“I need a little timer,” I said to Earl, not explaining why in full detail. “Something cute too.”
“I’m on it,” he said a couple days ago as he went off on his errands. Sure enough, when he returned he had a timer for me. “It’s a gift,” he said. “And, if you don’t like this one, there are other models.”
I lifted an attractive box from a fancy bag and then opened the box to reveal a ceramic head of garlic. There were numbers around its middle. When I turned the top to the right while holding the bottom, an arrow pointed to the particular number of minutes and began counting down. Brrrrrrrrg, it said on reaching zero.
I’d forgotten to tell Earl that I didn’t want the timer for kitchen use; rather, I had a new idea about how to work more effectively on the various projects I’m involved in and the timer was for my office. Also a garlic wasn’t particularly what I had in mind when I said, “Something cute too!” Yet, it appealed to me more than the lemon and red pepper that Earl said were my other options.
Garlic has the reputation for warding off evil spirits. According to one web site I checked, “Garlic was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, chewed by Greek Olympian athletes, and thought to be essential for keeping vampires at bay! It is also good for zapping bacteria, keeping your heart healthy, warding off coughs and colds . . .”
If it can do all that and help me be more effective too, what did I have to lose?
So I put my timer to use. When I wanted to work for a full hour on a particular project I set the garlic to sixty minutes. In that time, I didn’t answer phone calls or check emails or otherwise become distracted. In the past, I would have stopped what I was doing to attend to the interruption. With the garlic, I completed the hour first.
In the couple days since I’ve had my timer, I’ve become more productive. I’m more focused on the task at hand. I finish one thing before turning to another; and I’m not glancing at my watch anymore. Instead, I just wait for the garlic to ring.
In fact, this experiment has been so successful that – if it continues to work — I’m thinking of writing a book called Time Management through Garlic.
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