(According to the transcript...)

Mr. Cameron: You should be on the beach. You need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together.

Mr. Obama: You’ve got to refresh yourself.

Mr. Cameron: Do you have a break at all?

Mr. Obama: I have not. I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who — not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process — said that should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be ...

Mr. Cameron: These guys just chalk your diary up.

Mr. Obama: Right. ... In 15 minute increments and ...

Mr. Cameron: We call it the dentist waiting room. You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.

Mr. Obama: And, well, and you start making mistakes or you lose the big picture. Or you lose a sense of, I think you lose a feel ...

Mr. Cameron: Your feeling. And that is exactly what politics is all about. The judgment you bring to make decisions.

Mr. Obama: That’s exactly right. And the truth is that we’ve got a bunch of smart people, I think, who know 10 times more than we do about the specifics of the topics. And so if what you’re trying to do is micromanage and solve everything then you end up being a dilettante, but you have to have enough knowledge to make good judgments about the choices that are presented to you.

Now that the experts have spoken, it's our turn. I spoke with someone the other day that gave me a tip I'm going to try to implement myself: Create a stop-doing list, along with a to-do list. Make a list of the things you're going to try to stop doing, and check that as often as the list of things you have to do. It's just as important to not getting overloaded with tasks that are unimportant, that others could be doing, or that just shouldn't be taking up your time.

Now, I'm asking you: What are the time management secrets you put to use every day? How do you manage the email deluge? What are the ideas you implement to get from your coffee-fueled commute and back home again to the people you really care about? Please leave your ideas here. We'll print the best ones in a reader-generated list of time management tips in BusinessWeek Magazine.

Continuous partial attention and multi-tasking are two different attention strategies, motivated by different impulses. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. Each activity has the same priority – we eat lunch AND file papers. We stir the soup AND talk on the phone. With multi-tasking, one or more activities is somewhat automatic, like eating lunch or stirring soup. That activity can be paired with another activity that’s automatic or with an activity that requires more cognition, like writing an email or talking on the phone. At the core of multi-tasking is a desire to be more productive. We multi-task to create more opportunity for ourselves – more time to do more and time to relax more.

In the case of continuous partial attention, we’re motivated by a desire not to miss anything. There’s a kind of vigilance that is not characteristic of multi-tasking. With CPA, we feel most alive when we’re connected, plugged in and in the know. We constantly scan for opportunities – activities or people – in any given moment. With every opportunity we ask, “What can I gain here?”

Why care about the difference between multi-tasking and CPA? Continuous partial attention is an always on, anywhere, anytime, any place behavior that creates an artificial sense of crisis. We are always in high alert. We reach to keep a top priority in focus, while, at the same time, scanning the periphery to see if we are missing other opportunities. If we are, our very fickle attention shifts focus. What’s ringing? Who is it? How many emails? What’s on my list? What time is it in Beijing?

In this state of always-on crisis, our adrenalized “fight or flight” mechanism kicks in. This is great when we’re being chased by tigers. But how many of those 500 emails a day is a tiger? How many are flies? Is everything an emergency? Our way of using the current set of technologies would have us believe it is.

Over the last twenty years, we have become expert at continuous partial attention and we have pushed ourselves to an extreme that I call continuous continuous partial attention. There are times when CPA is the best attention strategy for what we’re doing, and in small doses, continuous partial attention serves us well.

But more and more, many of us feel the “shadow side” of CPA -- over-stimulation and lack of fulfillment. The latest, greatest powerful technologies are now contributing to our feeling of being increasingly powerless. Researchers are beginning to tell us that we may actually be doing tasks more slowly and poorly.

And that’s not all. We have more attention-related and stress-related diseases than ever before. Continuous continuous partial attention and the fight or flight response associated with it sets off a cascade of stress hormones, starting with norepinephrine and its companion, cortisol. As a hormone, cortisol is a universal donor. It can attach to any receptor site. As a result, dopamine and seratonin, the hormones that help us feel calm and happy, have nowhere to go because cortisol has taken up the available spaces. The abundance of cortisol in our systems has contributed to our turning to pharmaceuticals to calm us down and help us sleep.

I believe attention is the most powerful tool of the human spirit. We can enhance or augment our attention with practices like meditation and exercise, diffuse it with technologies like email and Blackberries or alter it with pharmaceuticals. In the end, though, we are fully responsible for how we choose to use this extraordinary tool.

When the first speaker finished, the COO announced, "Please take five minutes to be silent, to reflect, to jot down any thoughts or notes. After five minutes, we'll continue. I ask you, please, not to take a break at this time. Please enjoy these five minutes to reflect."

I was astonished. Typically at events, the schedule is packed and speakers follow one another, rapid fire. This audience of senior executives sat quietly. Some wrote, some sat quietly.

