Some thirty years ago, I was castigated at work before a big inspection by an accrediting commission because I was going on relatively on time, my work for this project carefully planned out and done ahead of time, while others for reasons of their own were frenetically trying to finish before the deadline. I didn't do less work--I was director of the program that was being inspected; we passed on the first round and none of my work needed to be upgraded. Perhaps I worked smarter, perhaps not. My commuting time was my time to free associate about work in the mornings and to decompress in the evenings. It freed up my mind to come up with novel shortcuts and approaches to managing my work and my staff. Nowadays, I'm retired, so I use housework and/or yard work time to think. If you have a smartphone, you can leave yourself a message on it with the voice recorder, less likely to be misplaced than a notebook and paper.
3
YES! I've been doing this kind of stuff since I was a kid. Intuitively I knew it was important to get out of the busy and into a different headspace.
15
Yes, I think an hour a day is best. Meditate or knit or close your eyes or look at the clouds or doodle or walk or drive or anything without external stimulation. Combine two of these. One hour a week just doesn't cut it - even half an hour a day works!
4
A more likely cause of the lack of new business formation in recent years is the fact that the vast majority of people no longer have any disposable income to spend.
Large super-efficient corporations have bled us dry, paid us minimum wages, and ran off with the profits.
Large super-efficient corporations have bled us dry, paid us minimum wages, and ran off with the profits.
25
Years ago, it was called "mental health days."
16
Another sad aspect of those who humblebrag about being busy, is that they are being busy to the benefit of someone other than themselves, usually some soulless corporation. In other words, they are chumps.
27
I once had enormous respect for Mr. Shultz's judgment --- until he came up a strong supporter of George Bush and Bush's senseless forays around the world to the tune of "mission accomplished" and/or "shock and awe". What an absurdly short-sighted entry into endless disaster and waste. No, for me, Mr. Shultz gave up his wisdom credentials a long time ago. His backing of Bush is a major flaw in the wisdom trail of a man I once revered for what I deemed common sense but now can view as only some form of self serving.
14
I never bring my phone to the gym. That's an hour or more most days of nothing bothering me, (except other people's incredible rudeness talking on theirs. )
You want to reach me?
I'll be back in an hour.
We can wait.
You want to reach me?
I'll be back in an hour.
We can wait.
18
On a farm there are many mindless jobs which take time and need doing every day. They do not take a lot of thought and while doing them is an excellent opportunity to think and ponder. I am sure there are similar spaces in other lives.
28
At first, I read "You need a 'Schlitz Hour." Then I caught my mistake. And then I realized there was really no difference! :-)
27
A good idea but a luxury for those who are not single parents or who do not have a secretary to screen their calls.
6
While employed in scientific research in a very large company in the USA, I caused consternation by claiming that "If it's urgent it can't be important". It was the opposite of their prioritisation, but when I explained that in important scientific matters, it was always more valuable to reach the right decision than to reach a rapid decision, they realised that having time to reflect was the key. So, more haste, less speed. Hard-charging executives are about as useful as bulls in china shops in this connection.
11
A great book on this very subject is Tom Friedman's "Thank You For Being Late."
15
What a thought provoking article! Every so often I will send a column I've read to my Evernote files for future re-reading. These serve as a reminder that with ongoing self-introspection one can stop life from floating by blindly. The Shultz Hour piece will take its place in my files next to William Safire’s last column in the NY Times Op Ed Page on January 24th 2005. In that column, Never Retire , Mr. Safire said, “When you’re through changing, you’re through.”
8
Or you can just golf.
5
English poet Robert Southey was once visited by a Quaker lady. Proudly, he told her his daily schedule--"I get up at 7:30--I read Latin from 8:00 to 10:00--I read Spanish or Italian from 10:00 till 11:00--lunch comes at 12:00 sharp--from 1:00 till 2:00 I . . . . . ."
(This is not precise. I don't begin to remember what Southey's exact schedule was. It was like the foregoing.)
The lady gave him a long, hard look. "Pray tell me, friend," she asked--"when dost thee THINK?"
Southey died insane. H-m-m-m-m . . . . . .food for thought. Give me an hour--let me THINK about that . . . . .
No, please . . . .I'm still THINKING . . . . . .
(This is not precise. I don't begin to remember what Southey's exact schedule was. It was like the foregoing.)
The lady gave him a long, hard look. "Pray tell me, friend," she asked--"when dost thee THINK?"
Southey died insane. H-m-m-m-m . . . . . .food for thought. Give me an hour--let me THINK about that . . . . .
No, please . . . .I'm still THINKING . . . . . .
7
Perfect timing on this piece. I made a conscious decision to take today to do whatever I wanted to do as long as it did not include Facebook or Twitter. Reading NYT and a good novel are on the agenda. So far, a long walk with the dog, a cup of coffee with a neighbor, looking at the amazing California wildflowers and a yoga class at the Y. No email, no phone calls, no negatives. I needed to break a cycle and it is turning out to be a wonderful day. Now on to a massage.
12
My father always told me that no matter how busy we are, if something is important that we will make time for it. The "Shultz Hour" would appear to fall into this category. For the busiest people on the planet, from Obama to Trump to Pierre Elliot Trudeau, this mantra has held especially true, whether this "hour" is spent playing golf or walking the dogs, having some time alone with your thoughts and nothing else is often when we have a fleeting moment of clarity.
5
I thought you said a "Schlitz" hour. Good idea anyway.
8
When Einstein was an examiner in the patent office in Bern up to and including his annus mirabilis of 1905, I have to believe he stole time at work, perhaps not in one hour chunks, to think and dream about the things that really engaged him.
8
Good article. A nice little comment I read years ago has helped me deal with the frenetic pace of the service professions.
Your mobile phone (device) exists for your convenience, not for the caller's (emailer's).
Such thoughts are surely anathema in today's device-addicted world. But there ya go.
Your mobile phone (device) exists for your convenience, not for the caller's (emailer's).
Such thoughts are surely anathema in today's device-addicted world. But there ya go.
13
People who don't take a "Shultz hour" seem to be just scratching the surface of knowledge and understanding. Their frantic tail chasing leads to a shallowness that makes all the busywork seem more important to them. The cycle is then entrenched and there is no time for any deeper thought or contemplation. People do this for years and don't even realize it. What a waste.
8
Amen to that.
2
I would have responded more thoughtfully, but this article occurred during my time-out ....
4
I remember having lunch with a CEO many years ago. He was a fraternity guy type of person who would have much rather been out drinking with his pals than working. He started complaining about how he had to work twelve hour days all the time. Since I was in the position of having to sympathize with the guy for work reasons, I searched in my mind for something to nice say. Finally I said, "You know, lots of people in America have to work 12 hour days now. Think about all those poor people at Wal-Mart who are doing two jobs for $10 an hour. There's no escaping it really. At least when YOU have to put in all that time, you make a good living."
He looked visibly pleased. Jerk.
He looked visibly pleased. Jerk.
9
Yeah, Reagan had a lot of Shultz moments, some might cruelly call them senior moments, when he couldn't remember if he was part of the Iran Contra scandal, in the loop, at the table, etc., or simply asleep.
He knew the cost of everything but not its value. Didn't care. The Saint started us down the terrible road separating us and them, the hateful partisan demonizing of anybody who disagreed with or opposed him, and he started it when he was governor of California.
He was another vapid, ignorant, privileged republican guy who looked presidential, which is all the GOP requires, but was anything but.
He knew the cost of everything but not its value. Didn't care. The Saint started us down the terrible road separating us and them, the hateful partisan demonizing of anybody who disagreed with or opposed him, and he started it when he was governor of California.
He was another vapid, ignorant, privileged republican guy who looked presidential, which is all the GOP requires, but was anything but.
10
"...wise enough to know that constant activity isn’t an enjoyable or productive way to live."
Words to live by and the rationale, other than honoring God, behind the way the Jewish Sabbath is, or should be, observed...
Words to live by and the rationale, other than honoring God, behind the way the Jewish Sabbath is, or should be, observed...
3
Try swimming.
6
Contemplative work is best achieved when peace and quiet reigns. One of the worse disrupters is television and that beast should be turned off. When watched with abandon, television either dulls you into a stupor or incites you to scream and kick. All of it ruinous to a peaceful, thoughtful existence. Also, there is nothing better to aid creative thought than a good laugh shared with friends. So, if that project has you stymied take a break, relax with you friends and avoid the din of the t.v.
4
I think you need more than one hour a week for this kind of mindfulness. If your life is so overwhelmed with stuff you have to do that you can only spare a single hour in a week than you have a problem that needs a bigger fix.
17
IL DOLCE FAR NIENTE The Italians have long had as part of their culture a time when people just lay about doing nothing. Sweetly. But why is it essential? We know that sleeping protects dreams, much as relaxation protects the creative process. When stressed most people process information via the amygdala in a fight or flight paradigm that is automatic. When relaxed they tend to take a mini break of about 3 seconds so that the information can be processed in the prefrontal cortex where the executive functions of the brain occur. Being too stressed results in being trapped in a state of alarm and cut off from logical, reflective, creative thought. Beyond feeling good, taking time to relax is essential to coping, problem solving, decision making and creativity.
8
For me, personally, one of the best, most helpful, and most needed columns I have read in a while.
Truly a wake-up call for me.
Thank you.
Truly a wake-up call for me.
Thank you.
A Shultz hour, as in president of the Bechtel Group Inc., Secretary of State under Reagan, Nixon protégé, father of the "Bush Doctrine" advocating for preventive war...
Thanks, but no thanks.
Just because Mr.Shultz is as old as methuselah by now, let's nor forget what a horrible human being and politician he was.
I wouldn't want ANYTHING named after him, much less an hour of meditation and reflection.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Just because Mr.Shultz is as old as methuselah by now, let's nor forget what a horrible human being and politician he was.
I wouldn't want ANYTHING named after him, much less an hour of meditation and reflection.
5
Silence is a true friend who never betrays (Confucius)
10
I fired my smartphone when I realized it was smarter than me. I have a flip phone again, because it is a phone and nothing more. I have a computer at home and use it there, it doesn't come with me when I walk out the door. I was recently in Boulder, CO and everywhere I went, people were on their phones or laptops, no one looking up to see me looking at them watching their screens.
"It's a drifting time/a lot of people looking at screens/don't know what's on the other side." Greg Brown, Midwest Hick Prophet, "Whatever It Was" from Slant Six Mind
"It's a drifting time/a lot of people looking at screens/don't know what's on the other side." Greg Brown, Midwest Hick Prophet, "Whatever It Was" from Slant Six Mind
11
Guilty as charged. Sad to say, and a bit crude, but the down time is why I look forward to rest room breaks, where nothing calls but nature.
