海角大神

One of the most interesting parts of being a popular internet writer that reviews a lot of books is that, over time, I鈥檝e wound up on the mailing lists of various publishing companies. They send me piles of books that might be of interest without me even asking 鈥� and most of them aren鈥檛 bad, but aren鈥檛 particularly exciting, either. I usually end up giving away most of them, passing them on to people who will get some use out of them.

When I鈥檓 going to invest the time in reading and/or reviewing a book for The Simple Dollar, I usually look for a book that has one of two things (or, ideally, both). It either must challenge or deeply entertain me in some way (a la Your Money or Your Life) or it must offer some very specific advice that鈥檚 not entirely duplicated in other works that I鈥檝e read (a la The Complete Tightwad Gazette). If a book doesn鈥檛 seem to have either, I either don鈥檛 read it or, in the case that I鈥檝e discovered this while reading the book, I don鈥檛 usually review it. Again, it鈥檚 not a matter of a book being bad, it鈥檚 just not a rewarding read.

This brings us around to the book I鈥檓 reviewing this week, by Stever Robbins, who podcasts at as Get-It-Done Guy (a podcast I listen to semi-regularly). This book was one of those 鈥渞andom鈥� ones sent to me by the publisher and, after leafing through it, I quickly placed the book in that second category 鈥� a nice collection of very specific advice and tips that offers a few new ideas and some encouragement on things I should already be doing. In this case, the focus is on time management and efficiency, a subject area I find goes deeply hand in hand with financial success.

Step 1: Live on Purpose
A successful day is any day where as many of your actions as possible have purpose. In other words, the less time you spend in idle activity 鈥� doing nothing, or merely doing something to 鈥渂urn time鈥� or out of boredom 鈥� the better off you are. Many people equate this with having no leisure time, but I wholly disagree. I engage in a lot of different hobbies, but even within those hobbies, there鈥檚 purpose. I want to finish a certain book or a certain reading list, which builds my understanding of a certain topic. I want to master a video game, improving my ability to think under fire and my hand-eye coordination. I want to master a piano piece, improving many levels of cognitive ability. It鈥檚 all about goals leading the way, particularly big goals broken down into small bits that fill your day with purposeful activity.

Step 2: Stop Procrastinating
I reallly liked Robbins鈥� suggestion for beating procrastination in this chapter. It borrows a bit from Getting Things Done, but it鈥檚 really clever. For every short-term and medium-term project you have going on (everything less than a few months down the road), perform an action related to that project every single day without fail. He calls it an 鈥渁ction pack鈥� 鈥� I call it a pretty good idea. Just keep a list of your projects with you and each day, come up with an action you can take that moves you along for that project. Write a page of that paper. Clean out that closet. File those papers. Whatever little step it is, take one of them every day.

Step 3: Conquer Technology
Technology can make communication much easier. That鈥檚 simultaneously a benefit and a problem, because when it becomes easy for someone to send you a message, you wake up to an inbox with a thousand messages in it. Sometimes, I鈥檓 basically forced to follow the advice in this chapter and just declare an email bankruptcy 鈥� I just empty my inbox and start over after reading as many as I can, as much as I try to keep on top of things. Why? The deluge is just too great to deal with at times 鈥� if I dealt with every single message, I would literally get nothing else done some days. Robbins鈥� argument is that if something is really important, you鈥檒l be contacted another way.

Step 4: Beat Distractions to Cultivate Focus
For me, the best practice here is to just shut off distractions. I often turn off my cell phone and my internet access when I鈥檓 trying to write, simply to minimize distractions (and to make it harder to distract myself). Distractions slow down the writing process, not only due to the interruptions, but the time it takes to re-focus after an interruption. This is true of any process that requires focus. Multitasking simply means you鈥檙e switching your attention back and forth (with a little bit of re-focus time between each switch), which means that if you鈥檙e multitasking between two things, you鈥檙e giving less than 50% to each of them. This might work if the things are extremely simple, but you鈥檒l just end up producing subpar work if you multitask with important things on the table.

Step 5: Stay Organized
Once you have a system in place, it鈥檚 worth a bit of time each day to make sure that your system keeps running, because the consistency of that system is what makes it worthwhile. One of the 鈥渟hocking鈥� things about GTD (a system I mention often) is that you spend time each day maintaining the system by processing your inbox and so on. It can feel like time lost, but when you actually take in the breadth of what you鈥檙e able to accomplish by having a truly trusted system that works, it far more than makes up for itself.

Step 6: Stop Wasting Time
Here, Robbins seems to distinguish between the various categories of things we have going on in our life 鈥� 鈥渘ot important, not urgent;鈥� 鈥渋mportant, not urgent;鈥� 鈥渦rgent, not important;鈥� and 鈥渋mportant and urgent.鈥� Take note of the times when you find yourself doing things that are 鈥渦rgent and not important鈥� because they are the ultimate time wasters. For me, many phone calls fall into this category 鈥� they鈥檙e urgent (the ringing phone) but not important (a telemarketer or some other needless call). Thus, I鈥檝e trained myself to basically ignore the phone when working.

Step 7: Optimize
The real key to this entire chapter is to never stop polishing what you鈥檙e doing. You should always look for better ways of doing the things you need to do, whether it saves time or saves money or allows you to accomplish more with the same resources. Robbins offers several ways of doing this, but for me, the best key is to just listen to myself and observe what I鈥檓 doing. If I鈥檓 not doing something or something isn鈥檛 working, I don鈥檛 beat myself up over it 鈥� it just means I need a better solution for that problem.

Step 8: Build Stronger Relationships
I am a huge believer in stronger relationships. A core set of relationships in your life can sustain you and help you with anything that goes on in your life. Spend some time figuring out who the really important people are in your life, then go the extra mile to cement each of those relationships by reaching out regularly to those people, helping them when they need help, and involving them in your life. The more you do it, the stronger the core group around you will be and the more they鈥檒l support you during your crunch times.

Step 9: Leverage
The book concludes with an encouragement to use the skills that you have to every advantage. If you鈥檙e exceptionally good at something, use that skill as often as you can. Trade using that skill. Negotiate with that skill as a bargaining chip. Share that skill with friends. Barter using that skill. If you can accomplish something easily that鈥檚 very difficult for someone else, you鈥檝e got something valuable there. Use it 鈥� and often.

Is Worth Reading?
is a very solid and easy read with a lot of good little tips and ideas strewn throughout 鈥� much like the podcast, in fact.

It鈥檚 not an all-encompassing time management system, nor will it solve all of your problems. Instead, it鈥檚 just a collection of specific tactics that you can pull out and use in your own life, a piece here and a piece there, to make your situation stronger. Some of the ideas are excellent, too, like the 鈥渁ction pack鈥� concept.

I enjoyed the book. If you鈥檙e thinking about time management, you probably will, too.

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