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Editorial Review:
Mark Forster argues in refreshingly sharp prose that time management is too difficult for most people. There is nothing you can do to change the pattern of 24 hours, seven days, 52 weeks and so on. "There is no such thing as time management", he says. "Time just is." But what you can do is to focus more effectively. Confiding that he is naturally disorganised, Forster, a life coach, manager of his own network marketing business and Resources Officer for the Diocese of Chichester, shares his own "attention focusing" techniques. His methods are based on his own experience and on the workshops and seminars he runs on how to get everything done. These include looking beyond the immediate tasks, learning to say "no", sorting out the significant from the trivial, and costing everything you do against a notional hourly rate of pay so that you can evaluate every activity against its "cost"--from watching the television news to going to a meeting or praying. Accept, he says, that the main reason most people don't do things is disinclination--not lack of time. So you must be honest to identify resistance--the "R factor"--in yourself. Then deal with it. It is important to make time every day for "depth" activities too. Yoga, meditation or journal writing, for example, can create "an oasis of calm" in "the daily grind of clashing priorities". Or it could be learning a language or playing a sport. But don't try and do many different things. Foster laments our modern tendency to favour depth over breadth by getting involved in "more and more things in a shallower and shallower way". There is plenty to think about here and some sound practical advice. The only problem is that you have to find time to read it! --Susan Elkin
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Another great book by Mark Forster I can testify to his brilliance as a coach as well as an author. Highly recommended. He helped me make the transition from journalist to jazz singer a few years ago (which you can read about, along with experiences of others who transitioned into the creative jobs of their dremas, in my book Anything I Can Do You Can Do Better) and I have been eternally grateful ever since. Meanwhile, am now so busy I better read this book again!
An absoluting stunningly effective little book on time management Deceptively simple principles and exercises that could solve potentially years of struggle in the battle to get on top of what you have to do or should be doing. The core concept is we all know what we should really be doing at any one time in a busy situation (which is modern life not just work). The most incredibly reliable indicator is how much resistance we feel to doing it. Focus on what you're resisting most and you'll focus on what's most important. What the rest of the book does is equip you... more info
You already know it before you read this book. I was stunned on realizing that the readers of this book have been overwhelmingly positive so far. In my opinion, there is almost nothing new in this book; everyone should have already known those ideas. Interestingly, the author attempts to undermine other self-help books on time-management, but it's hard to distinguish his ideas from those in other books. The only thing I found unique and useful is that the author develops the proverbially rough rule of: `Do the thing you fear most first' into his own... more info
the grandaddy of time management books
this is head and shoulders above any time management book I have ever read - and I've read lots. mark is the only one, ever, to get to the heart of why chronic procrastinaters like myself get ourselves into trouble, and then is absolutely pragmatic and practical about how to get out of trouble! He blows apart "to-do" lists, prioritising and all the other sacred cows of time management and explains why they don't work. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you are fed up with yourself, and just can't... more info