4
I have a category on my cv for time spent doing nothing. It takes up 5 pages.
This ensures that when I retire I will be structurally (financially) unable to do anything but nothing.
This ensures that when I retire I will be structurally (financially) unable to do anything but nothing.
4
I don't have a smart phone and I haven't had internet at home for six years. I love it.
2
While I basically approve of Leonhardt's main point, I am less positive about his attribution of the quote about the value of being underemployed to Amos Tversky. Many years ago, I came across virtually the identical quote (“It’s necessary to be slightly underemployed if you are to do something significant.”) by James D. Watson, of "double helix" fame. Although I cannot be certain, I suspect Watson's statement was earlier. In any case, I would bet it was independent of Tversky's.
This precise quote, attributed to Watson, can be found at many websites accessible through any decent search engine. Apparently, it helps to be slightly underemployed to avoid making an insufficiently researched claim.
This precise quote, attributed to Watson, can be found at many websites accessible through any decent search engine. Apparently, it helps to be slightly underemployed to avoid making an insufficiently researched claim.
' Task-negative mode is more colloquially known as daydreaming, and, as Daniel J. Levitin of McGill University has written, it “is responsible for our moments of greatest creativity and insight, when we’re able to solve problems that previously seemed unsolvable.” '
In other words, having time to think allows us to get some thinking done. Can't wait for Levitin's next breakthrough insight.
In other words, having time to think allows us to get some thinking done. Can't wait for Levitin's next breakthrough insight.
One hour a WEEK! That's all the time you allow yourself to think. As a lawyer, I left at least an hour a day to wander and roam in the quiet of my office. I was a better lawyer and a better person. One hour a week is awfully stingy.
44
So true. As a lawyer, my best work is done when I'm not working. A long walk or, even better, a good night's sleep, yields better solutions to a client's problem than an 80-hour "work" week. I confess, it did take more than a few years for this reality to sink in.
8
One Shultz hour per week is too few. One per day would be better. Just today, I told my daughter who is a high-school senior going to college in September, to relax and reflect in the summer instead of taking courses. Regular Shultz hours are very important if one has to maintain a high-level of creative output.
3
Many people mistakenly focus on managing time when it's attention that needs managing. They're both zero sum games, but the payoff is so much better for managing attention constructively.
3
This is exactly the mentality I have been trying to follow and I have been trying to explain to those close to me. Yes, constantly checking the barrage of information coming our way is a sign of being informed (or, perhaps more importantly, a sign of wanting to be informed), but when we are continuously connected there is little time to do anything with the information we access. This, in fact, can run the risk of us becoming less informed, as we only take the time to consider others' perspectives and opinions and rarely leave time for ourselves to formulate our own.
4
I rejoice in the times when, in the doctor's office, I am forced to wait for long, quiet, busyless moments, sometimes as much as a whole lovely hour. My husband gets antsy, but I relish the fact that my phone is off, no one expects anything of me, and I can let my mind wander where it will. Far from being an annoyance, these occasions are something I look forward to, a sweet gift from the medical overbooking to my frazzled soul. Run late, o doc, run late. These moments are balm.
9
Many years ago I was struck by the idea presented in Daniel B. Quinn's novel, Ishmael, that until the agricultural revolution, people spent most of their day in leisure. It sounds counter-intuitive but think about it: they were hunter/gatherers with no storage facility so they only acquired what food they could consume that day, which didn't take hours and hours. They didn't have homes to clean or improve on. What else was there to do? Once they figured out how to plant and raise food and settled down in one place, they got the idea that they should lock up the excess food, not just for lean times, but also to distribute only to those who contributed toward the raising of the food, or could otherwise "pay". Thus began our need to "work" to provide for ourselves and families. How far have we really come in 12,000 years?
7
People who can't take an hour a week won't do this either, but doing a personal time management analysis will reveal how much time "busy" people are actually wasting. Once in each of my two careers I spent the time and effort to track every fifteen minutes of my workday. I discovered an amazing amount of unproductive time (over 25% of the day.) I never over-worked myself, but I suspect that such unproductive time increases with daily hours "on the job" as a person gets more and more hungry and tired.
2
It's disappointing that you don't cite dreams and dreaming, and building new ideas from subconscious fragments that float around when you can put off "getting up" from "waking up." My most productive time, now retired, is while asleep, since my subconscious is a lot smarter than I am during the day!
1
While I understand and appreciate the value of the Shultz hour and the desire to get beyond our frenetic busyness, I wonder if we are willing to go even further. What if we take time each week, even each day, to go beyond devoting an hour to ourselves and instead devote that time to our Creator. What if we were willing to set not only our busyness aside, but even ourselves. What if we were willing to consecrate time to One who is bigger than ourselves, to spend time seeking Him and His purpose, to spend time listening to Him instead of ourselves. Tim Keller has written a very short book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. It is worth the hour it takes to read.
2
Refreshing read and reminder of the benefits of a 1 hour a week retreat. Some stream of conscious thoughts I would like to share. I have heard many pastors emphasize in their sermons on the Genesis 1 Creation story, even God took a day of rest. One of those ministers wrote and published a devotional guide titled "Hour of Prayer". I spent a weekend at a working monastery near Utica, New York. It was a farm with crops and farm animals that helped sustain the community. There were many hours devoted to meditation throughout the day and night. My last thought was a response to a suggestion a therapist made to me. She recommended I take walks and since I like music, down load music I like to my smart phone, buy a pair of ear buds, and listen to music as I walk. I rejected that idea, since everything I learned I learned from our cats! When I walk, I look and take in nature, the colors, sounds, the fragrances, and the variety of life all around. Walking in silence, attuned to all nature around me, is a blessing. It is a grace moment.
Great article! I would argue you need to unplug and unwind more than an hour a week. Everyone is different,but I know I can get overwhelmed if I'm too busy or spend to much time on anything with a screen. An hour a day would be ideal, and that could mean breaking it up into shorter to shorter time periods, such five or ten minutes. Being busy isn't always a good thing.
1
The smartphone and its associated social media are a massive social experiment, especially on younger people who have known no other way of living. I went to a commencement last Spring, and most of the graduation candidates were looking at their phones rather than soaking in the experience. I think our society will be much worse off because of this technology.
5
Quakers have known this since their founding. Our services are an hour of quiet contemplation, interrupted only if someone has an inspiration to share. And Quakers have been very influential over the years, as they were most of those who ran the Underground Railroad, and the majority of the Suffragettes. Many educational institutions, especially around the Philadelphia area, are Quaker based, as we believe that education [using the brain, not weapons] is the ultimate answer to the world's problems.
2
While I sleep, my cell phone (yes, cell, not smart) lies on the kitchen counter at the other end of the house from my bedroom. Since retirement, my Schulz hours are many and sometimes several days long. Gardening, reading, fishing (sometimes even using a pole and bait), tinkering in my shop, the days slide by with frightening speed. Humans live life in the wrong order. The middle part, when you're still young and yet mature enough to know what you have is when we should "waste" time.
3
My busy mind takes more out of me than a day's hard labor. I prefer not to schedule my hour or hous as when it is a habit it comes naturally and seemingly without purpose. Planning it while necessary for some seems to make it only part of your frenetic activity.
We need to adopt the "Energy Pod" and "Nap Room" innovations like many other countries...and the actual increase "Vacation" times for people to truly put their work aside. It is too true that this society and business culture has become Protestant Work Ethic run amok. The distinction being that true religious people of those eras treated Sundays (Sabbaths) as NO WORK days and to contemplate their Bible and other issues.
Every modern city and hamlet has this 24/7/365 of business hours regardless of the day of the week, the calendar holiday, or vacation times. (For instance I have a friend who is in management at a retail establishment that has over the years bumped up their "holiday sales" events from Black Friday sales, to Pre-Black-Friday midnight sales; to Thanksgiving Day sales. All in the name of ever-increasing corporate profits - never about spend holidays with your family time.)
Businesses ignore the productivity increases by having well-rested and alert employees on their shifts. And By-The-By - time to Get Rid of the Day-Light Savings nightmares that wreck our biological clock twice a year! Bleh!
Every modern city and hamlet has this 24/7/365 of business hours regardless of the day of the week, the calendar holiday, or vacation times. (For instance I have a friend who is in management at a retail establishment that has over the years bumped up their "holiday sales" events from Black Friday sales, to Pre-Black-Friday midnight sales; to Thanksgiving Day sales. All in the name of ever-increasing corporate profits - never about spend holidays with your family time.)
Businesses ignore the productivity increases by having well-rested and alert employees on their shifts. And By-The-By - time to Get Rid of the Day-Light Savings nightmares that wreck our biological clock twice a year! Bleh!
1
Many people don't learn to slow down until they collapse from overwork, overstimulation, overactivity. They don't see the warning signs of irritability,
memory issues, conflict with others, feelings of emptiness. etc.
We are basically a mess in this culture, overall. We think unimportant things are important and we avoid important things. We think we have no time because we are keeping up with idiotic TV shows and our materialistic urges.
We compulsively stay busy to avoid the void. But it's there and it always gets you in the end.
Everyone can slow down and take time for reflection, solitude, rest. If you do, you will probably have more energy to do all those unimportant things you think are so important.
memory issues, conflict with others, feelings of emptiness. etc.
We are basically a mess in this culture, overall. We think unimportant things are important and we avoid important things. We think we have no time because we are keeping up with idiotic TV shows and our materialistic urges.
We compulsively stay busy to avoid the void. But it's there and it always gets you in the end.
Everyone can slow down and take time for reflection, solitude, rest. If you do, you will probably have more energy to do all those unimportant things you think are so important.
6
This is positively un-American. It could lead to serious thinking, analysis and doubt. It could lead to changing one's mind on some social or political issue. Dangerous stuff. More satisfying to applaud Trump for acting Presidential when he bombed Syria, lacking any strategy or plan and having no discernible positive result.
I have an acquaintance that has no smart phone, she does have a ten year old basic cell, no TV, no radio, no computer. She is self employed as a landscaper and from what I can see is very creative. She has ample time to think, reflect and be creative.
2
I'm in philosophical agreement with this - I've been practising something similar for years, though I aim for something closer to an hour a day, for as many days as can be managed in a week, and recommend the principle heartily. Not just so that we can be more productive tacticians (and, say, think up a good Iran/Contra gambit, as a random example), but to be better people.
