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Everyone gets 168 hours a week, but it never feels like enough, does it? Work gobbles up the lion's share--many professionals are working as much as 70 hours a week--leaving less and less for rest, exercise, family, and friends. You know, all those things that make life great.

Most people think productivity is about finding or saving time. But it's not. It's about making our time work for us. Just imagine having free time again. It's not a pipe dream.

In Free to Focus, New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt reveals to readers nine proven ways to win at work so they are finally free to succeed at the rest of life--their health, relationships, hobbies, and more. He helps readers redefine their goals, evaluate what's working, cut out the nonessentials, focus on the most important tasks, manage their time and energy, and build momentum for a lifetime of success.

402 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2019

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Michael Hyatt

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5 stars
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3 stars
1,251 (17%)
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1 star
118 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 507 reviews
Profile Image for Nicholas Kotar.
Author 39 books365 followers
April 18, 2019
I'm a Michael Hyatt fan. Even so, I'm sometimes (frequently) disappointed by the amount of fluff that he and his company sometimes pass off as substance. THIS book, however, is all good. I took the course about a year ago, and the book is even better. It's revolutionized my way of planning my entire life, and I'm a better man for it (dare I say it?) The audiobook is good, but you need the text version to really get the most out of it. Couple this with Deep Work and Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, and you can seriously change your relationship with time, work, and your own legacy. Recommended.
Profile Image for Jordan Shirkman.
253 reviews42 followers
May 23, 2019
This is one of the few business/productivity books that isn’t bloated and cuts straight to the chase with a simple, thoughtful system. I admire Michael Hyatt’s discipline and commitment to doing what he loves and is proficient at.

Free to Focus balances productivity insights and theory with plenty of practical application. Hyatt also provides helpful worksheets that will help you implement his ideas. Unlike most other business books, he doesn’t go overboard on specifics that won’t work in your context and fortunately doesn’t anecdote you to death.

If you’re a knowledge worker, this book can certainly help you think about your work in a different way, focus on the work that matters most, and improve your output not by doing more, but by doing less.
Profile Image for Kellie Reynolds.
101 reviews8 followers
April 14, 2019
I thought I was done with productivity books. However, I am a fan of Michael Hyatt so I decided to purchase his latest book, Free to Focus. The book lives up to its subtitle: A total productivity system to achieve more by doing less. Free to Focus, if you read it and take time to complete all of the activities, is truly transformational.

The book starts by identifying the problem: we live a distracted life. We are bombarded by information, so nothing gets our full attention. A quote from Oliver Burkeman sets the tone for the book: “What will your life be, in the end, but the sum total of everything you spent it focusing on?”

Hyatt breaks the book and productivity system into three steps, each with three sub-parts.

Step one- Stop. In this case, stop does not refer to dropping an activity (that comes later), but rather to taking a pause to reflect. Hyatt takes you through exercises that allow you to decide what you want out of life (formulate), determine what activities you should focus on (evaluate), and use rest to help you improve results (rejuvenate). The exercise associated with “evaluate” force you identify areas of work that you need to eliminate because you are not the best person to do them. I loved the “rejuvenate” information because it emphasizes the importance of caring for ourselves physically, mentally, and relationally.

Step two- Cut. Yes, this is where you go through the process of activity-decluttering. The “eliminate” exercises emphasize the importance of getting rid of activities that eat up time and energy. Time is finite! The “eliminate” information includes strategies for saying no to new requests and for dealing with unwanted existing commitments. I like the fact that Hyatt emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and honoring commitments. If you said “yes,” you can’t dump and run. The “automate” activities are fantastic! Hyatt includes examples of how to use routines, templates, and automation to make your life more efficient. And the last part of step two is….delegate. We know we should delegate, but “it takes too much time to explain, so I will do it myself.” There are other excuses. The delegation information is this book is the best I have seen. It clearly explains the rationale, provides a clear process, and describes five levels of delegation based on the experience of the other person and the stakes of the task.

