18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done

This book starts slow but revs up in the middle and finishes with a bang. I have read about many of the subjects Peter Bregman covers otherwise I would probably have liked it even more (since the ideas would seem revolutionary)... Bregman does a great job tying together ideas of social economics, strengths & weaknesses positive psychology and productivity in a way that I have never seen done. The ideas are backed by scientific studies and he resummarizes the information tying it into the next concept in a way that makes all the information easier to remember.

This was one of those personal development that was full of good but basic, familiar advice. The key takeaways were to structure your goals around annual focuses (~3-7 of them), spend some time each day planning and reflecting, and take occasional pauses to make sure you're focusing on what's important. One thing I did appreciate it was that these goals were supposed to cover all of the areas of your life. So for Bregman, he sets 5 annual focuses. Two are personal (be present with family and take time to recharge and energize himself), two are related to his business, and one is in between -- take time to express himself creatively through writing. By forcing you to consider all parts of your life when setting your priorities, it avoids show more the common problem of having too many or only work priorities.

All-in-all though, while this wasn't a waste of time -- reminders are good -- I'm glad that it took only a few hours to listen to the whole thing. show less

I hesitated in my choice of star rating for this book. I would say I personally got 10 stars of value out of it. However, for a book about finding one's focus it didn't half go on. It felt to me that the information conveyed in 253 pages could have been easily, and perhaps more usefully, condensed into half this number. It's all very folksy. If you are the sort of person who likes to have five examples illustrating the same point so you can get there yourself, then you will love this. Me, I just like to be told the point.

Having said this, I did find it to be the most useful of all the time management books/systems I've ever read about. Just reading some chapters made me feel more organised.

I'd definitely look for more of what Peter show more Bregman has to offer. show less

There are many books in this general category (i.e., How to Transform Your Life to Get Things Done, etc.). It's hard for me to find many things that aren't already out there -- David Allen's Getting Things Done is a good example, and is even quoted in the book.

I've read enough of these titles that I wish I had just read a summary of this one -- there are a couple of gems in the later chapters worth finding, but the rest seemed to be a fresh packaging over material I've already seen.

Not the typical time management book. Written with a story telling focus in short chapters. Nicely organized around annual focus, daily plans, and ideas for distractions from yourself and others.

Some good takeaways hidden amongst personal illustrative examples.

Some good ideas here, I think. Now if I can just make myself try it (I'll start with the hourly check-in).