18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done

by Peter Bregman

Based upon his weekly Harvard Business Review columns (which is one of the most popular columns on HBR.com, receiving hundreds of thousands of unique page views a month), 18 MINUTES clearly shows how busy people can cut through all the daily clutter and distractions and find a way to focus on those key items which are truly the top priorities in our lives.

Bregman works from the premise that the best way to combat constant and distracting interruptions is to create productive distractions of one's own. Based upon a series of short bite-sized chapters, his approach allows us to safely navigate through the constant chatter of emails, text messages, phone calls, and endless meetings that prevent us from focusing our time on those things that are truly important to us.

Mixing first-person insights along with unique case studies, Bregman sprinkles his charming book with pathways which help guide us -- pathways that can get us on the right trail in 18 minutes or less.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Business, Productivity, Personal Development, Psychology, Leadership

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Peter Bregman is the CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global management consulting firm which advises CEOs and their leadership teams. He speaks, writes, and consults about how to lead and how to live.

He is the author, most recently, of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, winner of the Gold Medal from the Axiom Business Book awards, named the best business book of the year on NPR, and selected by Publisher’s Weekly and the New York Post as a top 10 business book of the year. He is also the author of Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change and co-author of five other books. Featured on PBS, ABC and CNN, Peter is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, National Public Radio (NPR), Psychology Today, and CNN.

Peter began his career teaching leadership on wilderness and mountaineering expeditions and then moved into the consulting field with the Hay Group and Accenture, before starting Bregman Partners in 1998. Peter has advised CEO and senior leaders in many of the world’s premier organizations, including Allianz, American Express, Brunswick Group, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, FEI, GE Capital, Merck, Clear Channel, Nike, UNICEF, and many others.

Peter bases his work on the notion that an organization, at its core, is a platform for talent. By unleashing that talent, focusing it on business results, and aligning it with a compelling vision, both the individual and the organization thrive. Since 1989, Peter has trained and coached all levels of management and individuals to recognize their leadership, exhibit leadership behaviors, model and stimulate change, and foster their own development and growth as well as that of their teams and colleagues.

Peter earned his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from Columbia University. He can be reached at [email protected].

He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Bregman is an author and business consultant whose book 18 Minutes provides a good way to focus on your life in the year ahead. Some of my key takeaways from this book.

1. Find your focus for the coming year by leveraging your strengths, embracing your weaknesses, asserting your differences, and pursuing your passions. Bregman says to focus on around 5 goals for the coming year, with a mix of professional and personal goals.

2. Prior to each day, you should review your plan to be sure you'll do work in your areas of focus and at the end of each day, you should review what you learned, accomplished, and should focus on in the coming day. And, at the top of each hour, review the past hour to evaluate how productive you've been. This is where the 18 minutes in the title comes from: five minutes at the beginning, five minutes at the end, and 8 minutes through out the day.
3. Mastering distractions from yourself or others can help you live in the moment and not lose focus on your overall goals.

4. For me, his advice to slow down and pause--whether at the end of the week or during a conversation--will be very useful.

Overall, there is nothing too remarkable about this book, but it is a quick read that provides good reminders for those of us who lead busy lives. Most useful to me are the 3 sets of questions that can help review the day:
• How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure?
• What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do--differently or the same--tomorrow?
• Whom did I interact with? Anyone I red to update? Thank? Ask a question of? Share feedback with?

I'll be sure to integrate these with my daily rituals.

Happy reading!

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know I've had this on my currently reading shelf forever, but I swear I'm going to finish it, because it has some great ideas on how to stay focused on goals and not get off into the timewasters that will destroy the best-laid plans. Plus, a lot of it reinforces what I already do, which I enjoy almost as much as the new ideas.

Finished!!!

What did I take away from this book?

