MUSE • Leslie Keenan

Time “Management?” …Try TimeShifting Instead

Posted by in Time

Sign up for TimeShifters Teleclass starting June 23rd 2016. I met a former student in a café recently, who sheepishly confessed, “I don’t have time to do your time class!” Her business is thriving but it’s taking all her energy. I promised her I’d write a blog post to explain why this actually means she desperately needs to take the time to shift her relationship with time. This is the magic secret of TimeShifting. Right now the only thing you see is the long to-do list, or the endless tasks…read more

Feb.26
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Trust, and Just Show Up

Posted by in Writing

from my most recent newsletter… Are you still writing when you show up and nothing happens? You know, those times when you are all prepared to write and your fingers are on the keyboard and you are staring at the blank screen, and nothing happens? The other day in class, one student was berating herself during check in. “I sat there for a whole hour and didn’t get anything done.” I hear this a lot during check ins. “I showed up but I just struggled.” “I showed up but only…read more

May.16
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“Groundhog Day” the movie: The “It’s a Wonderful Life” of Our Times

Posted by in Time

This is a piece I wrote several years ago, and I still feel the same way.  What do you think? Can Groundhog Day, that little made-up holiday that distracts us from the long haul of winter, become as big as Christmas? Okay, maybe not, but I’m making the case that Groundhog Day , the movie, should become the It’s a Wonderful Life of this generation. I want families to gather round on Groundhog Day and watch this movie together, just like It’s a Wonderful Life has become the Christmas tradition….read more

Feb.01
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Spring Forward?

Posted by in Time

The day we change the clocks –  Spring Forward – is always the worst day of the year for me. Or rather the first day I have to be anywhere after we spring forward.   Add in a 4 1/2 year old who is attending preschool, and you can magnify that by a factor of ten, which this morning included about three drop-down-to-the-floor, scream-and-cry jags. “I’m just tired Mama!” she finally shouted. Yes, I was too. I’m always shocked by how we can all expect to suddenly have our days…read more

Mar.12
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The Bucket List

Posted by in Time, Writing

From my Newsletter, Autumn 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was talking to my mother on the phone two weeks ago and she said, of going to the new Yankee Stadium, “That’s another thing off my bucket list!” That night, while giving the exercise of writing down ten book ideas to a new class, I thought, hmm, what if you had a book bucket list? If you are wondering what the heck buckets have to do with anything, a bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die…read more

Jul.18
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The Value of Doing Nothing

Posted by in Time, Writing

From my Newsletter, Late Summer 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In our busy-busy; go-go culture, spending time idly, perhaps even staring into space, is not thought well of. In fact, if you went by what people say in the press, you’d think having some alone-time is highly suspect. When reporters couldn’t follow Obama at all times on the campaign trail, because, gasp, he wanted to have some moments alone, they didn’t understand why. And yet, for creativity to emerge, we need some down-time for it to formulate itself, or for us to access…read more

Jun.16
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New Year’s Resolutions?

Posted by in Time, Writing

I hate new year’s resolutions. The new year is just an arbitrary date created by a linear calendar that happens to start in the dead of winter. And resolutions are usually just lists of things we think we “should” do but haven’t been able to. So a month, or even a few weeks, in you feel like a failure because you’ve not been able to do it now either. Instead of a new year, I like to focus on the fact that we get a brand new twenty-four hours each…read more

Jan.20
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A Space of One’s Own: Where Writers Write

Posted by in Writing

From my Newsletter, Late Autumn 2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where do you write? Do you have a space you are comfortable with? Long before Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One’s Own, writers needed some space. I’m sure most of us would love to have the studio on the back of the property as Virginia Woolf did. Or the studio I saw on C-Span again not long ago, where they gave us a tour of David McCullough’s studio in the back yard (on his house in Martha’s Vineyard-I can forgive him only…read more

Nov.25
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