Step three- Act. It’s time to put it to work and get the important things done! The first exercise is to “consolidate” by planning your ideal week. Hyatt emphasizes the impossibility of multitasking. It is inefficient and does not work. The ideal week exercise involves batching activities, to the extent possible, to avoid toggling and wasting energy. This is a difficult exercise, but it does not have to be perfect the first time. I am looking forward to drafting and revising my ideal week. The second exercise involves prioritizing tasks on a weekly and daily basis. It is easy to write a to-do list and go through the day completing whatever tasks seem most attractive. However, that practice often leads to end of the day regret- “I was busy all day, but did not touch my most important work.” It may sound daunting to take time to reflect each day, but the focus and clarity are worth the effort. The last exercise is “activate,” which involves eliminating distractions so you can focus on the priorities identified in the earlier steps.

The book comes with resources to use throughout the steps and exercises. I suggest you read through the entire book so you understand the process and then go back through a second time and complete the exercises. Some of the exercises will become daily or weekly practices.

This book can help anyone focus on priorities and be more productive- teachers, community volunteers, parents who home school, executives, business owners, students, etc.

Profile Image for James.
594 reviews31 followers
October 1, 2019
This book, which I listened to on Audible, might be useful to someone just starting out in their career or who have no idea how to organize their time or manage their work.

For anyone who has been in a professional environment for any length of time, most of this is merely hearing what worked for someone else. There are some good reminders and two or three useful tips offered, but I would not recommend reading (listening to) this book to find them.

I likely would've given this another star if it weren't for the constant pitches for the author's organizer product.

I'd recommend reading and implementing Covey's SEVEN HABITS for an effective self-management system.
Profile Image for Greg.
1,635 reviews96 followers
July 18, 2020
Worth reading, but primarily for someone early in their career, or even who is still a student and who want's to accomplish more meaningful goals. For anyone who has read worthwhile material in this space (such as Covey's First Things First), Hyatt's ideas and recommendations will not be new. Nonetheless, there he recommends some useful tools and techniques, and for that purpose, it's worth a skim to find what is new and useful to you.

Hyatt is a fan of Allen's Getting Things Done, where I am not. I found it too complicated and time consuming - when I tried the method, I spent more time planning and organizing my time than actually getting things done. However, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful for other with different needs. Hyatt puts forth other ideas that seem useful to me, many of which I have been doing for years. Free to Focus did give me a few ideas for tweaking my own priority management practices that I have found helpful. Other will undoubtedly get benefit from it as well.
Profile Image for Sebastian Hetman.
155 reviews10 followers
Read
December 11, 2019
I read this book on a recommendation, but it wasn't really for me so I'll leave the rating out.

Free to Focus may be great for overstressed and overworked corporate managers who need to hear obvious truths from an authority figure before giving them any serious consideration. I found Hyatt's platitudes on how to delegate and prioritize nothing but a repeat of what every other book on management tells you. Which may be exactly what some people need to hear again and again. Who knows, maybe this time they will put it into practice.

The one thing that stood out, however, was the Focus Compass (Copyright, TM, All Rights Reserved, etc.), which gives you a neat tool to look at all the things you're busy doing and find those that distract you from doing meaningful work.

I might recommend this book to those who feel overwhelmed by their daily torrent of tasks and are looking to find some balance.
Profile Image for Britany.
1,159 reviews498 followers
September 2, 2023
Picked this up for a work book club and I love productivity hacks, ways to be efficient and the like.

I really enjoyed the first section where the author reminds the reader to stop and assess. Figure out the main plan and gave many examples and quotes about why this is important. To get rid of most of the junk to direct your freedom compass in the right direction and filled with the tasks that you enjoy and are good at.