Mainly that I'm already a focused individual, and I'm on the right track. Really. But it's because I wandered around lost for a good bit of my twenties trying to figure out who I wanted to be, and then I figured it out, and ever since then I've been doing it. Po Bronson's book, What should I do with my life?, had a lot to do with that. I figured out that I wanted to be a writer, wanted to have a family, wanted a job where I don't have to stand up in front of people, don't have to take work home or work overtime, but that's intellectually stimulating and that pays okay. Public library! Perfect!

Having a family and a full-time job makes it difficult to work in the writing and keep from feeling like I'm letting everybody down with my levels of commitment, but I've discovered I can write for forty-five minutes at breakfast, and again at lunch, without it interrupting family or work, and I still get to feel complete. It's not really enough time, but once the kids are older I'll have a little more free time, maybe.

So I'm already focused, and that part of this book was great but not really necessary.

The thing I liked most was the part that originally came from Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. He said that "ten thousand hours of practice is the magic number to become the best at anything." Yay! I've put several thousand hours in over the last ten years, plus a couple of years of creative writing instruction in my undergrad degree, so I'm on my way to being the best! Watch for my name in lights! Or at least, on goodreads, right? (PS I do already have a collection of short stories available, and if you're interested in reviewing it message me and I'll send you a copy for free.)

The thing I liked second most was the part where he said "Make sure the story you tell about yourself (sometimes only to yourself) inspires you to move in the direction you want to move." I like the idea of framing my story. It's like those moments when I'm driving down the highway on my way to somewhere or sitting in the living room with the kids and I suddenly realize my life is just as interesting and entertaining as the ones people write about in books and on TV. Maybe that sounds weird, but I think it's important to enjoy and be proud of your own life. Otherwise, why wouldn't you just give up on it? Also, it's very motivating to remind myself that I'm the kind of person who...well, in my case, who gets up at five to rewrite and edit my current YA project before I get ready for work. I'm the kind of person who takes my kids to the science museum on my day off. I'm the kind of person who ignores the dishes to read a book, and loves folding laundry, and secretly loves country music even while disagreeing with the values represented in the lyrics of most of the songs. I believe in ghosts, and reincarnation, and global warming.

Okay, but you're not reading this to learn more about me. It's a book review.

This is a decent book, and if you're needing help to cut through all the crap of your life and get focused, this book might be the one for you. Also, it's short, which I think is important in a self-help book.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Getting the right things done**

Who hasn’t struggled with trying to accomplish a crazy amount of to-do’s into one day? And, it often seems as if the list just keeps getting longer as the day progresses...and the frustration inevitably increases.

What if the solution wasn’t doing more, but doing more of what really matters to you?

That’s exactly the approach that Peter Bregman offers with 18 Minutes:
“18 Minutes provides a solution to these struggles and frustrations. It’s a comprehensive approach to managing a year, a day, and a moment so that our lives move forward in a way that keeps us focused on, and doing, the things we decide are most important. An important first step in reclaiming our lives...This book will help you make smart, thoughtful decisions about what’s worth doing and what’s not. And it will offer you some simple tools and skills to follow through on those decisions so you spend your time doing the things that matter while avoiding the things that don’t. This book is also about enjoying the process. Managing your life shouldn’t feel like a chore. And neither should reading a book about managing your life...18 Minutes will home in on who you are and how you can best use your talents to achieve the things that will make you happy, productive, and successful. And if you are a little—or even a lot—out of focus, don’t worry:18 Minutes will bring you back in.” (pp. xviii, xx, xxi)

I loved reading this book, and loved even more putting into practice the suggestions offered here. (How lucky was I to discover this book during a time in my life when I had a potentially overwhelming set of to-do’s to accomplish when moving into a new home, while balancing a full-time job, self-care, and a myriad of other life details!)

