Customer Reviews

The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques: How to Get More Done Without Driving Yourself Crazy

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

No matter how well you manage time, this book will make you better at managing time and return your investment many times over.

You get the benefit of the top twenty books on time management in one easy to read book. The authors took an interesting approach to writing this book. They started by reading the Amazon.com customer reviews for over 40 time management books. Then they bought and read the top 20 of these books. The key points from these books were then summarized as 25 clearly described tools and techniques and grouped into five areas of focus:

* Determine what is really important to you.
* Manage your plans to get results.
* Organize your living and work spaces.
* Manage your actions.
* Implement continuous improvement.

Each of these five areas has a brief description of what is to be covered. Within each area the relevant tools and techniques are concisely described so that you can put what you have learned into action immediately.

The simplicity of this book is a distinct benefit - the book is easy to read and the techniques are succinctly presented - preventing the reader from getting lost in the details and hence never addressing their time management issues. Anyone looking to get a handle on time management issues has immediate access to proven concepts and tools for changing what they are doing now.

For those wishing more information on a particular tool or technique, the authors reference specific books or provide directions where this additional information can be found. Generally this works well. However, I was disappointed on one occasion. In the section on creating a vision, I would have liked to see examples of vision statements rather than being referred to another book. For me this was an unnecessary interruption of my thought processes.

Two useful appendices are available with additional information: The Best Time Management Books - Annotated and Other Recommended Books. A third appendix, How to Buy Books for (Much) Less, could have been left out as the information was not related to the topic of the book and did not add much value.

When I first picked up this "Time Management" book, I thought it would be just that - a simple time management book. HOWEVER, it turned out to be a book about changing your life and the way you look at it!
The reason is because Pam outline the EXACT steps necessary to take control, manage, (and have fun!) in every part of your life. From getting clear on exactly what your PURPOSE and VALUES are in life, to managing external factors like your schedule and activities.
But, in my opinion, the best part of this book were the chapters on getting clear about who you are. Not metaphorically or any 'woo-woo' type stuff like that. But really pragmatically and in a step-by-step fashion. I never thought having a vision, defining your values, and setting goals could be so logical and easy to understand. Yes, there is definitely an emotional factor to it (as Pam explains in the book), but she goes further in explaining the exact step by step method of setting goals, a vision, and plan for your life that is importan to you! That you feel great about!
If there's a huge takeaway from this book, it's the ordered steps Pam gives you on managing YOU and your TIME. Putting a value on your time.
Take the money away - you can get that back. Take the time away - and it's gone forever. This book is an essential read on how to make the most of your TIME...and thus your life!

"The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques" brings its readers the value of a workshop that might cost hundreds of dollars.

Authors Dodd and Sundheim take the best of the best ideas in one, easy to access volume organizing the material into five sections:
Focus
Plan
Organize
Take action
Learn

Read this book with paper and pencil in hand so you can do the work and get on track. Easy to follow direction guides you to the basic steps of getting clear about how you want to spend your time.

The instruction in this book is rich with resources and life experiences. You don't have to reinvent the wheel or read a stack of books to get what you need. If you're going to read one book, this is a top choice. If you want more, the resources in the appendix make it easy to put your hands on what's next. There's even a section about "how to buy books for (much) less."

The advice given in this book is geared for business and covers a lot of ground from planning and communicating, to keeping your desk clean (and why that's important). It's a great book for anyone wanting to move up in the business world, building a home based business (including network marketing!), or starting in a new work environment. I recommend this book HIGHLY as a gift for college grads that are embarking on a journey into the work place.

The 25 Best Time Management Tools and Techniques How to Get More Done Without Driving Yourself Crazy. Wow that is an ambitious title. That is what I thought when I first started this book but once I started reading it I knew the title fit. If you have read books time management or just all the tips in every magazine you come across and you still feel like time gets away from you this ebook will help you make you life more manageable. It is simple, easy to read and it gives concrete time management techniques. More importantly, however, it shows you how to apply it to your own life. Most time management books give you tips on how to make lists and plan your day but this book takes it one step further - it explains how take action on those plans and how to learn from your mistakes if your plans are not effective. "25 Best" takes you through the process of overcoming procrastination, learning to say no, delegating appropriately, and how to communicate strategically so you can get more out of the time you have.