Two things trouble me though: one is the emphasis on those deemed white-collar (this is perhaps triggered by the unnecessary and annoying tie-in to a celebrity to justify making a good point point, but that is perhaps a bigger cultural problem outside the scope of either this article or comment). Why the seemingly classist implication that the affairs of the blue-collar are somehow less worthy of introspection and creative imagination?
The other is relatively minor, I admit, but can the author really not go an hour once a week without being available to his spouse? Even if they have no actual contact, the mere possibility of it seems like a psychological limitation to true quality solitude (if not a bit 21st century white-collar codependent). Turn the phone off!
Two things trouble me though: one is the emphasis on those deemed white-collar (this is perhaps triggered by the unnecessary and annoying tie-in to a celebrity to justify making a good point point, but that is perhaps a bigger cultural problem outside the scope of either this article or comment). Why the seemingly classist implication that the affairs of the blue-collar are somehow less worthy of introspection and creative imagination?
The other is relatively minor, I admit, but can the author really not go an hour once a week without being available to his spouse? Even if they have no actual contact, the mere possibility of it seems like a psychological limitation to true quality solitude (if not a bit 21st century white-collar codependent). Turn the phone off!
1
How about an hour-a-week working, and the rest just wool gathering.
Works for me.
Works for me.
7
I agree completely! It is extremely important to step back and look at what is going on and say "Is this important?" "Where am I going and does this help get me there?"
In the midst of everything going on in your life, remember you are not a
Human Doing, you are a Human Being.
In the midst of everything going on in your life, remember you are not a
Human Doing, you are a Human Being.
" If you spend all your time collecting new information, you won’t leave enough time to make sense of it."
And therein lies the biggest problem of information age.
And therein lies the biggest problem of information age.
3
I was once asked by college students if I ever experienced moments of frustration when I would not be able to solve problems. I responded "absolutely, and everyday". My further response: "That is why the shower was invented. Just you and the soap and the water, no cell phones follow you inside those doors. You don't need to talk to anyone. Amazing! Your brain starts to work again. Keep note books handy to write down what you suddenly realized was possible." Three AM can work too, though its frequency is not consistent.
As to Shultz, I will read him because he is one of the most calmly articulate people for a viewpoint I do not completely buy into. Despite what he says, Republicans do not cast a wide net in their definition of what matters. They look out for the one percent, figuring that if the one percent do well, everything else falls into place. Supply side may stimulate innovation, but it is no panacea. Demand side and middle class earning and spending power are little affected, and are not the primary target of supply side, however, they are the most important economic issues facing us if we are to maintain class mobility and our beloved consumer economy. George needs to cast a much wider net.
As to Shultz, I will read him because he is one of the most calmly articulate people for a viewpoint I do not completely buy into. Despite what he says, Republicans do not cast a wide net in their definition of what matters. They look out for the one percent, figuring that if the one percent do well, everything else falls into place. Supply side may stimulate innovation, but it is no panacea. Demand side and middle class earning and spending power are little affected, and are not the primary target of supply side, however, they are the most important economic issues facing us if we are to maintain class mobility and our beloved consumer economy. George needs to cast a much wider net.
Strolling, not planned exercise. Reading a mystery. Planting flowers. Talking to yourself. Having a beer with your friends. Watching some mindless TV program.
Gosh, whoever thought that such things are possible?
Gosh, whoever thought that such things are possible?
3
I agree with the others who recognize that at least one hour a day of meditation or quiet time is an absolute necessity. Walking, running, swimming and quieting the mind at the same time leads to an inner calm that ideally does not have to be justified by claiming a boost in productivity. Just being mindful is a reward in itself. Prayer, Listening in Silence, Thankfulness, Attention to Beauty - all these treasures follow, even in the midst of every day life.
8
Over the past 12 months I've taken several road trips by myself, driving myself, and haven't had the radio going (I'm not even sure it works in my car!), not listening to an audio book, just silence and scenery, and my thoughts - for 10 hours at a time. (I do frequently stop at rest stops, get out and walk around for 5 or 10 minutes) At 83 I do still fortunately have lots of thoughts, have learned to enjoy my own company, and find these quiet trips refreshing!
14
I fear for our younger generation. We have so exploited television and other screen time as a substitute for actual adult-child interaction (no fault-finding, single parents are working two jobs, Mom's on swing shift, car's broke so have to catch the bus) that many kids are afraid to be alone with nothing but the silence of their own thoughts.
2
They don't know that those things are thoughts.
Great read. We all get bogged down with with minutia of information overload and this article focuses on the need to have understanding with the information we have.
3
"Our society, or at least the white-collar portions of it, needs some more of Thaler’s laziness"
= White Collar Bias
You think a mother/wife/worker might could use an hour of contemplation? Or the dad/electrician/lawn mower, who might want a moment to plan a novel. we are all on the same ship and it is crowded and busy.
= White Collar Bias
You think a mother/wife/worker might could use an hour of contemplation? Or the dad/electrician/lawn mower, who might want a moment to plan a novel. we are all on the same ship and it is crowded and busy.
3
Most of my 78 years have been spent in housewifery and mothering, and I recommend two activities that will bring you "Schultz hours": ironing and gardening.
I have had brilliant ideas for inventing, or for smart retorts, or for solutions to the world's problems while my eyes and hands were occupied with mechanical tasks.
But those have historically been women's chores, so the products aren't deemed valuable.
I have had brilliant ideas for inventing, or for smart retorts, or for solutions to the world's problems while my eyes and hands were occupied with mechanical tasks.
But those have historically been women's chores, so the products aren't deemed valuable.
16
I agree, and also find washing dishes to be quite productive,
in the thought department, for me.
in the thought department, for me.
I love ironing! Although I have a cleaning woman, I prefer to do my own laundry and ironing. I find it so relaxing.
Nancy, you are a 100% right!
Jack Kornfield, a western Buddhist teacher, wrote a book along these lines
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
https://jackkornfield.com/after-the-ecstasy-the-laundry/
Jack Kornfield, a western Buddhist teacher, wrote a book along these lines
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
https://jackkornfield.com/after-the-ecstasy-the-laundry/
1
There's a T on this. Speed typing is hazardous. JGAIA-
I take that Shultz Hour whenever I go birding. There's plenty of time to look for the birds, watch for their movements, and think about the job, a poem I want to write, a present I need to buy for someone, or whatever. But when I've been unemployed I've found myself unable to let go of my worries for the future because of how our country treats unemployed people. Perhaps if Americans didn't have to worry so much about their ability to support themselves, their families, pay their medical bills, find decent affordable housing, save for retirement, pay for a college loan or save for their children's education, in short, worry like crazy about the future in a country with a very poor social safety net, we'd have time to dream. Unfortunately, given the current political climate, which has existed since the 1980s, we don't.
7
A good time to put this in the mix of advice to give our new Presiden. JGAIA-
1
But thanks to a thin Constitutional Electoral College majority plus 46% of American voters along with the meddling selective interference of the likes of Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, James Comey and Julian Assange we live in the United States of 'Trump Hour".
4
An hour a week?! How about an hour a day?
13
It will take more than an hour for us to end our role as world cop and decider of which countries merit our bombs, invasions and replacement governments.
3
1 Thessalonians 4:11 (And "study to be quiet" was also Izaak Walton's particular advice in "The Compleat Angler"....)
2
Good idea. Runners know this; it's one reason we run. Works the same with walking. I think one hour a day sounds better than one hour a week (which, if you think about it, is kinda sad)--even if that hour has to be split up into shorter segments.
9
And swimming
3
Speaking of the Shultz Hour, this past Easter Sunday, the wife and I were driving past a mall and were surprised to see its parking lots still quite full. The wife remarked that Target stores were closed for the day, but it seemed not much else like it is on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. That’s when it hit me – now with so much of shopping having moved online, closing the brick-and-mortars for a holiday did not make much of a difference.
So here’s a proposal for the online version of the Shultz Hour – wouldn’t it be really meaningful and useful, if all the online tech and social media giants from A to Z, such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Netflix, Snapchat, Twitter, et al. observed a “Shultz Shutdown” for at least an 8-hour period on national holidays like those mentioned before? Imagine having an 8-hour detox period at Thanksgiving and Christmas during which time friends and family could actually talk to each other the old-fashioned way with no technology interruptions? Some families already do this where they ask dinner guests to deposit cellphones in a basket as they enter the house.
Let’s make a national push for the #ShultzShutdown and tweet accordingly if you are in favor. One small step for Silicon Valley, one huge step for America’s families!
So here’s a proposal for the online version of the Shultz Hour – wouldn’t it be really meaningful and useful, if all the online tech and social media giants from A to Z, such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Netflix, Snapchat, Twitter, et al. observed a “Shultz Shutdown” for at least an 8-hour period on national holidays like those mentioned before? Imagine having an 8-hour detox period at Thanksgiving and Christmas during which time friends and family could actually talk to each other the old-fashioned way with no technology interruptions? Some families already do this where they ask dinner guests to deposit cellphones in a basket as they enter the house.
Let’s make a national push for the #ShultzShutdown and tweet accordingly if you are in favor. One small step for Silicon Valley, one huge step for America’s families!
31
I'm sorry but I don't understand how you got from A to B. If the parking lot was full, that seemingly means that more people were at the mall and not at home. So why use this as a justification for people not shopping online? P.S. What if they shut it down just as you were going to look for the phone number/address/ directions to/schedule or other pertinent information you needed?
Keeping busy makes thinking outside the box more difficult, and keeps the forest from coming into view. It is favored by those who do not like it when people start questioning the system instead of participating in it to win.
3
Although I'm retired Twitter affords great opportunities for keeping up with the latest on news and politics (so many links, so little time!) to which I'm of course addicted. But I've made up a little game for myself by keeping the first hour of the day of reading time limited to reading three or four actual books (downloaded from Amazon), reading a bit from each every day. Then, at various slack moments of the day (brushing my teeth, trying to fall asleep at night) I try to recall as many little bite-sized facts as float to the surface of my mind as possible from each book, not as a tiresome memory exercise, but as a genuinely interesting game. Playing at little "useless" games such as this one might be another way way "waste" time.
3
I just have to say: I once graded papers with an IV in my arm, waiting for surgery.
1
However much time you may have to sit and "simmer" quietly it can be become most productive, like a power nap . You don't know what you don't know , is not an oxymoronic phrase. Grasping the larger movement of all the factors in your life can pay big dividends later.
