarter 3 : Managing Time
In the third quarter, the book introduces the concept of Extended Me Time (or EMT) and how every minute we spend meditating pays back many times over. We become luckier, smarter, more creative and healthier. We can then indulge in the luxury of jumping back into Natural Time and freeing ourselves from the constrictions of our man-made calendar. We discover a more relaxed way-to-be where our heart’s desired turns up Just in Time.
Quarter 4 : Temporal Alchemy
The fourth quarter explores the esoteric theme of temporal alchemy. When we see time as a dimension our minds can interact with and manipulate, we can ’save’ much more time. We can free ourselves from the bonds of the past and entangle with the most perfect version of ourselves in the future. The author comes to the twelfth hour with some tales our how time has not just bent for him but reversed, jumped, and even stopped.