Pros: The book is laid out into 25 chapters, and each one is no more than 4-5 pages in length, making it easy to glance over the Table of Contents, and read quickly through whatever interests you most. Each lesson is 'en pointe', and doesn't waste time with casual talk and yet is engaging and written with utmost clarity. The book is fairly thin, and can fit in a large purse or briefcase. It can be read straight through (as I'm doing) or you can bounce around.

Cons: After ordering the book online, I got an email telling me that the book would be delayed by delivery for 4-6 weeks, instead of the 1-3 weeks I expected initially. Fortunally, it arrived in 3 weeks, since it came back into stock.

My Personal Thoughts: I like this book, because time management isn't exactly "pleasurable reading" for me. So, this is very quick & dirty. Instead of reading the whole book, I am tackling each chapter at a time, and within a month of owning the book, I'm halfway through re-organizing the clutter in my apartment, and have created a "tickler" file at work, which has already made my life less stressful, and easier to get to work, and quickly get started on projects. I could see myself referring back to this book in the future for tips. ..Conclusion: Definitely a keeper, but you must come with your own motivation, otherwise it'll just collect dust on your shelf.

Twenty-five best time management tools and techniques? I'd say there are about four here. Number 17, for example is about a half-page: "Take risks." Thanks, very informative.

Another of my "favorites" is # 19: "Hold Better Meetings", where it advises you on the first of the two pages (well not quite two pages) to "hold meetings in atypical places...at a local low-key restaurant." Then two bullets later it advises not to serve food because "it adds unneeded cost, calories and distraction."

I would say that if tips like "follow up on outstanding items" are eye-opening to you, and this is the only book you can buy, then it's OK to let money go for it. Otherwise, I would suggest David Allen's "Getting Things Done", or Alec MacKenzie's "The Time Trap".

The "Cliff's notes" of Time Management.

I found the information was clear, concise and well presented. It's a good book to have on your desk as a reference when you feel yourself drifting into disorganization to motivate you to get back on track.

The only thing is I felt like it was snippets with no real cohesion. You could read it thinking...well I could do this, and that, or this and that... but there was no clear philosophy to bring it all together.

It's an excellent sampler of approaches, though...and as someone who has read many of the same books listed, I'd attest that the author's understanding and abbreviated versions of each of the time management techniques are spot-on.

If I HAD time to read a time management book, then I wouldn't need a time management book! Pamela Dodd's book is truly the first to take this obvious fact, entirely overlooked in the literature fact, and provide a seriously condensed treatment of the BEST time management techniques, theories, and PHILOSOPHIES of modern times.

I felt as if I had actually READ 25 books on time management, ... yet I finished the book on a short plane ride.

Can't recommend highly enough, and excellent, concise, informative read!

I have read many books on time management and this is by far one of the most to-the-point and immediately useful books on the subject. It's as if the author took the best from all the experts and put it into one concise manual minus all the fluff that authors sometimes use to "fill up the pages". The book is written in a way to motivate and help you see that you can be more productive starting right now. My productivity has dramatically increased as a result of reading this book and implementing the concepts, and it wasn't difficult to do! Thanks Pamela and Doug for a book that I actually read from cover to cover and made an impact on my business and life.
Rhonda Ryder - ghostwriter and marketing professional, www.helpmerhondamarketing.com

Dodd and Sundheim did their research in writing 25 Best Time Management Tools and Techniques: How to Get More Done without Driving Yourself Crazy. They cite all of the leading works in this genre and narrow the best ideas down into five easy-to-read sections. They also provide two appendices filled with other resources related to the subject. If you are looking for a work that summarizes all the great ideas related to time management, go to this book first!

Their five sections, Focus, Plan, Organize, Take Action, and Learn, provide a logical format for understanding what it takes to declutter and simplify your life. The book is short and to-the-point and provides the reader with flexibility to jump from idea to idea without feeling like they've missed something important.

Mostly, I like this book because it reminds us that when we talk about time management we are really talking about self management. We are not trying to control time; we are trying to manage the events in our lives, both tangible and intengible, in a way that renders greater results and greater joy. This book tells you how to do that.