6
My first thought reading this was, Secretary Schultz is a Republican? How is that possible. A smart thoughtful, careful, Republican?
4
So Ronald Ray-gun practiced quiet moments? Really?
That photo shows another important quality of leadership: personal relationships.
7
Seriously, an hour a week? The Dalia Lama meditates for 4-6 hours a day. Sister Mary (the art critic) prayed for about the same range of time. As a meditator and spiritual student I realized that was about right to have any kind of grasp of reality.
Good for anyone for slowing down for any amount of time.
Please grab an hour a day for quiet contemplation of your life and the world as a whole. No wonder the world is in the state it is in.
Good for anyone for slowing down for any amount of time.
Please grab an hour a day for quiet contemplation of your life and the world as a whole. No wonder the world is in the state it is in.
8
I aim for about 35 hours or so of these Schultz Hours during my 8-5 work week. Don't tell my boss!
4
I've been taking 90 minutes a day, just for exercise, for decades. I get my best thoughts in the pool or the gym. Working out allows me to focus on strategic issues - or not. The two hours after I get back to my desk are the most productive of the day. Now retired, I do not own a smart phone, and I'm going to keep it that way.
8
Great column, but I have to admit, I didn't give up sugar either.
2
Breaking routine can lead to unexpected epiphanies. A chance encounter or conversation can open new doors. Noticing something on the fly can reveal a previously unseen pattern. Our society frowns too much on wandering minds. Unless we wander, we become prisoners of ourselves.
4
Daily reflection isn't as hard as you imply - I get some of my best ideas in the shower.
6
In addition you might consider walking. The role walking has played in history is huge. It gives exercise and time to think. i have been in Berchtesgaden, Germany, and wondered how Hitler could have used his time there to think about such terrible things; or what if it had changed him for the better?
4
“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Blaise Pascal
13
Or, as the Counting Crows sang: "If you've never stared off into the distance then your life is a shame."
Or .. you can use the smartphone to get better information so you can make better choices. Like with food, it's what you eat that matters, so what info you decided to look at, read, hear, or watch, then that's what will affect your thinking or behavior.
While I would disagree with a lot of his politics, George Shultz is a wise man. My own natural laziness over the years has always managed to carve out large chunks of time to do "big picture" thinking. Probably, any good executive knows this already. If the moment-to-moment stuff dictates your life, you might feel important, even indispensable, but you will never have time to reflect and consider, imagine and create . . .
3
Thanks for taking your professional time to write this column. I agree that taking an hour at least everyday from the "connected tasks" is beneficial. I am not as old as George Schulz but after 4 generations of life, I am close. Dr. Schultz and I agree on global warming and I think because of his knowledge in statecraft and economics he knows that we must get started. If we are to succeed, it will take leadership from the World's leaders and to establish a new non-fossil energy infrastructure that will be cheaper and more convenient for all people (emission of greenhouse gases is global but market demand for new energy and customer demand is local).
Dr. Schultz has already been to the White House, I hope the President listened to him.
Now let me add to the advice of your commentators, that it is rude to look at your cell phone when you are around friends and family, especially if you are fortunate enough to have a loving partner. I love to talk to my wife, she reads the print edition of the NYTimes, so it is a special time of the evening when we dine together to discuss the day's events and our other observations.
She is a flower lover and has me thinking about how flowers and plants have adapted to the sun. I can promise you that watching petals "unfurl" inspires my thinking about solar cell arrays and how we could do it in space to beam energy to Earth. I plan to write President Trump this week about his role in mobilizing a new industry for global warming.
Dr. Schultz has already been to the White House, I hope the President listened to him.
Now let me add to the advice of your commentators, that it is rude to look at your cell phone when you are around friends and family, especially if you are fortunate enough to have a loving partner. I love to talk to my wife, she reads the print edition of the NYTimes, so it is a special time of the evening when we dine together to discuss the day's events and our other observations.
She is a flower lover and has me thinking about how flowers and plants have adapted to the sun. I can promise you that watching petals "unfurl" inspires my thinking about solar cell arrays and how we could do it in space to beam energy to Earth. I plan to write President Trump this week about his role in mobilizing a new industry for global warming.
2
I absolutely understand and agree with what's been said here -- except I was stunned by these words "Our society, or at least the white-collar portions of it..." Why on earth would the need for reflection be something that non-"white collar" people don't need just as much as "white collar" people? One other thought -- anyone with a spiritual or meditative practice can testify to the value of an hour of reflection at least once a day.
5
This represents the problem in finding our "car keys". We've all done it--young or old--walked from one room to another, and had to stop and ask ourselves: "Why am I here?" The tactical versus strategic analysis is a good one: We must need to keys for some important reason, but there "getting" of them is just a short-term, stop on the way to completing the more important, strategic journey some where.
Michael Lewis' book, "The Undoing Project" is truly a great one--a compelling read. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman truly are Giants!
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
Michael Lewis' book, "The Undoing Project" is truly a great one--a compelling read. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman truly are Giants!
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
Is he kidding? One whole hour a week? How about an hour or at least 30 mins each day of quiet time?
10
I agree with Peter - an hour a week isn't enough for creativity and calmer
thoughts to generate. More time is needed to settle our frenetic selves down.
thoughts to generate. More time is needed to settle our frenetic selves down.
6
"our culture of celebrating busyness" is exactly right. Even in academia (or maybe especially in academia) where people should have time for thinking and scholarship, bragging about being busy is required. One of my colleagues once said, "I'm so busy I can't get anything done." Now my retired friends boast that they are busier than ever.
Since being busy is mistaken for a sign of success, some people claim to be busier than they really are. Being overly busy is actually evidence of an inability to organize and manage a successful life. Once we recognize that, we can be happier and spend less time boasting about how busy we are.
Since being busy is mistaken for a sign of success, some people claim to be busier than they really are. Being overly busy is actually evidence of an inability to organize and manage a successful life. Once we recognize that, we can be happier and spend less time boasting about how busy we are.
34
And funnily enough, one of the signs of getting old is saying. "I'm keeping busy."
Ha.
Ha.
2
Thinking is among the most powerful activities we can do. We often find when confronted with a difficult problem - going for walk or sitting on the deck for while allows one to 'think through the problem' and begin to find solutions. Automatic actions without fore-thought in the face of difficult or delicate issues often results in poor results. Thinking also allows us to be creative. This is a very important concept and we should all do more of this. Think more, talk less, and adopt the notion of 'once and done.' This is how we become more effective and less overwhelmed with life and work.
29
This is why I value the time I take to run 4-5 times a week. I don't carry my phone with me or listen to music. It's a refreshing break from the constant alerts and my admittedly compulsive habit of checking what's going on in the news or on social media.
28
My family thinks I'm crazy because I drive from NYC to visit them in Nashville and Little Rock a couple of times a year. It is a lot of hours in the car (and to my car-loving family, a lot of mileage on my vehicle). But I so look forward to those hours away from everything. A book on tape or some podcasts, a baseball game can help with the tedium, as can the beautiful scenery in the Shenandoah Valley; but mostly I crave that quiet time in the car when I don't text, call or do email. Most importantly, I'm forced to be out of the decision-making line of fire. Others have to do without me. I recharge, I rethink, I noodle creatively. I've started doing the same thing on my shorter weekend drives -- there I don't even do much of anything in terms of entertainment -- just peace and quiet and everyone knows I'm not reachable. I'm not sure I'd be functional in my busy work life if I did not have these shorter weekly drives and the occasional long one.
56
Only one hour? I take an hour a day, makes a world of difference. There is an old saying from a Buddhist monk, "meditate for twenty minutes, but if you're busy take an hour." Many of our stress related maladies could be relieved by meditating daily. Try it, you'll like it!
97
And what about the next generation that has never known a world without smartphones?
We get a lot of spring school field trips at a wilderness park where I volunteer. I remember one group in particular. The students filed off the yellow bus, heads down, smartphones grasped in both hands, thumbs busy. They slowly proceeded to some picnic tables as if they were medieval monks on their way to evening vespers. There they sat, still apparently unaware of their surroundings or each other.
Four hundred and forty acres of wilderness could not compete with their virtual world. What have we done to them?
We get a lot of spring school field trips at a wilderness park where I volunteer. I remember one group in particular. The students filed off the yellow bus, heads down, smartphones grasped in both hands, thumbs busy. They slowly proceeded to some picnic tables as if they were medieval monks on their way to evening vespers. There they sat, still apparently unaware of their surroundings or each other.
Four hundred and forty acres of wilderness could not compete with their virtual world. What have we done to them?
89
Who are the stupid leaders of these filed trips who do not collect all the cell phones in advance and lock them away?
A brilliant suggestion - the question is how to find the time to do anything these days. In my world, if I could snap my fingers and a bevy of servants would clean the house, cook, do the shopping, with others doing the mundane clerical work for all organizations and for our family business, there would be more time to read, more time to write, more time to think, more time to better plan and execute all business and volunteer activities and more time just to speak with dear friends who might need a little support or a hug. All these alleged time savers like computers and e-mails are also time thieves. Interesting-looking articles mingle with advertisements and with necessary messages, causing the need to spend hours deleting and reading on a daily basis. The social media takes time - to catch up with friends, open up Facebook and scroll for hours to see their pictures and read what they are doing. Sad, isn't it, that this is our now form of community. Public worship provides respite from the social media/computer madness and is relaxing as well as helpful. But, it is not free time to think, but is focusing on prayer and the community who is also praying. An hour a day for contemplation would be better, but at this time, with all else to do, an hour a week would be a miracle.
9
As a retired psychologist who taught Social Psychology at a university, the works of Thaler, Levitt and Dubner (Freakonimics) should be called "Social Psychological Principles applied to Economics. Their concepts have much more to do with Social Psychology than they do with Economics.
"...carving out an hour each week with no meetings, no phone calls, no email, no Twitter, no Facebook, no mobile alerts and no podcasts.
"Carve" ONE hour a WEEK? I would have thought one hour a DAY would be a minimum requirement. How sad a commentary on the American conception of self-worth and time.
Time to THINK...what an extraordinary idea...The rest of the world figured this out centuries ago. But then again, we do not think very well of the rest of the world. We have so much to be proud of... just step into the Oval Office.
"Carve" ONE hour a WEEK? I would have thought one hour a DAY would be a minimum requirement. How sad a commentary on the American conception of self-worth and time.
Time to THINK...what an extraordinary idea...The rest of the world figured this out centuries ago. But then again, we do not think very well of the rest of the world. We have so much to be proud of... just step into the Oval Office.