At the end of the day, after another quiet break, the COO led a discussion with the 50 executives in attendance. The conversation was intimate, and thoughtful. People referred to their notes frequently. Attendees left, having committed to investigating some of the ideas that were proposed. Within a year, there were signs that this company had integrated a number of the new ideas that had been proposed.

We enjoy both the notes and the rests in music. This COO took this notion and translated it successfully to organizing meetings. No matter how productive we are, if we don't take time to reflect, all that productivity will be wasted. How can this work for you in your day?

I was just talking with a friend who was boasting about all the nifty features of his new iPhone, especially all the capabilities it now has to collect data and input. Taking pictures of business cards that can then be text-searched, recording notes, etc. Seemed, indeed, like the result of lots of creative thinking and design. Then I asked him how often he cleaned up all that exciting new input – i.e. emptied his virtual “in-basket” the phone had assisted him in generating. He sheepishly admitted that was a major problem.

This is indicative of the potentially frustrating side of all the new technology. Lots of new and exotic ways to capture, slice, search, and retrieve data. But no matter how slick the gear, nothing has yet been able to replace the personal and individual executive function of actually deciding what, exactly, all that input means. What action, if any, do I need to take about that interaction that produced the business card I can now take a picture of? How critical is that data, for what purpose(s), now or later on? Until the very specific and discrete meaning of data is determined, there is no criterion for how to organize it.

The cool tech is cool, to be sure - but only if you have installed the best practices of processing the exploding plethora of miscellany it fosters. When they come up with an iBrain you can plug into your iPhone, so you actually don’t even have to think about the contents it collects any more – wow! Of course then you’ll have to choose whether you want the Fast-Track-Executive, Laid-Back-Retiree, or Liberal-Arts-Student version of the premier Decision-Support package add-on (for a nominal additional fee).

If you’re betting on the latest feature-laden nifty small and sexy tool to relieve the pressure of life and work, be careful. The weekend it will require to learn how to use it will be a mere drop in the bucket compared with the extra time you’ll need to wade through the additional stuff it may foster.

In my experience most people feel the best about their job in the few days before they take a major holiday. I’m sure they attribute that good feeling to the fact that they’re thinking about and looking forward to where they’re going, and perhaps that they will be away from their work.

I suggest that there is a different source of the positive mental state. Sure, it’s nice to imagine having a good time and doing fun things, but consider for a moment what you are actually doing during the week before you intend to take off. Probably some version of capturing, clarifying, organizing, reviewing, and renegotiating your agreements and commitments, so that you can “clear the decks” psychologically. You want to be able to afford the luxury of nothing to think about when you’re on the first tee, strolling a warm beach, or taking your kids through a castle.

I simply suggest you do that process weekly, not yearly. A mind free of distraction should not be reserved for annual holidays – it’s a critical state for being able to give appropriate and full attention to anything.

The most important behavior for relaxed control of life and work seems to be what I have identified as the Weekly Review – a once-every-few-days version of those pre-vacation behaviors that are necessary for unhooking from your engagements. Sure, you need to be reviewing and catching up on a daily basis; and you need the longer-horizon looks for higher-altitude thinking (strategic planning, life coaching, etc.) But the level that is most often out of control for most professionals is the world of projects – those more-than-one-step things you’re committed to finish within the next few days, weeks, and months. Most people have between thirty and a hundred of these – from “get new tires” to “hire marketing VP” to “handle the staff off-site meeting.”

Taking time to identify new projects that have emerged in the last few days, to review the whole inventory and ensure that for each one appropriate progress is happening and the right actions are in play, is crucial for a sense of relaxed control. And that integrated reassessment won’t happen by itself in the course of day-to-day work. You must stop, hold the world at bay, and consciously focus on that horizon to achieve it. “Bringing up the rear guard” in this way for most of us takes from one to two hours a week, and it usually must be blocked out on your calendar if it’s not yet a habit. Creating a structure and systematic behavior for this slightly-elevated operational catch-up is the minimal dues to pay for a holiday-like experience all year long.

But I don’t think so. The issue isn’t the term—it’s our definition of the phrase and what it implies that needs to evolve. I’d like to propose a different definition. Work-life balance is not about the amount of time you spend working vs. not-working. It’s more about how you spend your time working and relaxing, recognizing that what you do in one fuels your energy for the other.

For example, if you organize your workday efficiently, staying very focused, and getting lots of things done, you feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that enables you to leave at the end of the day and relax into your personal life. Similarly, if you mindfully plan the activities you do in your time off to be ones that truly recharge you, getting your mind off of work and into things that bring you pleasure, joy and rest, then you are energized and able to perform well at work. You have the perspective, objectivity and adequate rest to bring your best focus to the job. That, to me is work-life balance, and is attainable to everyone.