It quickly fell apart for me after that. It was published in 2019, so right before the pandemic, which vastly changed the technology and the workplace and systems drastically. I also felt that the second half was a bunch of other people's methods summarized into this book.
Profile Image for Dustin Turner.
88 reviews8 followers
April 5, 2019
If you've never read or listened to Michael Hyatt before, you need to. He's excellent when it comes to goal setting and productivity. This book is no doubt helpful for productivity. If you follow Hyatt, a lot of the ideas in this book are not necessarily new. He has refined some of his ideas. Still, it was helpful to read it. I've found I need to keep reminding myself of what I need to do to become more productive.
20 reviews
June 20, 2020
Good read if you haven’t read anything in this space

If you haven’t read any productivity books already I’m sure this would be quite insightful.
However, as I have read quite a few I found I skimmed the majority of this book.
There was also a lot of fluff in it and could have been more concise, or had more detail.
A lot of these strategies also seem to be geared towards people in higher management.
Profile Image for Христо Блажев.
2,591 reviews1,768 followers
August 10, 2020
Супер фокус за по-малко, но по-ефективна работа: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/s...

И ако не можете да бъдете като изобретателя Хюго Гернсбак и неговия Изолатор, огромна каска, която го вадела от света ефективно – или поне докато имало въздух в нея, то може би е полезно да прочетете “Супер фокус”, вместо пак часове наред несъзнателно да скролвате из фийда си или да се зомбирате пред телевизора. Няма да се спирам подробно на методите на Хаят, защото те са взаимосвързани – започват с едно ударно спиране, рязка спирачка на бясната надпревара, в която повечето участваме охотно или насила, след което извежда как да се формулират приоритети и как след това всичко, което не е такова, да бъде или елиминирано, или автоматизирано, или делегирано. И сетне идва наистина забавната част...

Locus Books
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/s...
Profile Image for Kristaps.
283 reviews
January 28, 2021
I'd say this is book + workbook for your focus improvement. Did it bring some new science to the table? Not a lot. However it was quite well structured, with few anecdotes here and there to liven it up. The author provides quite a lot of practical materials to work with and the book describes the general principles and thought process behind them. Remember - Time is fixed. Our energy level is fixed. So work with that. Priorities, learning to say no, understanding routines, setting goals, minimizing the unnecessary. Those are few of the lessons. I did enjoy the practical tasks (with all the forms) that went together with this and after filling most of them, I do have some key improvements or new ideas that I implemented. The book cuts straight to the chase, and that is a big plus for a book about productivity.
Profile Image for Amirreza.
15 reviews
August 8, 2023
اصلا از این جور کتاب ها خوشم نمیاد.خیلی تک بعدی به آدمیزاد نگاه می‌کنند‌. چیزهایی رو بدیهی فرض میکنند که بدیهی نیستند. پر از جدول‌ها و نمودارهای وسوسه کننده که به آدم این حس رو میده که اگه این کتابو بخرم، کامل بخونمش و جدول‌هاش رو پر کنم، میتونم تصمیم جدی بگیرم یه آدم دیگه بشم و بهترین وزژن خودم رو ارائه بدم و از این جور حرفا. احساس میکنم درک درستی از ادم‌ها ندارند، با این که کلی به تحقیقات دانشگاهی ارجاع میدهند درک درستی از روانشناسی هم ندارند، بلکه گزینشی و برای اثبات ادعاشون اون رفرنس رو ارائه میدهند. تنها چیزی که خوب میشناسند نقطه ضعف‌های آدم‌هاست و میخوان یکسری راه حل که در عمل هم به کار کسی نمیاد بهشون غالب کنند.
Profile Image for Shannon Maddox.
177 reviews1 follower
September 10, 2020
What an insulting tome. He should have called it "How to feel self important by putting all your work on your underlings so you can go off to Maui, do nothing, but take all the credit." I've worked for people who treated their staff this way and I'll never do it again.
Profile Image for H.b. Charles.
86 reviews321 followers
April 18, 2019
Filled with practical advice. Picked up good principles and pointers to guard, accomplish goals, and overcome distractions.
Profile Image for Daron Yondem.
Author 7 books129 followers
October 24, 2021
This is a very good reminder of the fundamentals of productivity and focus to help craft an increased, razor-sharp impact in day-to-day work. There is nothing groundbreaking in the book, but definitely one of the best short reads that summarizes all you need to get back in shape.
Profile Image for Mina.
8 reviews1 follower
June 3, 2023
It wasn’t that much perfect or useful for me.i knew many tips from the past. It’s a bit good for the bosses or managers.
8 reviews3 followers
March 3, 2019
This book is how one would hope productivity would be taught at work. Free to Focus takes you from defensive to offense with your tasks and commitments at the office. Further, it makes a strong case why unplugging from work is important and should be intentional. The system is comprised from Michael Hyatt’s years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience.

