The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

by Stephen R. Covey

book data

5,832 ratings, 3.81 average rating, 778 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		29%
4		35%
3		24%
2		7%
1		2%

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published

November 9th 2004 (first published 1989) by Free Press

binding

Paperback, 373 pages

isbn

0743269519 (isbn13: 9780743269513)

description

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues...more

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09/19/07

Virginia rated it:

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Anyone

Ever since I worked at the bookstore at Virginia Tech, I would watch the douchebag* business major undergrads buy this book for their classes and look down upon them, and the book by association, as, well, douchebags.

*This is not to say that all undergrad business majors are douchebags. I've met one really really awesome one. Additionally, after working at a major university bookstore, a majority of all undergrad students can be fairly classified as douchebags. Jebus.

Cons...more

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

4 comments

10/25/07

Marie sweeney rated it:

bookshelves: nonfiction, required-reading

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: people that don't think Stephen Covey has enough money

I think the sign of a great book is when, right inside the cover there is a pull out brochure that encourages you to order more of the authors products - that's some quality shit when you see that.

But the book itself, well it has charts: flow charts, boxed charts, circle charts, up and down charts, sideways charts, charts with arrows, charts with triangles and charts with dotted lines.
This book uses words like "synergy" and "proactive"....repeatedly
Th...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

10 comments

08/20/07

Stacey rated it:

bookshelves: gag-me-with-a-spoon

Read in August, 1997

Oh my Gawd, how much did I hate this one. We had to read this the summer before a freshman college Intro to Business Class - perhaps I read it at the wrong age? When Steven Covey starts talking about his kid mowing the lawn and the motivation behind it...ugh!

Needless to say, I only got through about 2 of the 7 habits - I guess I'm not a highly effective person. And I will not be purchasing any of Mr Covey's time management calendar systems either, thank you very much.

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10/16/07

Kay rated it:

bookshelves: myownbooks

easy to read :) but hard to do :D hahahah

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07/03/08

Beth rated it:

(review of isbn 0671708635)

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: folks looking to increase their productivity

When I told someone that I had just finished "7 Habits", they remarked, "Covey sets a very high bar." I guess I hadn't thought about it that way, because I was too busy flogging myself for all of the time that I was wasting on what he referred to as Quadrant 1 & 3 activities.

Aside from reading the book, I also borrowed each habit on cd from the library. The audio recordings were released recently (within the last 3 years) and I felt that they really helped to di...more

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2 comments

03/30/09

Chad rated it:

(review of isbn 0671663984)

Read in March, 2009

recommended to Chad by: Jeff Disher

I keep hoping that one day, I'll read a self-help book that leads to an epiphany that revolutionizes my life. This was not that book. However, it did have a few good points. Here's what I got out of Stephen R. Covey's 7 habits:

1. Be proactive. You choose how to respond to what life throws at you.

2. Begin with the end in mind. Choose your short-term, daily behavior according to the plan you have for your entire life. Think about the legacy you want to leave. Put things in ...more

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07/02/08

Greg rated it:

bookshelves: personal-development, professional-development

Inspirational, developmental, and practical -- what a combination! The principles of behavior covered in this groundbreaking and long-respected book are of great worth to anyone seeking success in career, family, or any other aspect of their life. Covey discusses first the actions we must take (or habits we must develop) internally first - getting our heads and hearts right first. These include being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first. These constitute the ...more

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01/14/08

Tiffany rated it:

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Anyone who wants to improve their life and the lives of others.

A wonderful book! Stephen Covey is amazing! It's wonderful to think that such awesome things can come from the mind of one person.

It has been a great reminder to me that I need to progress as much as possible in this life, and live a life based on truth, values, and correct principles. ANd that multiple people working together can do a *lot* more than the equivalent of what they can all do working alone.

We have the choice to live a happy and productive life, or not. We d...more

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10/27/07

Wayne G rated it:

bookshelves: one-of-the-best, professional

Read in January, 1991

recommends it for: Anyone who is cynical about the book

I was a presenter at a conference on Total Quality Management and was basing most of my presentation on information I gleaned from The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge... at the end of the presentation I asked people in the audience to tell me if they knew of other books that covered the same issues as Senge and one person came up and told me that he had just read a best seller that explained Senge's theories in a much more accessible way... the book he referenced was The Seven Habits of Highly E...more

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1 comment

03/27/07

Leili Taeb rated it:

(review of isbn 0671708635)

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in March, 2007

I don't think it is necessary to read the book cover to cover. But I definitely suggest flipping through the pages and reading the main points.

The book uses the famous quote by Aristotle "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" and suggests that we should turn good acts into habits.

Then the book introduces 7 critical habits that can help anyone to have more success and happiness in life.