Here's a few tips for planning:

Spend 15 minutes at the end of every workday planning your next day plus 2 (in other words, the next 3 days.) Waiting until first thing in the morning to plan is too late-- The day is already crashing upon you.

Plan next weekend by end of the weekend before—at least key anchors, such as dinner with friends, reservations on the golf course, or tickets to a show. You’ll be excited about your plans all week—which will put a little bounce in your workweek.

I spent a couple of days last week onsite at a client’s headquarters, seeing individual managers for back-to-back, one-on-one time management sessions. Highly accomplished global executives, almost every one of them struggled with finding a good and reliable system for keeping track of everything they needed to do. Meetings were easy: kept on their calendar and managed by their assistants. But the calls, writing projects, meeting preparation, reading, research, and long-term initiatives were far more elusive.

Scattering your tasks and reminders between a variety of post-it’s, notepads, multiple planners and calendars, and your email box is a recipe for time management trouble. Hours are wasted transferring information, second guessing what to do next, and worrying about what might be forgotten.

Having a single, reliable to-do system puts you in command of your days by providing a complete picture of everything you need to do. Prioritization is easier when you have full context. And you are more confident staying focused on the moment, when everything is present and accounted for.

Your to-do list becomes an extension of yourself, so you have to pick the right one for you. What have you chosen for yourself? Do you like paper or electronic? Do you keep a master to-do list, integrate your calls and actions into your daily plans? Do you keep your own to-do list, or get help from your assistant?

Haven’t found the right system yet? Decide whether paper or electronic system is the best fit for you by answering the following questions.

PAPER:

_____ Your thinking flows easiest when writing things down, pen to paper.

_____ Physically writing things out helps you remember them better.

_____ You tend to remember where on a page you wrote something. (“The phone number is green ink in the upper right-hand corner of the page.”)

DIGITAL:

_____ Your thinking flows easily typing directly into a keyboard or through a stylus.

_____ You have a good memory for dates, numbers, and chronology.

______ You have constant and easy access to your computer list for regular reference and updating.

This last month, I've been heads down on a few projects. I noticed something I hadn't been very conscious of before now. When I would get "stuck"--or when I reached a natural break point on a piece of work--sometimes I would open up email and check it. Other times, I would pace, get a glass of iced tea, or walk outside for a few minutes.

The times I went to email, I would "spin out." That is, I would completely engage in email, losing track of what I had been working on. I would return to the project exhausted. I started thinking of it as "deceptive distraction." I thought I could take a short break and crank out a few emails. It always took longer to do the emails than I thought it would and longer to get back into my project afterwards.

Meanwhile, pacing, getting something to drink, and walking outside was refreshing. I began to refer to this as "receptive distraction." I was open, in the moment, reflective, and noticing my surroundings. This kind of distraction creates mental space.

I mentioned this to my friends, Walt and Edie, at lunch today. Walt is journalist, and when I mentioned receptive distraction, he said, "I do it all the time. It's like a palate cleanser." Edie, an educator, also got it, contrasting it with continuous partial attention, a phrase I coined. "It's not like multi-tasking or continuous partial attention. It provides an opportunity to come at something in a fresh way."

Are your distracters receptive or deceptive?

A quick introduction to David Allen for folks who don't know him. This widely followed author and consultant on Getting Things Done (often known as GTD) has begun blogging here at BusinessWeek's Time Management blog, starting today. Allen, who has been called a "messiah" of productivity and the "touchstone of the life-hacking movement," has a rabid following among people looking for a system for, well, getting things done. To get introduced to Allen's ideas, check out his site, his first post, and of course, stay tuned here for more.

“Too much stuff to deal with” is the typical presenting issue declared by most professionals who lament their stress and fatigue. That’s an inappropriate diagnosis, though, and one that leads to “organizing” as an incomplete if not ineffective solution. The problem is not volume of incoming detail – it’s too much “potential meaning.”

A large quantity of input is actually relaxing. Nature, for instance, is soothing because of its volume and variety of data and almost infinite complexity. An empty, monochrome room is much more stressful, as is any kind of sensory deprivation. The difference between nature and a thousand e-mails, however, is that whereas the contents and relevance of everything you notice in a walk in the woods are self-evident, the substance and meaning of each e-mail is still undetermined. What to do about berries, bears and bugs is straightforward. What to do about a note from your mom, an FYI from your boss, and an urgent(!) message from a client is still undetermined - there could be berries, bears, and bugs in ANY e-mail.

If the problem was simply the volume of things with which to engage, then, indeed, organizing (or eliminating) them would be the only solution. But in my experience, what passes for “being organized” for most people is an incomplete list of still unclear things. Simply rearranging stuff you don’t know what to do about merely compounds the issue.