There’s so much to take away from this book. In an attempt to put in to-go form, here’s a recap of the key points that Peter offers at the end of each of his bite-sized—but highly nourishing—chapters:

Part One: Pause—Hover Above Your World
• Reducing your forward momentum is the first step to freeing yourself from the beliefs, habits, feelings, and busyness that may be limiting you. (p. 9)
• A brief pause will help you make a smarter next move. (p. 14)
• Regular rest stops are useful interruptions. They will refuel your body and mind, naturally reorient your life toward what’s important to you, and create the time and space to aim your efforts more accurately. (p. 19)
• The world changes—we change—faster than we tend to notice. To maximize your potential, you need to peer though the expectations that limit you and your choices. You need to see the world as it is—and yourself as you are. (p. 24)
• Life isn’t just about some of you; it’s about all of you. Don’t negate, integrate. (p. 29)
• Don’t settle for being less than you are. It won’t serve others and it won’t serve you. (p. 33)
• Knowing what outcome you want will enable you to focus on what matters and escape the whirlwind of activity that too often leads to nowhere fast. (p 37)

Part Two: What Is This Year About?—Find Your Focus
• Start experimenting from who you are and choose your next move—your focus for the year—at the intersection of the four elements. That’s where your power lies. (p. 47)
• The first element is your strengths. Over the coming year, play the game that is perfectly suited to your strengths. (p. 51)
• The second element is your weakness. Rather than avoid them, embrace your weaknesses and spend your time this year where they’re an asset instead of a liability. (p. 55)
• The third element is your differences. Assert them. Don’t waste your year, and your competitive advantage, trying to blend in. (p. 60)
• The fourth element is your passion, which is sometimes hard to find. One way to recover your passion is to pursue your desire. As you choose your focus for the year, pay less attention to “shoulds” and more attention to “wants.” (p. 64)
• Anyone can do anything as long as three conditions exist: (1) You want to achieve it; (2) You believe you can achieve it; (3) You enjoying trying to achieve it. (p. 67)
• To home in on your passion, think about what you love doing—what’s important enough to you that you’re willing to persist over the year, even when it feels like you’re not succeeding at it. (p. 69)
• Your year will be best spent doing work that you enjoy so much, it feels effortless. You’ll always work tirelessly at your passions—hard work will feel easier. (p. 75)
• Focus your year on the things that matter to you. On things that have specific meaning to you. (p. 80)
• Staying connected to your guideposts will help you avoid tunnel vision and keep you moving in the right direction. (p. 84)
• Failure is inevitable, useful, and educational. Just don’t give up—stay focused over the year—and it will pay off. (p. 88)
• Don’t be paralyzed by an uncertain future. Just keep moving. (p. 94)
• The time to judge your successes or failures is never. (p. 99)
• Focus your year on the five areas that will make the most difference in your life. (p. 105)

Part Three: What Is This Day About?—Get the Right Things Done
• Plan your day ahead so you can fly through it, successfully maneuvering and moving toward your intended destination. (p.114)
• Reduce your overwhelm by putting your tasks into an organized list, focused on what you want to achieve for the year. (p. 120)
• To get the right things done, choosing what to ignore is as important as choosing where to focus. (p. 124)
• If you really want to get something done, decide when and where you are going to do it. (p. 129)
• Never leave thing on your to-do list for more than three days. They’ll just get in the way of what you really need to get done. (p. 133)
• The right kind of interruption can help you master your time and yourself. Keep yourself focused and steady by interrupting yourself hourly. (p. 138)
• Spend a few minutes at the end of each day thinking about what you learned and with whom you should connect. These minutes are the key to making tomorrow even better than today. (p. 143)
• Just 18 minutes a day can save you hours of inefficiency. The trick is to choose your focus deliberately and wisely, and then consistently remind yourself of that focus throughout the day. (p. 147)

