Notes/Feedback: This is a relatively new release by Cal. I wanted it to be more than what it was, so I have some mixed feelings about the book. Overall it is interesting and I think I was hooked into the premise since I spend most of my days in constant chaos between meetings and emails. I was hoping to get something new in that regard and how I could possibly better manage my day.
Overall Cal spends the book telling you how the knowledge worker (those of us working in an office) spend most of their days in a "hyperactive hive mind." As a result of all of this constant context switching and distraction we are wasting a lot of our time that could be spent on focused work. He outlines different ways that email is mostly a distraction to your ability to focus since it is constantly coming in and there are expectations to respond back as quickly as possible. The more recent use of Slack and other communication tools have made this worse, instead of better, since the communication has become even more frequent and in smaller fragmented doses. With each chapter Cal goes through a company or individual that struggled with certain aspects of email/Slack/meetings/etc and then outlines how they were able to dig their way out of it and regain their focus and productivity. Some examples are recent and some go back in history to the first times we have tried to optimize workflow processes for general laborers such as blacksmiths. To be honest, some of the more historical examples were more interesting to read about than his premise on how to solve for this email problem.
For his final proposal, he draws inspiration from the basic Kanban/Scrum boards and processes to manage your workflow. So if you are familiar with Scrum or Kanban there are a couple of chapters you can completely skip. His other suggestions are to only check email during designated time(s) in the day or in some cases he advocates to not use email or Slack at all for internal communication.
Recommendation: I would still likely recommend this book to some people. This would be a good read for those of us that might be struggling with focus at work and are the type to look for better communication tools to help them. Basically, people who do not realize how distracting emails, Slack or meetings are already. If you already have that awareness, then this book is not worth your time.
Notes/Feedback:
This is a relatively new release by Cal. I wanted it to be more than what it was, so I have some mixed feelings about the book. Overall it is interesting and I think I was hooked into the premise since I spend most of my days in constant chaos between meetings and emails. I was hoping to get something new in that regard and how I could possibly better manage my day.
Overall Cal spends the book telling you how the knowledge worker (those of us working in an office) spend most of their days in a "hyperactive hive mind." As a result of all of this constant context switching and distraction we are wasting a lot of our time that could be spent on focused work. He outlines different ways that email is mostly a distraction to your ability to focus since it is constantly coming in and there are expectations to respond back as quickly as possible. The more recent use of Slack and other communication tools have made this worse, instead of better, since the communication has become even more frequent and in smaller fragmented doses. With each chapter Cal goes through a company or individual that struggled with certain aspects of email/Slack/meetings/etc and then outlines how they were able to dig their way out of it and regain their focus and productivity. Some examples are recent and some go back in history to the first times we have tried to optimize workflow processes for general laborers such as blacksmiths. To be honest, some of the more historical examples were more interesting to read about than his premise on how to solve for this email problem.
For his final proposal, he draws inspiration from the basic Kanban/Scrum boards and processes to manage your workflow. So if you are familiar with Scrum or Kanban there are a couple of chapters you can completely skip. His other suggestions are to only check email during designated time(s) in the day or in some cases he advocates to not use email or Slack at all for internal communication.
Recommendation:
I would still likely recommend this book to some people. This would be a good read for those of us that might be struggling with focus at work and are the type to look for better communication tools to help them. Basically, people who do not realize how distracting emails, Slack or meetings are already. If you already have that awareness, then this book is not worth your time.