The critical factor is quickly deciding what things mean – is it trash, is it reference, is it actionable? If it’s something to move on, what’s the outcome you’re committing to, and what’s the next action? Making those operational decisions when things show up, versus when they blow up, is the most important self-management behavior. Maintaining, reviewing, and renegotiating a complete and current inventory of your commitments, at multiple levels, is crucial to feeling OK about what you’re doing. That’s the only way you can really be OK about what you’re NOT doing. But your commitments about all the inputs are not self-evident – they must each be determined. Thinking and decision-making are the primary success behaviors – organizing simply parks the results.

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David Allen is an expert on productivity and the author of the popular book, Getting Things Done.

Three hundred engineers, at two U.S. sites, were in the pilot for Quiet Time. Every Tuesday morning, participants set email and I.M. clients to "offline," forwarded phones to voicemail, refrained from setting up meetings, and put "do not disturb" signs in their doorways.

The impact of four hours of contiguous thinking time, as you might imagine, was amazing: Seventy-one percent of the participants recommended extending this program to other groups. Improvements in effectiveness, efficiency and quality of life were reported. Could your company benefit from Quiet Time? It's something to think about—read more about it here.

Her to-do list was never-ending, and when given a choice between checking off a few more to-dos versus taking an evening off to go to a movie, the thing that always seemed to offer the greatest promise of reduced stress was getting a little more work done. Her boss hired me to work with her because she was a top talent who was burning out.

For many people, breaking away from the gravitational pull of work is extremely difficult. In fact, it’s counterintuitive. You’d think that if you are feeling less than effective during your workday you should try fixing things on the job first. Learn to delegate. Break large projects into manageable steps. Keep a better to-do list. Once you get on top of your workload, then you’ll take a weekend off. Avoid taking work home at night. Really relax with a friend.

But the truth is, if you are feeling overworked, exhausted and depleted, the FIRST step is to let go at work and take care of yourself. Though it may feel like breaking AWAY from the office could be deadly to your career, embracing and fortifying your work/life balance, even with something as simple and straightforward as catching up on your sleep, is actually one of the most effective ways to improve your productivity on the job.

Mastering your work/life balance is not just a nice idea—-it’s necessary. The more limited our time off, the more important it is that we spend it in a way that is rewarding, refreshing and energizing. It gives us the energy, creativity, perspective and wherewithal to solve any of your time management challenges on the job. Creating a vibrant personal life is one of the best investments you can make in your work!

So, here we are, with the 4th of July long weekend ahead of us. How are YOU going to spend it to ensure you recharge? I teach my clients something I call the P.E.P. formula—a framework for planning your time off in a way that efficiently fuels your energy. Fit in a mixture --it’s the combination that creates the effect of rejuvenation.

P = Physical Health
Sleep, any form of exercise, eating well, getting to the doctor, a massage--they all provide the well of energy from which you draw strength for everything else you need to do.

E = Escapes
Golfing, gardening, dancing, playing a musical instrument--any activity that instantly transports you to a place of pure joy--are tremendously efficient energizers.

P = People
Spending time with friends and family who give you energy, make you feel good about yourself, and ground you gives you confidence confront challenging situations throughout the week.

But technology, in my mind, is like cupcakes. (Bear with me for a minute.) We can make smarter cupcakes -- sugar free, higher in fiber, but that doesn’t seem to make any difference. When you walk past a cupcake, it doesn’t say “eat five of me.” We made the choice.

It’s the same with technology. Emails and instant messages and social networking pages are simply at the scene of the crime. But it’s not the criminal. The criminal is that voice inside of each of us that says, “Do it all. Have it all. Don’t stop to consider what you’re doing or why. Run fast and do as much as you can.”

Sharon, a former professor turned consultant, says it always seems easier to respond to emails than to work on the project files sitting right in front of her. Is she making this choice because picking up a project file requires focused attention and emailing requires less of a commitment? Or is there a buzz of completion and immediate gratification each time the send button is pressed in contrast to the delayed gratification from a meatier project?

The technology is at the scene of the crime – a weapon of mass communication turning productivity opportunities into an excuse for procrastination. How do the choices we make in each moment, about what we choose to do and what we choose to ignore, tell the story of what matters to us?

When a day begins and ends with a list of action items, it can lack a sense of purpose. Without a sense of purpose, we have no framework to guide our choices. While reviewing what we hope to do, we can ask ourselves: Why is each of these things on the list? Why do I care about each one? What can I exclude that would allow me closer alignment with my sense of purpose and my intentions?

Technology, just like cupcakes, is simply there. The crime only happens when we forget our sense of purpose and fail to make choices as to what we include or exclude.