The book covers the Free to Focus system in depth and the steps are easy to follow, which is especially important if you’ve never heard of the author before. There’s resources online and at the back of the book, so you can get started right away. You’ll also notice the forgiving tone —“don’t worry about getting it perfect”— throughout the book.

I received my free, advanced copy and began to dive in. For long-time readers of the author, I still recommend the book because it’s Hyatt’s knowledge of productivity all rolled into one neat package.

Before learning about this system, I would spend my days trying to catch up thinking, “there has to be a better way ‘the people at the top’ know about.”
Profile Image for Scquest.
65 reviews22 followers
December 31, 2020
Point: Productivity is not the ability to accomplish more, but to be able to accomplish what is best.

Path: Hyatt shows how to Stop, Cut, and Act. The process of stopping and reorientation myself will allow me to eliminate what is not my priority and will free time to act on what I ought to be focusing on.

Sources: Productivity gurus, technology studies, and current workplace information.

Agreement: I appreciated his focus on the most important things. I think the concept of the Big Three was worth the entire book for me.

Personal App: Am I trying to accomplish more or am I attempting to complete what is best?

Favorite Quote: “True productivity starts with being clear on what we truly want.”


Stars: 4 out of 5

It would be worth another read and I would recommend it to someone who:
Is struggling with overwork
Has no idea what they are doing with all their time
Self employed or freelancer

Other books along this theme would be:
Challies, T. Do More Better
McKeown. Essentialism
Allen. Getting Things Done
Glee and 99U. Manage your Day-toDay
Perman, M. What’s Best Next
Profile Image for Stan Skrabut.
Author 9 books25 followers
July 13, 2019
Do you feel that no matter how hard you work, you are not making any progress? There are certain periods in my life where I felt that way. It is one of the reasons that I am so interested in productivity books and podcasts. I want to learn how to hack the system. However, I may be looking at it all wrong. According to Michael Hyatt in his new book, Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less , I should be working on productivity in order to get more of my life back not just to fill it with more to do. Read more
Profile Image for Annie.
1,032 reviews857 followers
July 12, 2020
I give this book 3.5 stars. The main point is to work only on tasks where you feel passionate about and are proficient in doing. Then eliminate or delegate those tasks that don't fit into that desire zone. The guidance is basic and simple, like identifying top goals for the day, week, and month, getting enough sleep, eating healthy, and exercising. It's a matter of developing a routine and good habits, much like creating and following a budget for financial stability.
Profile Image for Todd.
Author 8 books8 followers
January 8, 2021
A great “nuts and bolts” book on productivity and focus. A lot of practical tips and ideas on how to be effective and accomplish what is important to you. The author does a great job of explaining not only the “how” but the “why” as well.
Profile Image for Nderitu  Pius .
216 reviews15 followers
Read
September 25, 2021
An amazing book. The part that really got me in this book is that take time out to plan for your week in blocks which consist of themes. Do not plan your life around your work, plan your work around your life 🧬. Superb!!
Profile Image for Lisa.
Author 1 book16 followers
May 26, 2019
Even though I am most definitely not a member of Hyatt's target audience, I still found it very useful and am hoping to apply many of the ideas suggested.
Profile Image for Michael Storts.
83 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2019
This book was a great refresher for me. I have been a long time follower and user of Michael Hyatt's productivity and life systems. I would recommend this book to anyone!
Profile Image for Vovka.
1,004 reviews47 followers
April 6, 2020
A system for figuring out what you're working on and not working on. Fairly standard example of the genre.
Profile Image for Hope Helms.
129 reviews4 followers
December 28, 2020
Reminded me of Steven Covey’s book on time management except written better. 🙂
Profile Image for Maria Kaikiewa.
85 reviews5 followers
December 17, 2021
Книгата може да е полезна само за тесен кръг от хора, работещи в офис. Авторът повтаря едни и същи неща безброй пъти. Няма никакви новооткрития или мотивиращи елементи.
Profile Image for Pavel Annenkov.
443 reviews141 followers
October 30, 2019
О ЧЕМ КНИГА:
Очередная попытка научить нас быть эффективными в расстановке приоритетов в работе, для того чтобы не жертвовать своей жизнью и здоровьем. Ожидал от Хаята большего. Ничего нового он особо не написал. Все подходы и мысли старые и уже описаннные до него в других книгах. Хотя не лишне себе еще раз напомнить о важности регулярных занятий спортом, о том, что нужно высыпаться и избегать негативных людей вокруг. Ценность книги в систематизации всего, что мы знаем на эту тему и в описании новых подходов и исследований на тему продуктивности.

