A Minute to Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busyness, and Do Your Best Work

The American workforce is burned out. We are constantly checking email before bed and always worried about getting work done. Creativity and innovation wither before the false god of busyness, and family time is constantly corrupted by the siren call of our smart phones. We’re all running at an insane pace and the solution doesn’t involve 4:00 a.m. alarms or drinking gritty green shakes instead of actual food. We also don’t need more productivity advice that turns our lives into a game of unwinnable Tetris. What we’re lacking is an essential missing element—“WhiteSpace”—that when inserted back into our days, changes the very nature of work. WhiteSpace is the open time, the stepping back, the strategic pause; it’s the oxygen that allows our efforts to catch fire. It gives us room to innovate, to strategize, to reflect, to recuperate, and, to think. It has the power to radically--and simply--reinvent the way we approach work in this maxed-out 21st-century world. And never before have we needed it more. We race along daily in a trance of false productivity, maniacally checking off boxes while uncertain of each task’s relevance. We’re constantly behind the curve, dousing fires everywhere. But finding time to solve this problem of overwhelm seems impossible as we are too busy to become less busy. And our 2 a.m. insomnia provides the only unscheduled thinking time of the day. We need to change this paradigm. And we can do it by guiding people to rediscover and then reinsert WhiteSpace back into their work and lives. Juliet Funt is redefining productivity in WhiteSpace. The techniques of WhiteSpace, which are so accessible and easy to practice that they quickly become a habit. WhiteSpace will shine a light on our resigned acceptance of low-value tasks at work and the relentless barrage of emails, meetings, slide decks, reports, and paperwork that fall like a daily avalanche on most professionals. Funt will highlight the resulting financial costs (one million dollars annually for every fifty employees, according to client research), and the debilitating drag on our experience of work. Using research and client stories, Funt will show readers how to reinvent their busy lives and add creativity and zen back into their lives. Read Less