Here are the habits:

...more

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01/16/09

Tharon rated it:

bookshelves: tharons-recommendations

The whole world should read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s not like so many feel-good books with fluffy advice and a bag full of tricks to convince others to like you; the principles in this book are universal in nature, and can help all of us be better individuals and team units by focusing our efforts inward. Following every piece of advice Stephen R. Covey gives is not necessary, but he does a great job reminding us of those core principles that every human being knows (exc...more

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08/02/07

David rated it:

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: anyone willing to change for the better

There are a lot of self help/business improvement books out there... but this is the only one I can fully endorse for everyone. I had seen this book laying around our house growing up and chalked it up to another pop psychology piece of junk. But I was turned onto the book as one of the best bosses and leader I have ever known recommended this book so highly and regarded it with such impact that he was willing to pay me $50 to read it... So I did, of course, and it is an amazing book. I reco...more

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03/04/09

Tatiana rated it:

Excellent system for getting more out of life and becoming more who we want to be. Like any such system, it can only work to the extent that you put it into practice, but consistent application of its principles does generate positive change. I find this book to be excellent on re-reading as well. It never fails to inspire me with hope and determination. We really do have enormous amounts of power to change our lives, far more than we usually realize. Showing us that power, and how to put i...more

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10/22/07

Heye rated it:

bookshelves: alltimefavorites

Read in March, 1996

recommends it for: those seeking personal change

If there is a personal guide author on I can recommend reading, it is Stephen Covey. His book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has been a groundbreaking book for me. I’ve owned this book for over 11 years, read it once and thought it was a good book. Then I picked it up again and read it many times over I found Covey offers invaluable wisdom on personal growth and principals. I highly recommend this empowering book to anyone wanting a change. An extra bonus to the book is to find...more

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03/30/09

Jay rated it:

Read in June, 1997

This was the book the placed the name "Steven Covey" on the map of business and leadership literature.

He centered on the "inside-out" approach, that behaviour can be learned and is not entirely instinctive. A person can break old habits and replace them with more powerful effective habits that can make one's life richer and fuller.

The author believes that we should focus back on the Character Ethic rather than the Personality Ethic. He differentiates ...more

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03/04/09

Gene rated it:

Read in August, 1996

Read this way back in like 1997 or 1996 when my manager at MCI at the time enrolled me in a course related to the book. I really took a few of the principles to heart that have made me very efficient in my work and one of my favorite principals was something related to 'taking care of small quick tasks immediately'

I can't remember if it was a habit or just some insight but I seem to recall it as the 2-minute rule and have applied it to a lot of my life. Basically it means if you ha...more

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02/27/09

Luis rated it:

First I want to say that this book requires a certain level of maturity from the reader to be thoroughly understood. It is common now days to find "self-help" literature that centers on superficial solutions. The 7 habits goes out of its way to explain to the reader that superficial solutions never work and that real change is very, very difficult to achieve and it can only come from within, and never from the outside. Stephen Covey makes it clear from the beginning that he did not ...more

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06/09/09

Dan rated it:

Read in May, 2009

Note: The 4 star rating for the book applies under the assumption that you’re reading it for a reason. If this is the sort of thing you’re looking to read, I’d recommend it. It’s not something I’d push upon everyone I know, or suggest reading as entertainment.

I never read books like this, and am, in general, opposed to even the suggestion that I do so. However, some additional incentive recently presented itself, and it lead to me taking a leap into undesirable waters...more Note: The 4 star rating for the book applies under the assumption that you’re reading it for a reason. If this is the sort of thing you’re looking to read, I’d recommend it. It’s not something I’d push upon everyone I know, or suggest reading as entertainment.

I never read books like this, and am, in general, opposed to even the suggestion that I do so. However, some additional incentive recently presented itself, and it lead to me taking a leap into undesirable waters. I’ve been reading outside of my box a fair amount lately, and a nice side effect is that it makes other types of reading easier to get into. In this specific case, I received a 1 hour presentation on the book at work. This was during a lunch meeting. I’m on the invite list with all of the other recent hires, and some of the recent transfers. They typically revolve around cultural ideas and issues, and give us an opportunity to ask questions. This time the subject was the “7 Habits” book, but it was presented this time. The presentation delivered a good chunk of information that I consider boring or obvious, but did delvier an interesting way of categorizing tasks or activities undertaken in life. I’m exceptionally thankful for this portion, because the manager asked me shortly thereafter what I thought of the whole thing. I was very greatful that I could honestly make a positive remark on a subject that I am, perhaps even unreasonably, cynical about to begin with! The decision to do the reading however, came near the end of the presentation. I realized that if they valued this book highly enough to have one of the up and coming staff members present it to all the new folks, I could gain significant insight into what is valued and how “effectiveness” in the workplace is viewed. At the very least, it would allow me to understand the environment better when people are expressing plans or goals in similar language used in the book. These opportunities are rare, and the better I know the people I work with, and especially the people I work for, the more comfortable I am.

My motivation aside, the book has been a phenomenon of American business/success literature. Many copies sold, etc. and Intel was providing classes on it on a regular basis at one point. I’m not sure if they still do or not, but I know they did at one point. I’ve seen it referenced a number of times elsewhere, and seen it for sale all over the place. This does raise questions about the value of popularity, the strength of marketing, and others, but I still believe it to be significant. Honestly, that made me even more skeptical. One of these days, I’ll probably learn to be less skeptical of books that have been received well by a large audience, regardless of my affinity to the immediate content. We’ll see.

