I receive a daily email from Michael Hyatt on leadership, self-improvement building a platform, or some other business or self-improvement related topic. I also read his popular book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World since it was recommend twice in a writer’s conference that I had attended. I have found Hyatt to have a good insight into many business related topics. When I found this short, ebook - Shave 10 Hours From Your Workweek - was available on how to increase my personal effectiveness and efficiency I was excited to see what Hyatt recommended that might be beneficial to me.
This book’s intention is to teach the reader to reduce the amount of time at work each week without reducing quantity and quality of results so available time can be used for higher importance activities that bring greater joy and fulfillment to life. Hyatt recommends four major points areas that can aid in shaving unproductive and wasted time at work and outside work:
1. Boost Your Energy
2. Guard Your Time
3. Sharpen Your Focus
4. Flex Your 'No' Muscle
Hyatt is good at identifying actionable items that can be done in each of these four areas to improve overall individual performance.
Here are a few points I learned or was reemphasized to me that I need to improve in my life:
•Sleep is important for productivity over a long period of time.
•Don’t just eat what you enjoy at the moment. Instead, eat for the effect it will have later.
•The importance of planning and prioritizing – principles so capably taught by Stephen Covey.
•There's no such thing as multitasking.
•There’s a big difference between being busy and being productive.
•The Web is most people’s No. 1 time suck. We can daily waste minutes or even hours - Most time on the web is spent on not important and not urgent tasks (Covey’s Quadrant 4).
•You don’t need to continue habits that no longer serve you.
•Do you have a time management problem or a self-management problem? This point hit me like a ton of bricks. I have plenty of time to do all the important things in my life if I am better at self-management.
I recommend this book to those who want a short read on how to improve effectiveness and efficiency at the workplace and life in general. There is no groundbreaking information in this book but is a good reminder of things that that can be done to be a better employee, owner, boss, parent, leader and person.
Other books I’ve read by Michael Hyatt
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World