Take A Time-Out for Efficiency

If yet another day has slipped by and you haven’t finished even half of the things on your to-do list, you may be wondering how to be more productive. Productivity and efficiency aren’t only concerns for the workplace – throughout your daily life, wouldn’t you like to enjoy focusing on your tasks and also find free time to try new things or just relax, rather than feeling like you are wasting time doing simple things “the hard way”?

So is there a way to learn how to be more efficient?

Efficiency and productivity are the natural by-products of an organized mind. Have you noticed that when your desk and office space are clean and organized, it is easier to find the things you need? The same is true with your mind also – if you learn how to organize the mind, you can easily recall the things you need. You are no longer becoming distracted by the extra clutter!

Meditation and yoga are simple and powerful tools to organize the mind. In the workplace, creating a meditative atmosphere can foster an environment where everyone enjoys the workday, increasing engagement, morale, and performance. Just a few meditating individuals change change the face of an entire business.
Sadhguru, the creator of the Inner Engineering program, has offered yoga and meditation programs for companies such as Microsoft, JP Morgan, Ford Motor Company, and Google. The following excerpt is from Project Bloom, which chronicles the business roundtable meetings with Sadhguru and provides case-study examples that demonstrate how meditation can be a powerful tool in business. In this excerpt, Sadhguru explains how to organize the mind – and become more efficient and productive – by taking the time for a simple daily practice of yoga and meditation:

“Now, you get up at six o’clock, go to the office, work, come back home, take care of the kids, eat, and till whatever time you go to bed, and you have a busy day. Where is the time for yoga? You have time to eat, to gossip, to work-you have time to take care of everything, but you have no time to take care of yourself.

“This attitude comes about because you try to act like a martyr all the time. I have no time for myself. I am giving totally to everybody. What is it that you are giving? You agitations, irritations, and anxieties are being passed onto children. If you are truly concerned about your children, creating a joyful and loving atmosphere for their growth on a daily basis, moment to moment, is more important.

“If you invest even thirty minutes a day into yoga, you will enhance your capabilities, and you will gain immensely, even in terms of time. The first thing is your sleep quota will come down. If you are sleeping eight hours a day, that means you are just sleeping off one third of your life. If your body and mind are more energized and active, your sleep quota will naturally come down. So if you gain three or four hours a day, just in terms of wakefulness, that is a huge benefit.

“Apart from that, with a simple process of yoga, your body and mind get more organized. You would see that your level of performance becomes such that whatever you are doing in eight hours, you will very easily be able to do it in three or four hours. This is simply because, if you observe yourself throughout the day, you will notice how many unnecessary movements, words, activities are happening in your life.

“If you mind becomes more organized, these unnecessary words and movements will disappear. Once they go away, you feel more energetic and will also have a lot more time. You have twenty-four hours to live each day. If we are organized and focused human beings, we can do plenty in twenty-four hours’ time. If you are disorganized and unfocused, you think there is no time. Most people are not busy; they are just preoccupied. It is just too much preoccupation in the mind. If one makes time and brings yoga into their lives, suddenly the quality of their life will be very different.”

Ravi Venkatesan, former Chairman of Microsoft India, uses his Isha meditation practice as a management tool. In an interview Mr. Venkatesan said, “I can honestly say that it was a turning point in my life in some important ways. If you can’t manage yourself, how can you manage an organization of 5,000 people? It’s really true. If you don’t know how to manage your time and your energy, you don’t know how to manage your reaction to situations, you really can’t be very effective at leading an organization. If you have a significant amount of responsibility at home or at work, stress comes with it…Meditation gives you a strength and a stability to go through the day without getting overly disturbed.”