Quakers do this every week. They spend an hour in quiet reflection. It's amazing what peace you can find when you just sit still without anything to do. It quiets the mind. No pen or paper necessary.
15
"The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed".
YES!
I have been battling for years small-minded bosses who insist that time available to think is wasteful and unproductive. I never had a great idea that wasn't born in an environment of a little "underemployment". Constantly putting out fires will never lead to any innovation.
YES!
I have been battling for years small-minded bosses who insist that time available to think is wasteful and unproductive. I never had a great idea that wasn't born in an environment of a little "underemployment". Constantly putting out fires will never lead to any innovation.
All seems reasonable, but I'll be more interested in your reflections after you've been taking your Schultz Hour for a few years, and are past the momentary zeal of a convert. At that point: How has it worked for you? How has it informed the rest of your week? Have you been surprised by any problems or obstacles? Has the experience changed over time? Have you become better at using the time -- and/or better at relaxing about how you use it?
3
Bill, we'll look forward to your report, too!
If every hour is filled you feel important.
To all of Bill's questions: Yes, and yes and yes! An hour a day, early or late, depending on whether you're a lark or an owl, spent just thinking, whether you write it down, work out at the gym, take a walk or run, absolutely helps the brain quiet down, think through challenges or come up with innovative ideas for new opportunities. It absolutely IS time well spent. Truly, as a great one proclaimed, "...the unexamined life is not worth living."
Yes, solitary reflection time regenerates, makes us healthier, and able to see things more clearly. But one hour per week?? More like one hour per day.
14
An hour off-for the mind, a groovy idea. Been there-did that, do that. Mantraed away many hour and weeks. Cool. However your thesis that new business formation may have declined in the digital age because of digital disruption maybe somewhat off base. I think the major reason is that entrepreneurs going it alone have little access to health insurance for themselves or their putative employees. This keeps them tethered to the mother's milk of corporations.
Having been a self-employed artist most of my life I know how daunting having no insurance can be. The upside- it did leave me a lot of time to meditate on uncertainty.
Having been a self-employed artist most of my life I know how daunting having no insurance can be. The upside- it did leave me a lot of time to meditate on uncertainty.
7
The biggest mistake I made as a manager was "fixing" the small problems, while not addressing the larger problem. Solving larger problems, however, does require the time to both read, to talk, and then to think about the real problem. Such thinking brings coherence and continuity to the solutions you offer for small problems.
12
Yes, it's the difference between leadership and "managing" and between doing the right thing, rather than doing things right. Often you have to rethink what is the "right way" to do something - especially if it is proving not so right.
On the flip side, we have become addicted to our own stress hormones. I used to ask my "stressed-out" psychiatry patients to try a simple experiment to determine their possible stress addiction: sit quietly in a dimly lit, totally quiet room for five minutes. Try it. Stress addiction demands near constant self/other stimulation in order to push falling stress hormone levels back up and relieve uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms: irritability, rising anxiety, gastric distress, restlessness, racing mind, frustration/anger, etc. You may recognize these symptoms as identical to opiate withdrawal. A major stress hormone, though rarely mentioned by the "experts", is actually a whole array of endogenous opiates: endorphins, enkephlins, substance P, etc. Healthy living requires regular cycling of our stress response on a daily basis, otherwise the quiet stress hormone cortisol is slowly killing us. Learn stress management or die young. It's your choice. And, yes, slaves, including wage slaves, have no choice. Good luck! This old retired doctor is going for his daily walk.
In the legal profession, associates are expected to bill in excess of 2,000 hours annually. Since no one is 100 percent efficient, this can easily mean in office time of 2,600 hours. Accordingly, there is little time that can be put toward thinking about future client needs. But in 2013, when my own practice slowed down, it gave me many hours each week to think about what the issues that might face my client in the future, what other people were thinking about these issues, how my skills and experience aligned with these trends, and how to develop my skills in one area that I thought particularly promising. The result was that I pivoted into a new area and reinvented my career. All that is something that would not have happened if I had continued to log the expected number of hours each day that my employer had been demanding.
6
Surprisingly, the best side effect of having an Apple Watch is spending less time on the phone and Moore time with a free mind. Every person I've talked to with one says the same. You get a. I ration but not a distraction to do anything more than glance at a visual to dismiss it. And rarely even need to glance.
1
Now retired, after spending my working life in the pre cell/smart phone age, I don't understand the need to be in touch 20/7. Seeing people walking/driving talking/listening constantly to devices, I wonder when they have time to think.
Thinking about it, I'm thankful for the time I had walking to/from work thinking about issues at work, what I was going to do after or over the weekend or nothing at all. Makes me feel sorry for those who now live in such a hectic, stressful world. Yes, I enjoy having my phone/iPad for easy, quick communication but don't need them in hand 20/7.
Thinking about it, I'm thankful for the time I had walking to/from work thinking about issues at work, what I was going to do after or over the weekend or nothing at all. Makes me feel sorry for those who now live in such a hectic, stressful world. Yes, I enjoy having my phone/iPad for easy, quick communication but don't need them in hand 20/7.
12
Only an hour. Just the fact that it's an hour reminds me that there are only 24 hours in a day when makes me conscious of the time I'm spending on this activity. An hour a week? That's much less than is recommended for exercise!! It should be more like an hour a day or at least a half an hour a day. The time should be proportional to how busy we are and I believe an hour a week falls far short of what we need to "turn it off".
14
I am in research, and can attest to Dr Tversky's assertion. A little bit of time set aside each day - even 10-20 minutes - for just contemplation without distraction really helps in any sort of creative activity (also having the luxury of clear rules around work hours, sanctity of weekends and holidays helps).
6
I have no trouble letting my mind wander in any situation, but like many people I find two states especially conducive to free but fruitful thought:
1) walking
2) sitting in the bathtub
1) walking
2) sitting in the bathtub
1
For years, during our two week vacation to Cape Cod, I would take a 2 hour walk alone every day. By the end of vacation I always had a well-formulated plan for the next year. When "stuck" with a long drive alone, I still take advantage and ruminate on some issue that requires extensive thought and internal analysis. I guess I've been Schultzing for years.
The media, especially sources like Yahoo and CNN but also the NYTimes, could help us mightily by not hyping every drop of "news" it thinks it finds. I understand that having 29 "stories" scrolling across the top of our screen is a tested means of grabbing our eyeballs, to notice the ads screaming along the margins, but fault lies here as much as with social media time-wasters.
The media, especially sources like Yahoo and CNN but also the NYTimes, could help us mightily by not hyping every drop of "news" it thinks it finds. I understand that having 29 "stories" scrolling across the top of our screen is a tested means of grabbing our eyeballs, to notice the ads screaming along the margins, but fault lies here as much as with social media time-wasters.
4
See TED talk:
David Puttnam
Does the media have a "duty of care"?
David Puttnam
Does the media have a "duty of care"?
Where does The NY Times have 29 stories scrolling across our screen?!
You may have mixed up newspaper reading and TV news watching where there is a scrolling banner on some channels.
As to ads, get an ad blocker!
To reading stories, use Reader mode so that only the story is on the page.
It's really quite simple!
You may have mixed up newspaper reading and TV news watching where there is a scrolling banner on some channels.
As to ads, get an ad blocker!
To reading stories, use Reader mode so that only the story is on the page.
It's really quite simple!
1
I take long showers. The shower is where I think. Totally quiet. Free. What am I really trying to say? Messy ideas get sorted out. Surplus truths go away. A clear line of thought emerges. A few mental bullets capture the results. Then I scrub and shampoo and rush off.
6
Busyness: that state of constant distraction that allows people to avoid difficult realities and maintain self-deceptions. - Soren Kierkegaard
It should be acknowledged that being able to practice self-care by setting aside time for one's self is one mark of privilege in our society.
6
It is a mark of our crazy time that it seems you believe people should feel guilty for having this "privilege." Sorry, this is something poor people can and should do also. A walk in a local park is free. (at least for now)
"You waste years by not being able to waste hours.”
Very wise and succinct. Thought provoking.
Very wise and succinct. Thought provoking.
11
I like to tune out the world and empty my mind by reading The Times on line. Hey-ooooh!
Did he use this tactic when help W win the White House ? Or when he called for the release of the traitor pollard ?
I could care less what this guy does to stay sharp he is an embarrassment to America.
I could care less what this guy does to stay sharp he is an embarrassment to America.
1
I strongly agree with the Dali Lama that if people would simply be still for a time each day the world would be a much better place. Call it meditation, quiet contemplation, whatever, it works wonders. Thanks for your column.
46
96 with all his marbles – similar to Jimmy Carter, who is 92. I guess 90 has become the new 60. All people who have led sufficiently moderate lives and had the luck to inherit the right genes are blessed indeed. (And we all hope for news of continued remissions for President Carter).
George Shultz occasionally publishes op-eds in the Wall Street Journal (this is a fact that unfortunately needs to be brought to the attention of some Times readers); and, while he’s more moderate than I and I often doubt the actionability of some of his prescriptions, I’m always impressed by his clarity and his resolve to find common ground that allows movement forward – a concern that has always preoccupied me.
New-business formation has declined over the past fifteen years largely because of the artificial barriers to such formation that we have consciously erected to it, including excessive, strangling regulation and a Byzantine tax code – observations that Shultz undoubtedly would find convincing.
George Shultz occasionally publishes op-eds in the Wall Street Journal (this is a fact that unfortunately needs to be brought to the attention of some Times readers); and, while he’s more moderate than I and I often doubt the actionability of some of his prescriptions, I’m always impressed by his clarity and his resolve to find common ground that allows movement forward – a concern that has always preoccupied me.
New-business formation has declined over the past fifteen years largely because of the artificial barriers to such formation that we have consciously erected to it, including excessive, strangling regulation and a Byzantine tax code – observations that Shultz undoubtedly would find convincing.
8
But as a guy who came to adulthood before cellphones were available and LONG before “smartphones” became ubiquitous, I do marvel at the sight on our streets of EVERYONE constantly looking down at them. It used to be before the “scooper laws” that New Yorkers were famous for looking not up at the magnificent skyscapes as they walked but down, to avoid stepping into things – tourists who looked up at the buildings were immediately identifiable, largely because they were constantly stepping into things.
Today, everyone is conducting lives on their phones as they walk, as they dine in a restaurant, as they take care of business in restrooms. Lives may not be more frenetic than they were forty years ago and more, but they’re certainly more enabled and connected.
