Too many of us live our lives trying to shoehorn our many activities and responsibilities into too few time slots available. Increasingly for business people, fathers and mothers, even kids—(ineffectively) managing the myriad of activities has become an all-consuming chore. And we're so stressed that our relationships and job performance suffer.

Why? Because we organize our time and our lives poorly: We spend five years of our lives waiting in lines, three years in meetings, and two years playing telephone tag! We get interrupted 73 times per day, interfering with our productivity...