What is the difference between a Zen master and a pack rat?

A pack rat is someone who holds on to everything and uses nothing.

A Zen master is someone who uses everything and holds on to nothing.

Big difference!

One of the best time management insights is that this moment passes, as does the next, and the next.

If you can do the most with each one, that's ideal. But this means you're constantly embracing and letting go, embracing and letting go, and it's not easy to do.

We get caught up in the past, dwelling on unsatisfactory experiences, and untidy conclusions. We worry about the future.

Either way, we sacrifice the present.

The key is to use everything around us, in us, and every present moment.

For example, earlier this morning, I awoke because I was thinking about a client who is late in paying his bill.

Catching myself, I realized my sleep time was over! By trying to get BACK to sleep, I was trying to go backwards in time, which is impossible.

Because it was 4:45 in the morning, it was too early to call him, and ask him what's going on. But I knew also, that it would be an utter waste to worry about whether he'll stiff me on the payment.

So, I asked, what can I do, now, to address this issue in the most constructive, satisfying way?

Immediately, I turned on the computer and wrote an article: "The Deal Is Not Made Until The Money Is Paid!”

Doing this made me feel good, and I also felt that I addressed my problem, which is not the unpaid account. The problem is the worry about it, and the potential for wasting the present by chasing money from the past, which may or may not be paid in the future!

No moment has to be considered a waste, if we are fully in the here and now to embrace it and let it go, and keep doing what's situationally appropriate.