Not sure that a “Shultz Hour” is necessary to re-establish balance. Balance is a quality that needs to be interwoven into all our activities to be effective. My sense is that people always were excessively reactive to external stimuli and pressures, and never had the will or even the capacity to pause that extra second to address a given reality with poise. Holing up in an office for an hour to get off the high-speed treadmill and gather one’s sanity doesn’t make reactiveness during the other fifteen waking hours any more effective.
Today, everyone is conducting lives on their phones as they walk, as they dine in a restaurant, as they take care of business in restrooms. Lives may not be more frenetic than they were forty years ago and more, but they’re certainly more enabled and connected.
Not sure that a “Shultz Hour” is necessary to re-establish balance. Balance is a quality that needs to be interwoven into all our activities to be effective. My sense is that people always were excessively reactive to external stimuli and pressures, and never had the will or even the capacity to pause that extra second to address a given reality with poise. Holing up in an office for an hour to get off the high-speed treadmill and gather one’s sanity doesn’t make reactiveness during the other fifteen waking hours any more effective.
4
New business formation, in terms of creative entrepreneurs starting their own business, has also stalled because of the insanely high cost of health care. Writers and artists and other creatives--who are often a one-person army, have written eloquently about being able to strike out on their own, or remaining stuck in a field they are not enthusiastic about, because of the health care dilemma. John Green, Hank Green, Gwenda Bond, Libba Bray, and many others have all been there. So, affordable health care is a major factor in damping down creative output and new business creation. And the tax code that got rid of income averaging--a problem when a creative spends 5 years writing a novel, and then gets hit with a large advance, is designed to benefit the highest incomes.
1
My mentor told me the same thing, years ago. He said the most important time I put in was with the lights off, my feet up, thinking. The rest was busy work that had to be done.
21
When I was a visit hospice nurse in Boston, I went to see a patient who was having pain issues. When I arrived at the condo, her husband and adult children were all on either cellphones or their laptops. I rushed to see mom in a bed all by herself in a back bedroom. No one was paying attention. No one was sitting quietly by her side. After I got her pain under control, I met with the family and chided them a bit. Their answer? "Well, we ARE here, but we still have to work." Unfortunately, this was not an isolated case.
Here is the thing I have observed with technology; it is a convenient way to hide. To hide from the world, to disappear into a virtual world for an escape. Most people say they are "working" and "busy" but many are simply hiding. To sit on a bench with just your thoughts is too much for so many. And I know sitting in a hospital room or at the bedside of a sick loved one is complicated and hard to do. But do it anyway. Be there, fully engaged. Please. We need to re-teach the basics; being fully present, being aware of our surroundings, being cordial, being kind.
Here is the thing I have observed with technology; it is a convenient way to hide. To hide from the world, to disappear into a virtual world for an escape. Most people say they are "working" and "busy" but many are simply hiding. To sit on a bench with just your thoughts is too much for so many. And I know sitting in a hospital room or at the bedside of a sick loved one is complicated and hard to do. But do it anyway. Be there, fully engaged. Please. We need to re-teach the basics; being fully present, being aware of our surroundings, being cordial, being kind.
181
When my dad was gravely ill, I visited with him every day. It was peaceful, meditative even. I think we both had a sense of time's passage, and the simple pleasure of truly being with someone who knows and loves you. I will always be grateful for that time. Now sometimes on a clear evening, I look for Dad in the stars. On a nature walk I point out the color of the bay, or the hues of spring flowers-- to someone who is no longer with me, but who is in fact, always with me.
111
I love this. So perfectly stated.
I talk to my late father and mother as well.
I talk to my late father and mother as well.
8
Great advice. I work in the technology field and believe in many of the positive impacts of high tech, but I'll also admit that our culture is far too distracted by meaningless information. We need to spend more time actually thinking about whatever our mind wonders too and actually talking to other people - the art of meaningful conversation isdying. Another effective way to eliminate distractions is to disable new emails from flashing n the bottom of the screen when they arrive as well as any auto sounds for new texts, emails, etc. Bottom line, I will consider myself truly successful when I can throw out my phone
6
Living in the nano-second is not the same as living in the moment.
12
The smart phone is an enabler - and should be seen thus. To characterize it as the instigator of your obsessions is to abrogate responsibility.
Why take a note pad for your solitude? My smartphone takes dictation.
The first thing I did this morning was to look up whether "thou shalt not kill" was the fifth or sixth commandment because it might have been a plot point in the detective show I watched last night. It wasn't, but I learnt about the different enumerations of the commandments in different branches of Christian and Jewish readings. That is the access to, the pursuit of, knowledge which I carry in my pocket.
Your behavior is your own, don't blame the tools, embrace the potential.
Why take a note pad for your solitude? My smartphone takes dictation.
The first thing I did this morning was to look up whether "thou shalt not kill" was the fifth or sixth commandment because it might have been a plot point in the detective show I watched last night. It wasn't, but I learnt about the different enumerations of the commandments in different branches of Christian and Jewish readings. That is the access to, the pursuit of, knowledge which I carry in my pocket.
Your behavior is your own, don't blame the tools, embrace the potential.
12
Oh, how I agree. My "Shultz time" was two fold, one by running each day for 30 to 45 minutes, the other by going to my woodshop and building furniture. All to get away from my profession of a technologist where the number of hours required piled on each decade. Both activities had the desired effect, no technology, just me thinking.
7
One hour per WEEK? Be realistic. How many people work 16 hours a day 7 days per week?
2
I can actually feel the "relief" flood in when I put down my phone or close my laptop. Just looking out the window becomes a wonder of escape.
14
This is really a column on addiction.
Evidenced in part by near-universal acceptance of the oxymoron "smart phone".
And the technology that has turned most of us into slaves.
Evidenced in part by near-universal acceptance of the oxymoron "smart phone".
And the technology that has turned most of us into slaves.
12
My "Shultz Hour" is usually at the start of the day, with a four mile walk through a beautiful local park. I usually listen to good music and the basic serenity this provides has always helped solve problems or come up with more creative approaches to client or corporate program solutions. And it definitely improves my mood for the upcoming day.
11
sabbath services are an age old way of accomplishing your suggestion. But you still hear and see people's phones at sunday services.
2
Work load is infinite, life is finite. You do the math.
16
Take your dog for a long walk every day...and NEVER bring a phone.
14
Its truly awesome, I completely agree 100%.
3
My world includes frequent power outages, and no WIFI. These enforced no-tech times = reading a book, doing a little gardening, or talking to each other. If it goes on long enough it means a game of cards or Scrabble, making a pie, or walking the dog. No panic here! Just quiet times to step away from the internet.
10
This is interesting. I took a class on how the brain learns and there the psychologists discussed how the brain needs time when it's focus is diffused. That time is when the brain consolidates and reorganizes. Meditation works but running is when I get that time for my brain to wander. It is usually when I have the best insights.
7
One hour a week is too little - one hour a day of purposeless mental meandering is more like it
53
I get it if you're the Secretary of State but an hour a day is what we should practice. At some point in the day we need to shut down and enter a meditative state. The proletariet needs this more than the bourgeois due to the daily grind of working class existence. Menial labor tends to dull the mind and this combined with financial insecurity can truly destroy one's happiness. As a former long term restaurant worker, meditation was sometimes all I had.
16
This is called the weekly review in GTD.
2
I was just going to post about David Allen's work. A pivotal point for me in my professional life was reading Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity.
For those not familiar with David Allen....Don't let the title fool you...the idea is not to fill every minute with work, but rather to optimize one's time. Sometimes all you have the energy for is recharging your stapler. And his 'system' (better than any I've seen) is one that I've introduced to colleagues. I engaged David to speak to our executive and sr managers. He is an incredible speaker. All were inspired.
Unrelated....but the way that the brain processes information, it needs times of no-mind (however one practices that). The best way to solve a thorny issue is to put it away.
Ultimately, no-mind time....whatever we do to step away....creates context and perspective. Perspective is in short supply these days, and there are few things more valuable to cultivate.
For those not familiar with David Allen....Don't let the title fool you...the idea is not to fill every minute with work, but rather to optimize one's time. Sometimes all you have the energy for is recharging your stapler. And his 'system' (better than any I've seen) is one that I've introduced to colleagues. I engaged David to speak to our executive and sr managers. He is an incredible speaker. All were inspired.
Unrelated....but the way that the brain processes information, it needs times of no-mind (however one practices that). The best way to solve a thorny issue is to put it away.
Ultimately, no-mind time....whatever we do to step away....creates context and perspective. Perspective is in short supply these days, and there are few things more valuable to cultivate.
Thanks, Mr. Leonhardt, for this. The new wake-up protocol in our household has been established for us. We have a new puppy. We need neither an alarm clock nor a smart phone. (Yawn!)
10
If make time to wander and wonder...no pad, no pencil. That's enough for what matters to displace what doesn't.
4
If that phone is so darn smart why does it tend to make the people gazing into it to seem so darn stupid (i.e. oblivious to their surroundings)? Of course setting aside an hour a week for thinking isn't a terrible idea, but if it's really for only an hour a week, (as Mr Leonhardt surely knows being such a fine writer and deep thinker) forget about coming up with anything especially deep or interesting or personally useful. You might remember where you left your, uh...
7
I used to say, "I need to have a little time to 'go fishin.'" That meant going back in the woods by a small brook in New Hampshire.
Another good metaphor: "Take time to smell the roses."
These days, a really strong cup of coffee and NYT--and articles like this one work pretty well to get the thinking brain working.
Another good metaphor: "Take time to smell the roses."
These days, a really strong cup of coffee and NYT--and articles like this one work pretty well to get the thinking brain working.
7
Reading this...on my phone...during "down time".
Hmm, maybe I have to rethink this.
Hmm, maybe I have to rethink this.
13
or take a vacation to nature, perhaps faraway, like to Chile.
1
Please, he worked for one of our worst presidents, and he was as subservient to him as any Trump flunky.
Two words: Iran-Contra.
Two words: Iran-Contra.
4
Before the advent of "smart"phones and multiple social media sites, people actually took time to talk to each other. Time was that you would have a walk or a meal with another and talk softly and not constantly check your devices. These too were quiet times to share and ponder life.
Quiet time can be time alone. In prayer or mediation. But, one does not always needs to be alone. Some of my most warmest memories are when I stood fishing quietly with my father at a mountain lake. Many times we would not catch anything, other than weeds or a branch. We took in the peace and enjoyed the moment of just merely being with another and sharing a quiet hour or two.
Be that hour is taken alone or with another, we all need to have it. Especially in these turbulent and uncertain times.