Part Four: What Is This Moment About?—Mastering Distractions
Mastering Your Initiative
• Create an environment that naturally compels you to do the things you want to do. (p. 158)
• You need to be motivated for only a few seconds. Know when you’re vulnerable and you’ll know when you need to turn it on. (p. 162)
• Fun reduces our need to motivate ourselves because fun is motivating. (p. 167)
• Fear can be a useful catalyst to change—then pleasure sustains it. If you need help getting yourself going, don’t choose one or the other. Choose one before the other. (p. 173)
• A good story—one you feel deeply about and in which you see yourself—is tremendously motivating. Make sure the story you tell about yourself (sometimes only to yourself) inspires you to move in the direction you want to move. (p. 179)
• Your mind can help you move forward or can get in the way. Choose the fantasy world that supports you. (p. 184)

Mastering Your Boundaries
• Resist the temptation to say yes too often. (p.190)
• When you say no, mean it, and you won’t needlessly lose your time. (p. 195)
• Don’t wait too long to bring something up. People can only respect boundaries they know are there. (p. 198)
• A few moments of transition time can help make your next task shorter, faster, and more productive for you and others. (p. 203)
• When you shorten transition time, you create a boundary that helps you and others adjust to a new reality. (p. 208)
• When you take a vacation—or any other time you want to be undisturbed—schedule a specific time to take care of the things that would otherwise creep into each and every available moment. (p. 212)

Mastering Yourself
• Distraction, used intentionally, can be an asset. (p. 219)
• We don’t actually multitask. We switch-task. And it’s inefficient, unproductive, and sometimes even dangerous. Resist the temptation. (p. 225)
• The world doesn’t reward perfection. It rewards productivity. (p. 230)
• Don’t settle for imperfect. Shoot for it. (p. 236)
• Stay alert and adapt to changing situations. Keep your eye on the ball, whichever ball that may be. (p. 241)

Conclusion: Now What?—You Don’t Have Ten Gold Behaviors: Choosing Your One Thing
• Choose the one thing that you think—given your particular situation—will make the biggest difference in your life. Choose it and do it. (p. 248)
• It all starts with your one thing. (p.251)

Peter expresses his hopes for this book:
“I wrote this book so [you] could look back at the end of each moment, each day, each year—and when the times comes, life itself—and be able to say: ‘I used my time well.’ ” (p.xxi)

I feel like he is right on track with his mission. And, given the recent changes I am already seeing in my own approach to getting (the right) things done, I can clearly say that “I used my time well” in reading this book!

What a difference 18 Minutes can make!

[Carlos Martinez · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of people mentioned this book recently, and I was due for a spot of feel-good generic productivity blather, so I gave it a skim-read. It is everything you would expect: a for-us-by-us manual for rich white guys to waste a bit less time. Couple of useful ideas padded with endless irritating anecdotes about the author's kids' skiing lessons etc. My hot productivity tip is to spend not more than an hour skimming this book to find the tips that seem useful to you.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific book to motivate and organize yourself. I loved it so much I read through it twice, then bought it for two of my friends.

My favorite part of it dealt with not only understanding your strengths, but also taking a much kinder view of your "weaknesses," which might actually be just quirks that make you uniquely suited for particular types of business, art, and other activities. Recognizing those quirks and emphasizing them, rather than hiding and apologizing for them, might be exactly what sets you apart in the business or creative world.

I also appreciated Bregman's advice about narrowing your list to just five areas of personal and professional goals to focus on daily, and letting go of other obligations and activities that don't necessarily fit into your top five. We all have a lot of things we think we should or could do every day, but those aren't always the activities that will get us where we want to be, either in business or in our personal lives.

All in all, one of the best goal-setting and mental organization guides I've read in years. Highly recommend.

[Nanette Bulebosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I sought this book after hearing a radio interview with the author. The interview was great. The book? Not so much. I don't understand why so many writers of self-help books feel compelled to write in short, choppy, and annoyingly grammatically incorrect sentences. Do the publishers mandate this? Do they presume that readers of such books are illiterate morons with short attention spans? I start such books with such (admittedly naive) hopes: This will be the book to END all my PROBLEMS! But a few pages into it I want to throw the book against a well because of the awful grammar and phony informality. The public radio interview offered just what I needed at the time: some tips for staying focused and avoiding distractions. The book offers the same things, but only if you can force yourself to wade through the author's many offenses against the English language. They are distractions in themselves.

