Be Mindful – Do One thing at a time

Doing one thing at a time is an excellent way to improve your productivity. As a former believer in multitasking, I know how difficult it is to let go of the idea of multitasking; to do so feels counter-intuitive. I was raised with the idea that multitasking is the most productive way of working and what is more, it’s cool. Multitasking can certainly give us the sensation that we’re getting a lot done - an agreeable feeling of feeling busy, even of feeling important. However, studies invariably show that the reverse is true; when we multitask we tend to be less efficient. The myth of multitasking It is physically impossible…

A storm in a tea-cup

Mindlessness – we are told – is the opposite to mindfulness. So what does that mean? What does it mean to be mindless? It means to lose touch with ourselves so much that we don’t even know that we have done so. Mindfulness, in contrast, happens when we realise – often with a sense of shock that we have been living in “autopilot”, going through the motions, without really being there, without experiencing our lives. Mindlessness can be described as a state in which we are distracted by a particularly fascinating movie of our own making. The title of the movie is “My Life” and it plays out on the…

Sailing – a metaphor for life

The time is five thirty on the morning of August 1st. I am leaving our home in Cantabria to travel to Esbjerg in Denmark, from where, with my brother, I will help sail his yacht across the North Sea to Kent in the South of England. The getting there will take two aircraft, two trains and will last all day. The journey is most agreeable. Unexpectedly befriended a Turkish guy and shared a Thai lunch in Copenhagen Central train station. I finally arrive at about 8:30 pm. My brother is on the boat and has prepared a Malay curry with such things as chicken, pineapple, coconut and spinach ─ our…