It's About Time

Before there were clocks, we regulated ourselves by the seasons, by the sun, by the stars, and by our menstrual cycles. Now we've lost touch with the natural rhythms of life. We look at time the wrong way. In fact, time is the medium by which we live our lives. It is space; it is change. Success in business is determined not by how fast you work but by whether you focus your attention correctly. Whether you're swinging a racket or making a business deal, telling a joke or playing the violin, timing is everything.

To use time wisely, be as close to the moment as possible; use all of your senses; make decisions with your heart, your mind, and your soul. When you're at the right place at the right time, everything seems to fall into place. You attract what you need, and everything falls into place. And time stands still.

Felice Willat (Felice.Willat@dayrunner.com) cofounded Day Runner in 1990 with her then-husband. They started the company in their Pacific Palisades home, but it soon expanded into the garage -- and then into the driveway and the backyard. Day Runner went public in 1992. Willat's new business, Tools with Heart, publishes a line of women's journals.

Elmer Bernstein

Film-score composer
Los Angeles, California

Generally speaking, I have learned to be a deadline worker -- whether I have a deadline or not. There's this illusion in the creative world that if you had all of the time in the world, then something absolutely brilliant would happen. But if I am given all of the time in the world, then I start daydreaming. There comes a moment when I have to say to myself, "I really have to do this. Now." That's how I trigger my creative process.

Most of the time, I have a very real deadline, because when you're writing music for film, you have a set schedule. But recently, I've been writing a concerto for guitar and orchestra on my own time. After spending three months rubbing my chin and procrastinating, I finally had to say to myself, "I'm going into my studio, and something is going to happen. Now."

That reminds me of a story about Tchaikovsky. A lady asked him where he got his inspiration. And he supposedly said, "Madam, when I walk into my studio every morning at 8 am, the muses had better be on time."

On the other hand, when I'm writing a film score, time stares me in the face. The real challenge is to keep taking new risks. When you're working on deadline, time tends to push you into old routines. You have to push back.

Elmer Bernstein is one of the most prominent composers in Hollywood. He wrote the score for Martin Scorsese's new film, "Bringing Out the Dead," and for Al Pacino's forthcoming film, "Chinese Coffee." His other film scores include "To Kill a Mockingbird," "The Ten Commandments," "The Age of Innocence," "My Left Foot," "Devil in a Blue Dress," The Rainmaker," "Ghostbusters," "The Grifters," and "Wild, Wild West."