Here's the interview: http://wpr.org/search/ideas_program_s...

[Rob Fulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

18 minutes my oh my...

This book at first look was another TimeMangement book. I didn't want to read another time management book. The best way I can save time is not reading a book in the first place.

However. There are some great takeaways from this book. It's worth the read just to get the system down. It works immediately.

Step 1. Work from a world of having 3-7 goals (max) each year.
Step 2. Spend 95% a day on your goals, and 5% a day on that crap you have to do, like emails and calls.
Step 3. Follow the daily regimen to check in with yourself each hour, at end of day ETC.

Overall the value of the book comes to help RECENTER you. That's the gift you receive from reading it. If you're a fan of this topic, the 2 other books that I found were super valuable was 12 weeks, and Manage Your Day To Day. SUPER VALUABLE!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know which was the crucial factor: reading this book and doing some scheduling, discovering the focus sessions function on my laptop, or taking a 7-day break from lugging books everywhere, but I'm actually getting stuff done. Feeling wonderful.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distractions, and Get the Right Things Done is a worthwhile read, especially for people who need not only to manage their time better, but also ensure their time is being spent on the right things. Too often, wisdom about the proper priorities of work, family, volunteerism, and so forth is won at the expense of years (even decades) of misdirected labor and focus. A thoughtful read of this book won't tell the reader what to do, but may cause the reader to think more deeply about their own priorities and the true value of their goals. "Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy."

Several themes stood out for me from Bregman's book. For example:

1. Events catalyze reactions, but shouldn't determine them. How you react should be determined by the future you want to create. Remember Covey's that we can make something useful of the space between stimulus and response.
2. Almost anyone can do almost anything, so long as three conditions exist: (a) you want to achieve it, (b) you believe you can achieve it, and (c) you enjoy trying to achieve it. It is the third that is so often lacking, and so important. If you want to be great at anything, you had better enjoy being poor at it for long enough to become good at it!
3. He describes 18 minutes of "ritual" planning and review, spaced at the beginning, hourly, and end of the day, that can help people to make better use of their time. Seemed a little too structured for me, but it is a thought-provoking idea. I did like his ideas around managing by priorities, rather than by lists, and making sure that urgency doesn't become a black hole to importance.

There are other discussions of worth in the book, but what stands out as important for each reader will be different depending on the preparation, experiences, and needs of the person. It is worth the time to read, and more importantly, ponder on the messages in is book.

[John Stepper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complete and practical set of tips for better work and a better balance.

[Emma Sea · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars

[josè mcguinny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice pretty short zippy little reminder on setting goals and designing a life you love. Nothing groundbreaking but easy reading with good little stories to go with each chapter.

[Mara Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 steps:
1) Zoom way back and look at the big picture. Slow down and see yourself as you really are (sounds like The Road Less Traveled at this point). Figure out your potential, your dreams and goals.
2) Identify five main priorities for the next year. Stay aware of what draws you away from these primary priorities.
3) Plan daily toward your priorities (He quotes Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird).
4) Check in hourly to make sure you're on track. He sets his watch to go off every hour so he checks to see he's meeting his goals. A good idea to start with, but not a way to live in my estimation!

Made of two-page short, independent articles, it's a quick read with some great vignettes, including how researchers identified that any skill practiced for over 10,000 hours will produce mastery. Make sure that what you are shooting for brings you joy just in the doing, regardless of the outcome, because you'll be spending many, many hours of partial success mastering it. Another koan: the best time to judge your success or failure is never.

Mainly, though, persevere, don't settle, strive, don't panic, keep balanced, but keep your eye and your work on your 5 main goals after you've identified them. Allow enough time for thinking, planning and transitions. Good advice. If it weren't just so much fun to be distracted...

