Customer Reviews

Focus Audio Workshop

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

During my initial first few minutes of listening I realized that Stephen Covey wasn't the main speaker on this tape (he narrates some sections). Suddenly I thought maybe the quality would be mediocre. That this would be some cranked out product just to make a buck. I was wrong. I listened to all 3 CD's (the 4th is a computer demo) and enjoyed the presentation highly.

Steve Jones is the person who gives presentation. I believe it is a recorded live process. What I liked about this alot is it covered all of the Franklin Covey time management principles in a very focussed manner (hence the title...??).

This CD series serves as an excellent refresher or introduction to the principles of managing your time. They introduce the time quadrants and explain in pretty good detail how to use paper, PDA or computer planners to manage your time. The sessions never bog down in any one area and they move from topic to topic at just about the right pace.

Obviously this CD set has some ties to the services and courses offered by Franklin Covey. They'd love it if you registered for the full course or bought a $200 planner/binder. However the course on tape/CD will standalone quite well. The speaker is clear and has a good delivery. I enjoyed this and found the time passed quickly (which doesn't always happen) as I was listening. Buy this - you won't be sorry!

This audio series has been extremely helpful to me in getting a better understanding of Covey's principles regarding time management and prioritization. After reading his book "First Things First," I felt I needed an additional resource to grasp fully the principles he was presenting. This audio series accomplished that very situation.

For the price, this CD series is an excellent bargain. I recommend it highly for anyone wanting to get a basic understanding of Covey's life-changing techniques.

A litle background

I used the paper based Franklin Planner about a decade ago and did a career shift to where I was using company software for all my contact work along with an appointment calendar. B/c of that - I scrapped the Planner and used a palm pilot for all my phone numbers. At the time - I had taken the full day live course for a few hundred bucks and found it invaluable in understanding "how to" use the nuts and bolts of priorities / daily lists / sharpen saw features / etc.

Things changed professionally for me - and I wanted to revisit the Planner to see if it would be valuable to me again today. I purchased some filler pages for my old planner binder and tried to get back in the swing of things and see if the Planner would be useful to me now. I didn't want to spend the money on "the live course" again - but wanted to get refreshed. I read a few Covey books I had in my personal library - but they were more or less conceptual and didn't really go through the use of his planner beyond generalitites. I found out that this new and updated program might fill in the gaps and the price was right so I tried it.

***** I AM VERY HAPPY AUDIO PROGRAAM *****. So far, I've listened to the first 3 disks and they are pretty much a recording of a live trainer giving their seminars. It does a very thorough job of walking you through the areas of evaluating and writing your guiding p;rinciples / how to effectively plan weekly and daily with a system like this / how to select and prioritize tasks for each day ( things like don't ever schedule more than 65 % of yoru day in daily tasks ) - as well as documenting and note retreival.

The focus of the seminar CD's is on a paper based planner - but he gives enough theory to integrate paper and electronic if you're interested in that.

I just got this program and have listened to the first 3 disks ( live seminar recording ). There is a workbook and CD - Rom along with it that I have not used - it's worth adding - I'll update my review.

In my opinion - this is pretty close to the same content that you'll get out of a seminar - and if want to learn the Franklin Planner system - this program OR - the seminar is "A MUST". There is an online tutorial of the basics on Franklin Covey site - but the content in Seminar and / or this program is really needed to really use it effectively.

This is basically a rehash, in some cases, word for word of a Hyrum Smith audio "Managing Personal Change" The audio is not done by Dr. Covey, it's done by another individual who's not very entertaining, it seems memorized.

I've long admired and respected everything else from Dr. Covey and this "rendition" shocks me. A repackaging of old stuff, uninspiring. I feel cheated.

When I became responsible for managing 50 people a few years back, I had finally hit a wall. I could no longer knock out the day to day tasks and still focus on the long-term needs of my division. I went into a FC store and bought a planner. Luckily for me the sales person strongly recommend I pick up this tape also. A planner is great but this book really helped me use my planner effectively and do more then knock out the days tasks. Another side benefit, it improved my relationship with my wife, there is quite abit about work/life balance in this CD and taught me to take 5-10 minutes and focus on my wife along with work.

I think this set of CD with CD-Rom is a good deal. Covey is also in the audio program, with both other Frankin Covey's associates inside as well.

This program updated Frankin Covey's previous What Matters Most program, and has added a lot of additional perspectives on integrating PDA, Window Outlook, and Paper-based planning tools.

This program has its value. The previous 2 comments in this customer review have not provided a fair, in-depth look at this new program. I almost missed buying/owning this new, interesting CD set, if I had totally bought into the last two comments, which could be quite one-sided--biased!

While initiallly rehashing Covey's four quadrants theory, the book lays the groundwork for setting priorities. People who do not have time to take the Focus On Priorites course will gain insight into Covey's methodology of setting goals and priorities. While not as inspiring as other works, it still was a good help (but not great)...

It is like receiving the seminar at the office, or at home.
I took notes and helped me to take advantage of my Franklin Covey planner. Excellent!!!
Logistics are amazing!! it arrived soooo fast!

Good content, helps to have a background in the Franklin Covey system.