“Buddhist monks seem to live simple lives of tranquility and peace, unfettered by the trappings of modern life.“
Service and prayer ensure monks live harmonious lives, dedicated to helping others in order to help themselves achieve enlightenment. While it might seem a bit of a stretch that a time tracking app can help you achieve Zen, we beg to differ, and here’s why.
Less is more…
Aware that distractions mess with his Zen, a monk lives mindfully. He’s not running from task to task like us mere mortals. If anyone asks us how we are, we usually respond: busy! But busy doesn’t necessarily mean productive, especially in business. You can have a million things on the go, an endless to-do list, but how often do you feel like you are achieving absolutely nothing? Contrary to popular belief, multi-tasking is not an efficient way to work. In fact, it’s counter-productive, and makes you more stressed, less Zen. Implementing a time tracking application like Traqq is an effective way to manage your time and that of your staff or project team. It’s simple to use and allows you to do more with much, much less.
Do only what is necessary…
A monk has a streamlined life: he maintains only the necessities. He has committed to a life of service without the distractions and consumerism of modern living. While our mobile devices are now considered essential and always on, a monk doesn’t care about how many Instagram likes he has, or whether something he said has been retweeted. He doesn’t care about photographing his food. He does only that which is necessary, and we can all learn from that. Eliminate the unnecessary, including all those notifications that have us salivating like Pavlov’s dog, to focus on the essence of life well lived. Traqq has smart alerts and notifications, which helps you focus on only that which is necessary.
Devote time to certain things…
Monks designate certain times for their daily activities. Meditation, prayer, bathing, eating and work happen at set times of the day. Routines build habits, and habits allow for automation. Automation allows the brain to space for higher order thinking. Any activity that you consider important should have time set aside and scheduled. And contrary to popular belief, a structured day frees up more time. And in the business world, time is money. With Traqq, you can set up reminders to schedule your time and activities — and that of your staff. Traqq’s reminders and alerts will ensure you stay on track and focus your time effectively.
Focus on one thing…
When a monk is meditating, he is not checking his email or Facebook Page comments. He is consumed with doing one thing, doing this one thing well and doing it completely. This is good practice to increase productivity. Finish one task or activity before starting the next one. If you believe your team — or your company, or even yourself —can improve their productivity, you can easily and ethically monitor activities with Traqq, and reward your high performers and manage staff who aren’t performing as expected.
Simplify your life…
Buddhist monks live uncomplicated, simple lives. Eat, pray, meditate. They do only what is essential, and eliminate what is not, to ensure their Zen. Modern life has become complicated, especially when running a business, irrespective of whether you are a freelancer, small enterprise or a multi-national company. Streamlining processes, systems and operations will help allow you to focus on what is important and necessary. This includes time tracking. You don’t need a multitude of fancy spreadsheets and invoice systems and monitoring applications when you can do all this with one application. Traqq is simple, yet powerful, and frees up your time so you can focus on what is important: running your business.
Last word
Life is tough enough, but running a business doesn’t need to be if you have the right tools. If you’re a solopreneur working on a number of different projects for clients, or a project manager managing a multi-national team across different time zones, you need to be able to track time spent simply and effectively, so you can bill correctly. After all time is money, right? And without money, you and your business suffers.
Traqq is a time tracking application that you can use to monitor and track your tasks, activities and hours. With Traqq, you can track your tasks, and activities including hours. And if you’re managing employees, you can easily monitor the productivity of your staff with online timesheets, and build in rewards to incentivise your team.