I’m pleasantly surprised to say that overall it was a good read. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to everybody I know, but I do think that everyone I know would probably get at least one useful thought out of reading it. That may seem like a contradiction, but I don’t believe it really is. The deal with recommendation is that I would prefer to save my literary influence for something that these folks would be more inclined to start, finish, and enjoy in a comprehensive sense.

The book is very cleanly written. There is little rambling, and I get the feeling that all of the repetition is intentional. Most of the time, I agree that the repetition was a reasonable decision. There are many stories mixed into the lessons, and I have mixed feelings about these. A small number of them were honestly interesting and illuminating. The majority of them did illustrate a point a little more fully, and served to break up the flow to keep it from getting too entrenched in the same voice. Enjoying these portions makes me feel like I’m having a short attention span catered to, but I imagine that it makes the book as a whole more accessible. It certainly did serve to make it more palatable for me to read larger chunks in a sitting. Some of the stories seemed so contrived that, even if they were true, they shouldn’t have made the cut. Anecdotes which make the author seem clever, or make difficult solutions seem easy are a pretty big turn off. Fortunately, there aren’t too many of these, and enough of the others are sincere and believable that it isn't too much trouble. The book is broken up well, and the concepts flow easily from one chapter to the next. Again, this contributes to the book being pretty easy reading.

I’m impressed at how a lot of weight is given to figuring out your own way to do things. There are specifics at some level of course, but they’re quite broad, and leave a lot of ways an individual could implement the ideas. Additionally, they talk about this stuff as ongoing work, which I like. I’m massively irritated by ideas that a quick shift in perspective will make everything work. This addresses personal effectiveness as an ongoing effort to be refined as time goes by. This was quite nice to see. The language surrounding interactions with other people is also coming from a philosophical point of view that is appealing to me. There is a lot of emphasis on respect, patience, and understanding as an ongoing effort. It talks about relationships with people as constantly evolving, and the importance of being good to the people around you. That’s a great thing to hear from a “success” book, and to me, it does lend a lot of credibility to the rest of the book.

The biggest thing I got out of it, was some new ideas of how to think about my projects and responsibilities. It’s not a huge shift, but it did add a few new things for consideration as I make plans and work on things. It’s also excellent to hear discussions of the development and maintenance of good, honest, relationships as good professional practice as well as a good personal and philosophical endeavor. I’ve found ideas from it impacting my thoughts on scheduling and interaction from time to time, and haven’t been irritated when it’s come up. I haven’t had any great breakthroughs from it, but to have more information or ideas at hand is helpful, and I feel like it gives me a better chance of doing the right thing. I’ve got a little more insight into my work environment, and will recognize vocabulary from the book when used. So, the book gave me pretty much exactly what I wanted.
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05/04/09

Jalandoni Olivero rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in April, 1989

This was the book that made Stephen Covey at familiar name in the workplace in the 80’s and 90’s. We were asked to read this in relation to a company-wide training on the same in the mid 80’s and my friends from other companies were also required to undergo the same training. The 7 habits will always be applicable as they are all based on common sense. However, there are some that was new during the 80’s like the paradigm shifting and the visualization. Now we have the “secret” – l...more

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01/07/09

Manderson rated it:

bookshelves: management, non-fiction, philosophy

Read in January, 2009

I was a little hesitant to pick up this book, being as that it is classified under self-help/motivational, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of management philosophy reinforcement under my belt. It's funny to think of high power corporate execs reading this book and taking notes about how to be deeper people. But there is indeed quite a bit of food for thought contained in this book, and it is well worth perusing, even if much of its framing must be taken with a grain of salt. Ye...more I was a little hesitant to pick up this book, being as that it is classified under self-help/motivational, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of management philosophy reinforcement under my belt. It's funny to think of high power corporate execs reading this book and taking notes about how to be deeper people. But there is indeed quite a bit of food for thought contained in this book, and it is well worth perusing, even if much of its framing must be taken with a grain of salt. Yes, the author seems to be firmly grounded in the 1950s, even as he communicates deeply spiritual and emotional insights. As an example, he feels the need to refer to dealing with other people's feelings as making deposits into their "Emotional Bank Accounts".

I also had to force myself to gloss over overtly Christian propagandizing sections in the book, as well as ignore instigations by the author to write a personal mission statement or a family mission statement (useful exercises, perhaps, but c'mon). I also had to ignore the frequent dated references in the book to the superiority of the Japanese business ethic.

Basically, the author does a great job of stating some deep thoughts about how to be more self-disciplined, principle centered, and motivated to develop, and he does it in an as structured and formal manner as possible to make it palatable to results-oriented businessmen. For those of us who have already spent a good deal of their lives looking within themselves for guidance, it is at the very least a good reminder of where our priorities should lay.

I found the book useful personally in that rather than strengthening my resolve to be a mindless cog in the machine of my employer, it actually strengthened my resolve to pay more attention to my own personal values and what gives me joy outside of work, and to begin to seek to transition into a new field of work where I can gain more time to devote to those areas.

There are plenty of "aha!" moments, in addition to a few "ugh" moments. As I said, take it with a grain of salt, and soak up the wisdom that there is to be conveyed by Mr. Covey.(less)

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