Quiet time can be time alone. In prayer or mediation. But, one does not always needs to be alone. Some of my most warmest memories are when I stood fishing quietly with my father at a mountain lake. Many times we would not catch anything, other than weeds or a branch. We took in the peace and enjoyed the moment of just merely being with another and sharing a quiet hour or two.
Be that hour is taken alone or with another, we all need to have it. Especially in these turbulent and uncertain times.
107
Thank you. Very enjoyable article and I heartily agree with the advice at the end.
I don't carve out an hour a week. But I make a point of carving out 15-20 minutes each day. Just today I was sitting in my favorite cafe. The waitress was a bit overwhelmed and rushing about. She dropped and broke a cup, which of course meant she had to stop and clean up, putting herself even further behind.
It reminded me of something I've learned managing teams. People rushing and working in a stressful way are usually much less productive than those whose work is organized and their time well planned. For this reason, though I might have bosses breathing down MY neck, I never passed that stress along.
To Paul, who comments that the luxury of a few minutes is only the privilege of the bourgeois class, I disagree. It's not really a question of minutes on a clock face. It's a matter of practical education in time management and mental discipline. Learning it and doing it is what lifts people up a notch from wherever they start. It's what moves a minimum wage worker flipping burgers in a fast food joint to becoming manager of the same joint. It's what moved me as a desk bound engineer into upper management.
I don't carve out an hour a week. But I make a point of carving out 15-20 minutes each day. Just today I was sitting in my favorite cafe. The waitress was a bit overwhelmed and rushing about. She dropped and broke a cup, which of course meant she had to stop and clean up, putting herself even further behind.
It reminded me of something I've learned managing teams. People rushing and working in a stressful way are usually much less productive than those whose work is organized and their time well planned. For this reason, though I might have bosses breathing down MY neck, I never passed that stress along.
To Paul, who comments that the luxury of a few minutes is only the privilege of the bourgeois class, I disagree. It's not really a question of minutes on a clock face. It's a matter of practical education in time management and mental discipline. Learning it and doing it is what lifts people up a notch from wherever they start. It's what moves a minimum wage worker flipping burgers in a fast food joint to becoming manager of the same joint. It's what moved me as a desk bound engineer into upper management.
51
I'd like to see you practicing your time management skill waiting tables in a busy cafe.
1
So I'm more curious as to why it has become such a badge of honor to be stressed and too busy all the time. Does this state enable those who broadcast their stress and busyness to others allow them to feel needed, useful, successful or something else? I'm curious about this as I see it all around me and I don't even live in a place such as NYC or DC where one would assume it would be prevalent.
I have one neighbor who for the years I've known her always tells me how many hours she is working and how she has no time for anything whenever I run into her. Others do the same. Is this somehow making them feel successful? Is it a way they can withdraw from anyone or anything they don't want to deal with as they are "too busy"? I have wondered about this; I avoid people like this as much as possible. It doesn't seem to be a pleasant way to live but it must be meeting some need they have or why would they do it?
Is the state of "non-busyness" or being "lazy" seen as a poor character trait? Is allowing time to talk with others, drink another cup of coffee, read a good book on a porch swing,etc. somehow a declaration that one isn't much needed or else there would be no time to do these things?
I have one neighbor who for the years I've known her always tells me how many hours she is working and how she has no time for anything whenever I run into her. Others do the same. Is this somehow making them feel successful? Is it a way they can withdraw from anyone or anything they don't want to deal with as they are "too busy"? I have wondered about this; I avoid people like this as much as possible. It doesn't seem to be a pleasant way to live but it must be meeting some need they have or why would they do it?
Is the state of "non-busyness" or being "lazy" seen as a poor character trait? Is allowing time to talk with others, drink another cup of coffee, read a good book on a porch swing,etc. somehow a declaration that one isn't much needed or else there would be no time to do these things?
169
Yes! Never did relate to all those people who see "busyness" as a badge of honor.
2
I agree, with these extra reflections: to do this relaxing, one needs to be either able to afford it or supported by someone else or have a low-key job or no job and be able to live with that...and someone else makes the money....OR relinquish the stuff, the house, the location in order to afford a more relaxed way of life. In other words, live more simply. Then again, what if you have children with special needs or who are in a school system they love that is expensive? What about teens and cars and on and on and on? Have to make hard choices about this. And as another respondent observed, what if you have to have 3-6 part-time jobs for a couple, with children? VT is lovely, verdant, and liberal, but many are stuck or choose to be in towns, cities where they have invested their lives....and must be able to afford that. More complicated than this writer makes out.
Speaking strictly for me: I don't *want* to have no time for friends, and I don't feel (at all) indispensable. But I worry that if I don't hustle constantly, my performance reviews will suffer. And my employer is very, very good at adding to my workload, with everything vitally important and due yesterday. And I can't afford to buy a house near my job, so I commute 25 miles one way, sometimes in rush hour. And I'm *lucky.* My job pays well enough that I only have to have one, and I get lots of vacation time (which I use to catch up on work. Can't have everything.)
This culture's obsession with "work" and, as Leonhardt describes it, "busyness," is a terrible cancer that afflicts nearly everything we do. I believe its roots are fundamentally religious, stemming from the old Protestant "work ethic."
In America, "hard work" is seen by millions as the coin of salvation. Therefore, many people work very hard, to the detriment of their families, their health—traditional office environments make people unhealthy and drive health care costs up—and their own happiness and wellbeing. Yet virtually everybody wants to be *seen* as working harder than everyone else, hence boasting about sending work emails from the delivery room.
On the flip side, the political divide now consists, partly, of those who praise themselves for "hard work" on one side insisting that "those people" on the other side are "lazy" and therefore don't "deserve" what they do. Hence the truly ugly notion among approximately half the country that the other half deserves, literally, to die before the "virtuous" and "hard working" should have to pay a penny more in taxes.
To jack up the irony a bit, let's not forget that the dream of most Americans is to "make it big" ... so they don't *have* to work in some soul-sucking, body-killing busywork job.
Meanwhile, through automation, globalization, the gradual disintegration of private pensions, and the coming dissolution of the social safety net, there will be more and more people than ever who would work, but cannot find it.
In America, "hard work" is seen by millions as the coin of salvation. Therefore, many people work very hard, to the detriment of their families, their health—traditional office environments make people unhealthy and drive health care costs up—and their own happiness and wellbeing. Yet virtually everybody wants to be *seen* as working harder than everyone else, hence boasting about sending work emails from the delivery room.
On the flip side, the political divide now consists, partly, of those who praise themselves for "hard work" on one side insisting that "those people" on the other side are "lazy" and therefore don't "deserve" what they do. Hence the truly ugly notion among approximately half the country that the other half deserves, literally, to die before the "virtuous" and "hard working" should have to pay a penny more in taxes.
To jack up the irony a bit, let's not forget that the dream of most Americans is to "make it big" ... so they don't *have* to work in some soul-sucking, body-killing busywork job.
Meanwhile, through automation, globalization, the gradual disintegration of private pensions, and the coming dissolution of the social safety net, there will be more and more people than ever who would work, but cannot find it.
109
Hard work is great if it is fulfilling, but not if it's mindless, meaningless, spiritually destructive,
You think that "the dream of most Americans is to 'make it big' ... so they don't *have* to work in some soul-sucking, body-killing busywork job." That may be your goal but it was never mine nor is it the goal of most people I know, who are not looking to "make it big." What they want is to make a decent living through satisfying work, which they know will invariably have some boring busywork aspects.
Those of us in the bourgeois class can probably afford this luxury. But what about the working poor patching together 2 jobs plus caring for the kids. They probably need a daydream more than we do. So yeah, find time to "Shultz" but remember those who can't.
282
Those working poor cannot watch an hour less TV per week? The only working poor I've known who watch little or no TV are artists and craftspeople, as well as those living the day-to-day existence of the homeless and migrant farm workers.
2
Seriously. And I am chuckling at some of the responses and article observations, such as the decline in small business growth. That's not due to an inability to dream; it's due to small business lending being down 40%.
I recently polled a random sample of my facebook friends. With the exception of one person, a full-time mom with a part time job, everyone, from church musician to IT professional, was pulling an average of 55 hours a week. None of us are addicted to "busyness"--we just want to keep our jobs, and those are the hours our companies are demanding of us.
The only real downtime I get is during my 4-stop subway ride and on Sunday mornings, when I wake my exhausted self up a little early to listen for the birds. I don't allow myself to think during that time. I wish I had the energy to let myself dream.
I recently polled a random sample of my facebook friends. With the exception of one person, a full-time mom with a part time job, everyone, from church musician to IT professional, was pulling an average of 55 hours a week. None of us are addicted to "busyness"--we just want to keep our jobs, and those are the hours our companies are demanding of us.
The only real downtime I get is during my 4-stop subway ride and on Sunday mornings, when I wake my exhausted self up a little early to listen for the birds. I don't allow myself to think during that time. I wish I had the energy to let myself dream.
Your sensitivity to those patching together multiple jobs is commendable. But a Schultz hour can be had over a quiet lunch break, sitting and reflecting internally while riding the bus or subway, meditating during church service, even while walking down the street.
3
My best "Shultz time" is spent walking/hiking alone in the woods. With no need for conversation other than with myself and nature, and it is when I have found myself most able to let the mind wander and come up with new and creative ideas or approaches to problems. I will have to follow Mr. Shultz's model of carrying a pencil and pad of paper with me to write stuff down as I tend to forget the details once I return to the busy world. Try it, you'll like it.
155
Walking in the woods without attending to electronic gadgets is wonderful but please take a turned-off but fully charged cellphone with you so you can call someone if you get lost, take severe fall or otherwise need help.
Steven Covey also writes of this albeit indirectly in describing activity on a 2x2 matrix in his 7 Habits book. He categorizes activity as important or unimportant against urgent and non-urgent and encourages us to work to increase our share of time in his quadrant IV (important x non-urgent) with activities like planning and goal setting.
In my professional life, I had the amazing experience of a female patient making a phone call while I was in the midst of an internal pelvic exam. I know some women view this examination as something from which they need to dissociate themselves, often because of prior traumatic events, but hers was a stunning behavior to me at the time and in retrospect of being too busy.
In my professional life, I had the amazing experience of a female patient making a phone call while I was in the midst of an internal pelvic exam. I know some women view this examination as something from which they need to dissociate themselves, often because of prior traumatic events, but hers was a stunning behavior to me at the time and in retrospect of being too busy.
