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How to better manage your calendar and the clock—without getting overwhelmed

Public transportation saves. This from a Midwest native who never stepped on a bus, and had no idea what an “el” train was prior to a move to Chicago.

Step on board and you’ll see how people live and work. You’ve got the college kid listening to an MP3 player while taking copious notes on the art history book open in the adjoining seat. The businessman with his laptop balanced on his knees.

The working mom with a Blackberry in one hand, a stroller in the other. And then there’s Scott Turow the lawyer who spent two hours a day every day for one year (getting to and from his job in the city) writing his first novel, Presumed Innocent, on a 25-cent legal pad.

Turow followed the “daily journalist’s mantra.” It goes like this: “Always keep the story moving. Push it forward. Pull it along. Drag it through the mud. Move it. Bit by bit in pieces if you have to. Between meetings, in meetings, in the airport, during lunch and on the train. Spend every free moment pushing that story to completion. Because if you don’t, it’ll never get done.”

How’s that for time management?