137 of 144 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Most Productive Day Ever, October 7, 2002
This review is from: The Time Trap: The Classic Book on Time Management (Paperback)
I'm not quite sure how I found out about this book but I'm
grateful I did. Anyway, I read the reviews of the book on
Amazon.com and they were amazing. Everyone said it was
hands down the best book on Time Management, an all time
classic.
In the past I've read several books on time management,
listened to audiotape programs and bought different
organizers so that I'd organize myself better. This book
covers all of that but it also details how to actually
**motivate** us to manage our time better.
This book originally came out in 1972 and is updated for
the information age in 1997. The information it contains is
what he teaches in his seminars and is very detailed. You
get the equivalent of a weeklong seminar by simply reading
and acting on the ideas in the book.
The other day I got this glossy sales letter and
advertisement from Tony Robbins in the mail. It was for
his, Time of Your Life Program. He was asking $[$$] for his
program and it didn't even include the organizer that goes
with his time management system. Then I looked at my $...
Time Trap book and realized I had the same or better value
in this program. Everything Tony promised was in this book.
The Time Trap, is written by someone who had been teaching
time management for the last 30 years. Tony Robbins is a
great personal development teacher but I feel I'd rather
learn time management from the leading expert in the field.
From someone who has focused on that alone.
While reading the opening chapters, I was glad to find out
that I was already doing the most important element time
management -- I actually had a written plan for the
workday. Alec says that having a written plan is one of the
most important elements of time management. My productivity
has gone way up since I started doing that on a regular
basis.
In chapter four Alec shows you how to do a time log. I
thought it was interesting and felt I'd move on with my
reading before I did anything. However, for some reason the
next morning I decided to do the Time Log.
The Time Log is simply a way to keep track of what you are
doing. You don't have to work on your time management. You
just write down everything you are doing. Surprisingly it
didn't take that long to do the log.
If you answer the phone, you have to write it down. If
someone interrupts you, you have to write it down. If you
are daydreaming, you have to log it as well. There is no
judgment here because I was the only person who was going
to see this time log.
The other aspect of the log is you had to write down your
major goals for the day and rank them in order of priority.
Then you had to put a priority label on each activity that
you logged, on a scale of 1-4. With 1 being important and urgent, and 4 being something that was a complete waste of
time.
Then I just wrote down the time, what I was doing, its
priority, and when I was finished with that activity. I
used a kind of shorthand technique with symbols to make the
data entry quicker.
Something very interesting happened. For the first time in
my life I felt, I was in a race to get things done. I
wanted to get them done faster than the time I had allotted
for myself. I worked quickly and efficiently. I wasn't
letting interruptions get to me.
Never in my life did I have such a productive workday with
so many varied tasks and projects. I got many things done.
I felt great about myself.
I wish I had better news about the following days. They
were not as efficient. I even tried the time log on two
other occasions. However, I never completed it. When I was
wasting time, I didn't want to write it down. But I'm sure
I'll improve it the next time. That is the whole point of
the time log anyway. To show you where you need to improve.
Just doing these time logs taught me several things that
will help me save time in the future. One thing I learned
from this book was to avoid interruptions. I thought I was
good at that because I let my voicemail take all my calls
and I only called back when I was ready to call.
I encountered another interruption, however - email. I get
email constantly throughout the day and I'm very eager to
look at it as it comes in. I never realized it, but email
was constantly interrupting me and often it would lead me
to do things that weren't my highest priorities.
The bottom line is that by using the Time Log, I got at
least two major benefits - it gets me to work faster
whenever I use it, and I discovered my areas of weakness.
Now, at least, I know the things that need improvement.
This review in no way does justice to the book, The Time
Trap. There are so many useful tips there. Even if you only
read a few chapters, you are bound to improve your time
management skills.
Better time management means earning more money. If you
are more productive, you are more valuable to your company,
or to your own business or practice. I'm sure if I stick
with the book, I'll improve my efficiency by at least 35%.
Along with that, my self-esteem will rise as well as I
begin to feel increasingly competent. I don't know about
you but I feel better about myself the more disciplined I
am towards achieving my goals. In addition, I'll be
reaching many more of those goals if I use my time better.
I rate, The Time Trap, by Alec Mackenzie a 5 out of 5
stars. Even if you love what you do, you may find that you
aren't using your time as wisely as you could. So go do
yourself a favor and try to improve your time management by
1% each month. By the end of the year, you will have made
great progress.
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