Baba says, ‘write your chart‘. Like any good businessperson keeps a balance sheet each day to check what they made and what they lost, you too should keep a chart of how much time you stayed in remembrance or in soul consciousness. This is one of the tricks Baba teaches us to help us stay on course. When I keep a chart, that awareness helps me stay attentive through the day. At the end of the day, if I have a good chart, it makes me happy and motivates me to do even better the next day. It becomes a virtuous cycle.

Many of us try to begin our day by remembering Baba but when I sit in silence alone with Him, within just a couple of minutes, thoughts flood into my mind and break that sacred link. We spiral into processing my feelings about the events that occurred the previous day or that week. Sometimes it is sorting through what needs to get done that day.

The quality of my remembrance in those 30 or 45 mins each morning depends heavily upon how I spent the last 18 hours of waking time. Did I behave according to Baba’s Shrimat (directions)? What was the quality of my thoughts as I went through the day? How much of it was positive and how much was wasteful? How did I handle my interactions with my coworkers, my family members? Did I allow myself to get frustrated or irritated? Was I critical of someone or did I internalize someone else’s criticism of me and take sorrow from it? What was the quality of the audio and visual content I consumed throughout the day? How did I use my words?

Writing a chart helps me keep a check on how I spend my time. The quality of those 18 hours will determine the quality of my next morning – whether I am able to start with a clean, blank slate, a calm intellect that can easily and effortlessly connect with Baba because it has not grudges to hold, no accounts to settle, no feelings to process or whether I have to battle with myself and keep trying to reconnect each time the connection drops.

Let me take a minute each hour to hit pause during the day and check what my intellect is busy with. Let me use the chart to motivate me to stay attentive through the day and check my thoughts, words and interactions.

We all have a lot of business to take care of outside but none is more important than the business inside – within our own mind and intellect. Let me not get busy with trying to make a profit outside at the expense of running a loss inside. Instead, if I reverse that and prioritize the business within, I’ll find that it not only improves how I feel (lighter, happier) but it also makes it easier to manage the business outside – I’ll find that I have more time to do the things that matter and do them right, be it in my relationships, in my job, at home, whatever.

Be a good businessperson, keep that chart.