Get the ball rolling; then go play some jazz

THAT'S MEN:Different interpretations of the same concept

PROF PETER O’Brien was a jazz pianist who I met when I worked in a PR agency at the start of my career. He was also a man from whom I learned a valuable organisational principle which I think is worth knowing.

We were both unlikely people in the jobs we fetched up in. I was shy and afraid of journalists and avoided talking to them, a real handicap in public relations, let me tell you.

Peter was primarily interested in jazz and handled only a single, building society account which the agency knew would go with him if he left. That was his trump card.

Peter did not put in long hours and this drew the admiration of his colleagues. One afternoon, hoping for a detailed outline of how to make my life easier, I asked Peter how he managed to devise and run advertising campaigns and events for one of the State’s biggest building societies while appearing to do very little work.

The secret, he explained, was this (and here he paused for dramatic effect): “Get the ball rolling.”

He repeated this wisdom several times: “Get the ball rolling.”

Once you’d got the ball rolling, he explained, people left you alone and you could get on with what mattered to you.

I thought this excellent advice which unfortunately I could not follow because I was so junior that when I got the ball rolling, I had to roll it all the way to the end of the line by myself.

Peter is no longer with us but his image in my mind is indelibly linked to that mantra. If his headstone had carved into it the words “Get the ball rolling” it would be entirely appropriate.

More recently I came across a Buddhist concept of time management linked to a secular idea of karma. This holds that all present actions have future consequences so if you want the future to be a good experience for you, then pay attention to what you are doing and thinking today. The concept was summed up in the phrase “Be kind to your future self.”

If I have to take a trip abroad in six weeks’ time, then booking flights and hotels now is being kind to that future self who would otherwise be running around in a frenzy at the last minute trying to get done that which could have been done ages ago and at a lower cost too.

If I have to make a presentation in six weeks’ time, then working on it now is being kind to the self who would otherwise have to stay up until two in the morning before the presentation cobbling it together. You get the idea.

In a sense, it’s about living in quadrant two. The author Stephen Covey suggests we divide our activities and our to-do lists into four quadrants.

In the first quadrant are those things which are urgent and important. Getting money into the bank to meet that direct debit which is going to hit tomorrow would be an example.

In the second quadrant are tasks that are important but not urgent. Preparing for the presentation in six weeks’ time falls into that quadrant; so would a routine health check-up.

In the third quadrant are demands and activities that are urgent but not important: checking your email every time your phone bleeps, for example.

The fourth quadrant contains what is neither urgent nor important: most tweeting, I think, might justifiably be shoved into that quadrant.

Covey urges us to spend as much of our time as we can in quadrant two, dealing with what is important but not yet urgent. That’s what being kind to our future selves means.

In the Tao Te Ching, the Chinese sage Lao Tzu suggests we should solve problems before they exist. Prof Peter O’Brien’s interpretation of the same concept works better for me:

“The important thing is: Get the ball rolling.” Then go play some jazz.

Padraig O’Morain (pomorain@ireland.com) is accredited as a counsellor by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His book, Light Mind – Mindfulness for Daily Living, is published by Veritas. His monthly mindfulness newsletter is free by email.