10
As the author and spiritual guide Eckhart Tolle has pointed out, most people treat the present moment as an obstacle, a means to an end or as an enemy. Add the distractive/addictive nature of modern technology and it doesn't seem a wonder that the rate of small business start ups has declined or why there are no modern day Tolstoys, Joyces or Hemmingways.
32
Whenever I can I take a half-hour run. I wish I had stamina for the hour. I find that a task-negative mode.
I don't reflect on large issues, but I do end up with fresh ideas for my office challenges.
PS. No ear buds allowed. Nor pen :)
I don't reflect on large issues, but I do end up with fresh ideas for my office challenges.
PS. No ear buds allowed. Nor pen :)
19
Today, David Brooks yearns for positive and meaningful tribal acceptance while David Leonhardt seeks solace in taking the time for individual contemplation and healing. So humans just want to be human. Why do we keep having to justify these things to ourselves?
41
It just takes 10-20 mins each morning and night to simply put down your baggage and be still. Once a week is just not enough especially in these days of device addiction and multi tasking and social media bombardment.
Recently at a school I observed mindfulness meditation for 5 mins before the start of the class. The students did a body scan relaxing deeper and deeper into the present moment. Apparently the students love this so much they gave downloaded apps so they can practice it in the car when their mom is driving them to places, play dates, activities etc. These young students are introducing their parents to an ancient practice that is free, doesn't need for you to go someplace be someplace, it's available 24/7 because it's as close to you as your breath and awareness.
Recently at a school I observed mindfulness meditation for 5 mins before the start of the class. The students did a body scan relaxing deeper and deeper into the present moment. Apparently the students love this so much they gave downloaded apps so they can practice it in the car when their mom is driving them to places, play dates, activities etc. These young students are introducing their parents to an ancient practice that is free, doesn't need for you to go someplace be someplace, it's available 24/7 because it's as close to you as your breath and awareness.
41
There are 168 hours in each week. Subtract one for a 'Shultz Hour'. We're still "too busy" for 167 hours (including sleep). I'd suggest we try to incorporate a little more Shultz time.
19
A day without a Shultz hour is a day lost. The hour can happen while journaling in the dark of the morning, swimming laps, practicing yoga, drawing, gardening, or even just driving to work. Those are the hours that make it possible to get through whatever stuff happens during the rest of the day.
15
People can't understand why I leave my phone in the car when I go to the gym. I'll askthem read this article - if they have the time.
18
I do this and highly recommend the habit. It will do wonders for your focus and perspective.
The beauty of this idea lies in the fact that anyone can find an hour a week, no matter how grueling their daily grind may be.
There are 168 hours in a week. If you can't find a wasted hour in that 168 hours, you aren't looking hard enough!
The beauty of this idea lies in the fact that anyone can find an hour a week, no matter how grueling their daily grind may be.
There are 168 hours in a week. If you can't find a wasted hour in that 168 hours, you aren't looking hard enough!
14
But that would cut into show-watching time....
The Jews had this idea long ago. The period of no meetings, no phone calls, no work was to last not an hour but an entire day. It's called Shabbat.
166
Your breath doesn't have a religion. It is free. It does not need a time place because it's with you all the time. If you simply pay attention to your breath or say I am, I am aware, you slip into the present moment which is exactly what the name suggests, a present, a gift. Neither the Jews nor other ancients have a patent over these techniques because they came with us as part of being sentient aware beings, if only we paid "attention".
4
I don't know how many people remember this, but there was a time when retail stores were closed on Sunday - the Christian version of the Jewish Sabbath. The downfall of the quiet time started then, when the stores were all open, every day of the week, even though people didn't have more money to spend. Sunday used to seem deadly dull when I was a child, even though we would never have gone to a store if they were open, but I look back at it and feel it was a huge loss for the quiet time it offered.
4
Hey look, right there in Leviticus, right near the demonization of homosexuality, and the permission to sell your daughter into concubinage, there is the Bible advocating the penalty for work on the Sabbath being...death. Nobody goes THERE anymore, do they?
1
Shultz? I thought he said Schlitz! Now....that would be a happy hour!
49
As as I like to say, and endeavor to practice, "We are human beings, not human doings."
17
Oh, now that I´m almost retired, it is too late to correct the ship of state, the course of action taken by my boss. All we needed over 15 years was about 1 hour to right the ship of state, reaffirm the direction he wanted to take. "Just tell me what your dream is, I´m not a mind reader."
5
In my opinion, a lot of the evil in the US goes back to Reagan. Yes, reflection is a good thing, but I wouldn’t want to know what Schultz reflected on. Deregulation? Union busting? How to destroy the environment? How to feed the industrial complex at the expense of the people? How to sell trickle-down economics?
Where I live the primary aim of meditation is enlightenment. I know monks I would like to name your hour for, but not Shultz.
Where I live the primary aim of meditation is enlightenment. I know monks I would like to name your hour for, but not Shultz.
209
Exactly. I have no wish at all to emulate anyone who was cozy with Ronald Reagan. That charming picture of two oligarchs planning one more way to rip off little people as they take in the lake breezes makes me sick.
90
Maybe Schultz needed something like a cell phone to distract him from coming up with destructive and harmful ideas? People like him are dangerous when they think.
1
Ah, George Shultz, that remaining vestige of the anointed Republican saint Ronnie. We just passed through Dixon, Illinois the other day when I remarked that it was a pilgrimage place for the devout trickle-down believers. Forgive me for a cynical reaction but Shultz is perhaps emblematic of my favorite cliche, that if the good die young, look to the ancient among us for exemplars of its opposite...
47
While many creative types have written books and built businesses on the benefits of journaling and meditation (Julia Cameron is one of the most notable), a relatively newer book called "Deep Work" by Cal Newport, a computer scientist (yes, the irony amuses) at Georgetown, details numerous benefits and three key methods of channeling Deep Work, including becoming a hermit for even an hour a day. Probably the most practical, which I recommend to my MBA students and others who must engage at work or with family, is the so-called "journalist" mode: engage, engage, engage to compile all the info necessary to do our jobs or meet our responsibilities, but at some point, go off and assess, analyze and summarize - the way a journalist does with a story. If a written journal works, all the better. I have journaled for work and personal reflection for nearly 25 years, not every day, but especially when I'm focused on problem/solution issues. Occasionally, I go back and review journal entries, and usually at the end of the year. It renews my faith in the adage, "write it down, make it happen" - the title of another book I have loved and recommended to students.
17
I came here to the comment section to mention Cal Newport's Deep Work as a great option for those nodding along to the points in this column, and I am very pleased to see another reader beat me to it!
I think it's pretty easy to decry how carrying smartphones enable is to be "always on" or develop a "fear of missing out" (FOMO). It takes a few more Shultz hours to offer original thinking on what to do about it, and Newport's book offers one knowledge worker's take on how to generate higher quality, more meaningful knowledge.
I think it's pretty easy to decry how carrying smartphones enable is to be "always on" or develop a "fear of missing out" (FOMO). It takes a few more Shultz hours to offer original thinking on what to do about it, and Newport's book offers one knowledge worker's take on how to generate higher quality, more meaningful knowledge.
5
Thoughtful reflection is essential to menthal health and sound
decision making
The current occupant of the Oval OFfice is not reflective or
thoughtful. He is not unpredictiable he is incoherent
He has no credibility and his word is worthless. the media
has to stop pretending otherwise.
decision making
The current occupant of the Oval OFfice is not reflective or
thoughtful. He is not unpredictiable he is incoherent
He has no credibility and his word is worthless. the media
has to stop pretending otherwise.
74
When I try to imagine Trump engaging in an hour of quiet reflection I can only laugh. Or cry.
8
For a Schultz hour please think about the sergeant in Hogan's Heroes engaged in quiet contemplation.
12
To some, maybe those folks working in the financial sector, and especially the people currently occupying the White House, reflection might be considered a sign of weakness. I haven't seen much reflection out of the WH on anything they've done other than to say whatever it was, it was done to perfection.
40
I consider reading newspapers and occasionally commenting on an article or op-ed as quiet time, instead of working and moving forward on churning out more of what I have churned out for decades to move up the professional ladder.
This may not be "quiet time" with a pencil and paper, but it is far enough afield from my professional life to give my brain a chance to relax on seemingly irrelevant matters.
My compliments to Mr. Shultz: "dif-tor heh smusma", as they say in Vulcan (= Live long and prosper).
This may not be "quiet time" with a pencil and paper, but it is far enough afield from my professional life to give my brain a chance to relax on seemingly irrelevant matters.
My compliments to Mr. Shultz: "dif-tor heh smusma", as they say in Vulcan (= Live long and prosper).
9
Each long walk yields one immortal thought.
60
And sore feet.
1
The 19th-century hymn comes to mind: "Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care." I just looked it up: its words were composed by William W. Walford, a blind minister of England who had considerably more time to think than we harried moderns do. Like Homer, he composed his hymn in his head and recited it; someone else later wrote it down. It's hard not to be envious.
28
The only problem with this article is to limit it to a "Shultz hour." Meditation courses teach us to take that time every day. It need not be an hour, but doing so is a strong habit for grounding ones self in the more important.
57
How would Donald Trump spend a Schultz hour,
Where money-free moments are sour?
With no Tweet replete
No golf ball to meet,
And each of the seconds is dour.
Where money-free moments are sour?
With no Tweet replete
No golf ball to meet,
And each of the seconds is dour.
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Good one Larry!
1
He would use his executive powers
to make someone else stop and smell flowers.
When it comes to he,
It's all about "me",
Whilst wasting the taxpayers' hours.
to make someone else stop and smell flowers.
When it comes to he,
It's all about "me",
Whilst wasting the taxpayers' hours.
1
Larry, glad you moved from NY to MA!
1
Tom Friedman's "Thank You for Being Late" makes that very point at the outset, but certainly makes broader points about the heretofore unknown implications of "smart technology" and its extraordinary power to expand, amplify and deepen an individual's life experiences-- broadening and adding resonant understandings and higher levels of thinking and creating. I "get" all the negativity that is intrinsically associated with "the super computer" in my pocket, but at my advanced age, I use it, it amplifies my expressional abilities to think and write, and it has provided me with extraordinary opportunities to research and learn every day. Yes, I'm much more productive in the work place, and I'm having a much better time being there as well thanks to technology.
7
Some of my best ideas have come when I'm on my morning walk. I don't listen to music so it forces me to spend some quality time just thinking about whatever pops into my head. Our Victorian ancestors called it their daily constitutional. Not a bad way to start the day.
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