What a treat to stumble across Merlin Mann’s collection of Mindfulness entries over at 43F.

Mindfulness — being fully aware of, and involved, in the present moment — relates directly to the GTD metaphor “mind like water,” where one’s response to any situation is exactly appropriate to the event. In a sense, it’s a direct outcome of relieving your mind of all the mental “stuff” you accumulate — the constant parade of thoughts about that which is not occurring right now. When you’re being pulled away from the present by a nagging reminder of something you oughtta be doing, your ability to understand, process, and act on the current moment is seriously compromised.

The importance of fully experiencing what “now” is has, of course, been around waaaay longer than any management consultant’s personal productivity methodology. Shamatha ["peaceful abiding"] meditation predates the Buddha of 2500 years ago; the technique essentially involves maintaining awareness on the breath, acknowledging thoughts as they occur, and simply returning to the breath. As you proceed to work more with the technique, it becomes easier to see that these thoughts — this “stuff” — are merely a game of distraction in your mind. Release the thoughts, capture the next actions, and the results are akin.

Recommended reading: Awake at Work, by Michael Carroll, brings mindfulness to the reality of business. Taking historical teachings from the Shambhala lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, here’s an accessible read that offers up a strategy of compassion and awareness in the real world of work, which you and I are living in exactly now.