[Chung Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished this one. Of course I procrastinated on the time management book! I like Peter's tone: he's motivational without being patronizing. His personal anecdotes add interest to the book's overall theme, boiled down to one sentence: pick a small number of annual goals and schedule/calendar daily tasks toward accomplishing those few annual goals.

[Arsen Lazursky · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best (if not the best) self-help books I ever read. Short, clear, and to the point. Highly recommended))))

[Mihaela Alexandrescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una dintre cele mai bune cărți de eficiență personală și management al timpului pe care am citit-o. Este complexă prin simplitatea conceptelor și cât de ușor se pot dovedi de aplicat. E una dintre cărțile pe care le-am recomandat cel mai mult în ultima vreme și un text la care sigur voi reveni, încerc să nu aplic, așa cum ne sfătuiește și autorul, câte un concept pe rând, să nu mă aglomerez de schimbări. Cu siguranță că am schimbat câte ceva deja de la începutul cărții și până la final, mai ales în zona de eficiență a organizării timpului, managing distractions, planning.

Sneak peek:

„Walk away from the email and have dinner with your family. Leave work at a decent hour and play tennis with a friend. Choose rituals that have meaning to you and do them religiously. Most important, be consistent—doing the same thing repeatedly over time solidifies your identity.”

„Knowing what outcome you want will enable you to focus on what matters and escape the whirlwind of activity that too often leads nowhere fast.”

„We’ll look at the four elements—your strengths, weaknesses, differences, and passions—that form the foundation of your success and happiness. It’s at the intersection of those four elements that your time will be best spent.”

„Your goal is to make it easier to do something you want done and harder not to.”

[Hassan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Très mitigé. D'un côté il comporte tout les clichés d'un livre de développement personnel à l'américaine : pensée magique, histoire de la voisine/ami/client etc par dizaines pour tirer une leçon qui n'a pas grand chose à voir avec l'idée, anecdotes personnelles ou de connaissances franchement douteuses, livre très egocentré (on nous rappelle toute les 5 pages qu'il a bcp de succès, qu'il a des employés, qu'il est fort, intelligent etc)..
Malgré ça le livre à de très bonnes idées notamment sur la deuxième partie, j'en retiendrai deux principalement :
-Le tableau des objectifs en sous titre des objectifs annuels (une manière visuelle d'organiser ses objectifs qui nous permet de nous rappeler pourquoi on doit le faire, quel objectif supérieur ça sert)
-Prendre 5mn le matin pour s'organiser, 1mn une fois par heure pour ne pas s'égarer, faire un focus sur notre avancer sur la journée (utile car souvent on s'égare et on ouvre les yeux quand la journée est terminée, et prendre 5mn pour faire un bilan en fin de journée.
L'auteur est aussi un bourreau du travail, peut paraitre malsain par moment mais on le sent exister par son travail (on a quand même un chapitre qui s'appelle gérer le stress des vacances...on croit halluciner).

[Andra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The eternal struggle with non-fiction books, keeping me entertained. I enjoyed this, whilst at the same time I didn’t. I feel it brought up some interesting points, but also I knew so much of it, so it just felt like I recycled things I already knew, in a new format. It did however bring my attention back to some of the things I blissfully ignore.

The book is split in 3 parts, part 1 is about figuring out your strengths and weaknesses, with an emphasis on your strengths, part 2 is about ways to avoid distractions and continuously return to the items on your list that you want to do and take away the distractions from them away as much as possible, and part 3 is about ‘done being better than perfect’. I found the examples ok, but not so relatable to me, as I don’t have kids and also don’t work in corporate America, so I think I would have preferred it to be either even more generic, or just done in a way where I could relate to it more, but I think that’s quite a difficult task for non-fiction books.

All in all, for the way I read, this book might have been better suited to be listened to, rather than read.