КАКАЯ БЫЛА ЦЕЛЬ ЧТЕНИЯ:
- Найти для себя новые методы оптимизации ежедневной работы и расстановки приоритетов.

ГЛАВНЫЕ ВЫВОДЫ:
- Когда сваливается большая задача, то лучше сначала спокойно и без суеты провести ретрит или стратсессию для ее обсуждения, потратив день или два, чем сразу бросаться ее решать. Ясность и четкость планов компенсирует во много раз время, потраченное на обдумывание и поиск решений.

- Регулярные физические упражнения влияют не только на мое здоровье, но и на уровень моей уверенности в себе.

- Негативные люди вокруг, которые забирают у меня энергию, перекрывают весь позитивный эффект, который я получаю от правильной диеты и физических упражнений.

- Позитивные люди вокруг повышают мою продуктивность минимум на 15%.

- Встречи с самим собой и важные запланированные дела в формате deep work - это тоже встречи, которые я не могу отменить и поэтому можно спокойно говорить людям, что я занят на встречах в это время.

- Записать видео приветствие для того чтобы посылать каждому новому сотруднику компании, где я рассказываю про наш бизнес, наши цели и ценности и что я ожидаю от его работы.

ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
- Никогда не буду пропускать обед. Энергия от правильной еды, смена обстановки и перезагрузка компенсируют время потраченное на дорогу в кафе и обед.

- Сделаю папку в почте с набором писем со стандартными ответами на запросы и предложения.

- Буду использовать MegaBatching для deep work.

ЕЩЕ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ:
Петр Людвиг "Победи прокрастинацию"
Profile Image for Ellen.
816 reviews3 followers
November 18, 2024
"If you want to become free to focus, you can't spend your whole day working on someone else's priorities."

I've been working on getting through this book for about 18 months. The company I work for has been implementing these ideas for the past couple of years and the leadership wanted all of its employees to read it. This had some great practical advice on how we can be more productive in our work, so we can maximize our time out of work on what we like. One thing that bugged me about the book is that it didn't have the worksheets built in, but rather forced the reader to go to the website to print them off. I would have much preferred to have the worksheets included at the end of each chapter or at the back of the book. Regardless, this book has some solid and practical ideas.

I've been trying to implement some of these principles outside of work. Although it doesn't all apply seamlessly to family life, it has been helpful. I especially have loved the idea of the Big 3 each day and week. That has helped me plan my time and tasks to better align with my goals. I loved the idea of morning and evening "rituals" or automated schedules so you don't have to think about what comes next. I also have really benefited from minimizing notifications on my phone and email. This has made me reevaluate my goals, priorities, and time spent throughout my day. It's also inspired me to help my kids with these concepts. I want to help them know what to focus on and decrease distractions so they can have time to do what they want; I want to help them increase their "frustration tolerance" so they can stick with hard tasks.

This is a book I'll definitely be reading again. When I read it this time, I went through and took the time to do each task recommended at the end of each chapter. Next time I'm sure I'd do some of the tasks, but I don't know if I'd spend quite so much time on them.

As an aside, I recently finished Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and it paired really well.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 507 reviews

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