The 9th-century Indian philosopher Shankara, architect of Advaita Vedanta, made a deceptively practical observation: most of our mental clutter isn't caused by having too much to do, but by the mind's habit of superimposing one thing onto another — rehearsing tomorrow's meeting while eating lunch, relitigating yesterday's conversation while trying to focus. He called this 'adhyasa,' or erroneous superimposition. Your productivity system and your meditation cushion are actually solving the same problem: not adding more structure to your day, but training the mind to be fully present in the task that is actually in front of it right now.

Which task in your day do you reliably do while mentally somewhere else — and what does that cost you that you haven't fully accounted for?

Drawing from Advaita Vedanta — Adi Shankara