[Fahad Shaikh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected more from this book but it was more of an article than a book. The teacher teaches 3 steps that you must do every day to stay focused and avoid distractions:
Step 1: Spend 5 minutes beginning every day (before starting work), in planning your day

Step 2: Set an alarm at the last minute of every hour to reflect on how you spent the last hour and what needs to be done in the next hour. Also, scan your task list again

Step 3: 5-Minute Review

At the end of the day, shutdown all devices and reflect:
Q1: What worked today?
Q2: What was your focus today?
Q3: Where did you get distracted?
Q4: What are lessons learnt? What corrective measures to take for the next day?

Some good tips, however, this book doesn't teach how to first set a vision and then break it down to the level of hour? Also, it doesn't mention what areas of life one should focus and how to keep balance? Moreover, it also doesn't mention how to filter the distractions or declare those tasks as distractions.
So, not a very comprehensive book in terms of time management.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book, from a daily inspirational perspective through its stories. However, definitely not the daily workflow management guide that I thought it would be. I also found the cut up sections to be distracting making the book difficult to follow. Though the stories a had point they intended to make, I didn't always connect them to their section of the book. Perhaps if I took the time to sit down review the section I am reading, and relate the story to the section I may have benefited from that. Instead, I read it from cover to cover.

I hope to review this book later, and maybe even reread, with the intent of finding solutions from the stories and the way it is laid out. But at present, it didn't meet my expectations, other than motivating story by story to walk-in to my new job and stay motivated to complete my tasks.

[Gopi Krishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Bergman's book to be an easy read, practical and doable in a world full of distractions with the associated struggles in keeping one's focus. In some ways, this was a more palatable (due to its bite-sized chunks nature) compared to Cal Newport's Deep Work that I read last year. The examples are anecdotal, many times personal and quite relatable. What helps is the fact that like any book of wisdom, holy or otherwise, you can go back to the book by skimming through a chapter at any point and have it act as a refresher. Like most self-help books (including the ones on diet and fitness and even religion), the challenges are not in knowing the right thing to do, it is in consciously doing it until it becomes a habit. I would recommend you give this one a shot.

[Krishna Pathak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think just a comment will be able to describe the quality of the content this book has delivered. So, I will just quote one of my favorite lines from this book
"Typically, people overwhelm themselves with tasks in their eagerness to make a change successfully. But that's a mistake. Instead, they should take the time up front to figure out the one and only one thing that will have the highest impact and then focus 100% of their effort on that one thing."
This book is like a manual for functioning a better, peaceful and purposeful life. With very good understanding of language and teaching lessons through practical stories, this book delivers amazing life changing advices and tips. Glad I got my hands on it. Hats off to Mr. Peter bregman

[Nishant Bhagat · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and a practical book. One you can buy and keep referring to as and when you work.

What works well with this book is that the language is simple, to the point. The chapters are nice and tight. Every aspect is expressed with a good example from personal life and then moves into the professional zone.

A must read for people who do want to get more out of their work day & life in a structured manner.

[Court · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, I feel like the first half of the book had some good points and suggestions for being more present and efficient specifically in the workplace. I do feel like the second half of the book lost me a bit though, and specially the ending felt a little out of place. Overall it was nice tho!

[Tsana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this book as I agree with the content. I can relate to the content and this is when information makes sense. It has helped me think of loved ones and encourage them too and it agreed with my dear friend Leah - be deliberate! :-) I recommend friends should read this book.

[Thu Huong · Rating 3 out of 5]

đây là cuốn sách khá. mình đã đọc hết :)

[Andrea Josipovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too deep but explains the basics perfectly.
Good for people who are already organized helps filling the blanks.
Even better for the ones who have a problem with focusing and want to accept a little change in their daily and yearly routine (or help create one assuming they don't have it).

[Juanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I thought it was easy to read packed with practical ideas on how to make better use of your time, not to cram more in.
Great easy read would recommend.

[Jacob Runyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the practical advice is short simplistic chapters.

[Hussein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super like for me t
Worth reading it, the writer is generous and knows what he is talking about ^_^