Is your BlackBerry really helping you live a more efficient life? Author Karen Salmansohn explains why you need to spend less time finishing your to-do list and more time doing what matters to you most.
True story. Lately I have been finding myself cutting down on the massive amounts of coffee I love to drink, not for health reasons or to cut back on caffeine, but due to time management issues. These days, I often go from one conference call to another, then head from one meeting to another, and I barely have time to pee.

It seems every morning I wake up to face a list of 20 things to do, with time only to do 10, and somehow I always wind up squooshing in 30.

My life often reminds me of the society in Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451, where you must drive over 55 mph so you cannot see the world around you clearly. In this blurry, fast-paced world, porches have been banned, so you don't have a place to sit and feel what you may sit and feel. And books have been burned, so you cannot be inspired to think deeply.

Unfortunately, I barely have time to sit, feel and think deeply. I know, I know, I need to get better at time management, balance, relaxation and just plain old sitting—especially since I'm a best-selling author of books about happiness. Plus, to reveal an unknown factoid about myself: I'm also the person who invented the word "multitasking." Yup, that was me. (If only I'd thrown a little TM on my invention, I'd be a very rich woman today!)

Our world has truly sped up since "multitasking" hit the scene, along with supposed time-saving inventions like the Internet, cell phones and BlackBerrys, oh my! Highly ironic, huh? These time-saving devices have become our time-gobbling devices instead.

How to make the most of your time

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