The Invisible Mentor

I received an advanced copy of The Skinny On Time Management: and other life challenges and a regular copy of  The Skinny On Success by Jim Randel in the mail to read and review. I had never heard about the Skinny On series until someone contacted me to find out if they could send me copies in the mail. Proper time management is critical for personal and professional success, and most of us are looking for that magic bullet that catapults us to success.

Today, I am reviewing The Skinny On Time Management, and on Friday,  The Skinny On Success. I have been keeping up with the interviews but have not done as many book reviews/summaries as I’d like, so this is an attempt to correct that. One of the objectives of The Invisible Mentor blog is to present interviews of highly successful people and to do book reviews/summaries.

The stated goal of the books in the Skinny On series “is to do the reading for you, identify what is important, distill the key points, and present them in a book that is both instructive and entertaining.” Randel’s definition of time management is simply, “how you use your time” and he adds, “if you are using your time to create the life you want, you are practicing effective time management.”

The author honored his commitment as stated in his goal for the book. In The Skinny on Time Management he conducted extensive research, distilled the key points and presented them, which is evident in the many books and other resources he mentioned and summarized. The book is structured as a one-hour presentation with slides that often look like comic strips to be entertaining. It is packed with tons of information that will assist you to manage your time and be more productive. He includes tips on how to stop procrastinating as well as tips on how to improve your memory. You get information that you wouldn’t expect in a time management book.

The book doesn’t have a Table of Contents, though it is divided into two parts which are essentially:

Part I: How You Spend Your Time
Part II: How to Effectively Use The Hours You Have for Maximum Benefit

He recommends that you keep a time journal for a week so that you can analyze it and see where you can make adjustments by spending less time on unproductive activities, therefore creating time for more important tasks. I appreciated the idea of Batching, where you combine or aggregate similar or complementary activities to save time. He did a good job of summarizing the salient points from many books that he thinks are germane to better time management. Two such summaries are important techniques for effective time management from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity and  teach yourself to speed read from Triple Your Reading Speed.

Here is Jim Randel’s summary for improving what he calls your effectiveness and time potency:

1. Discard (practice decluttering and do not hold on to stuff unnecessarily)
2. Make immediate decisions
3. Create filing systems (when working on a project keep all resources related to that project in one place)
4. Select specific times to respond to calls/emails
5. Use a watch with a second hand display
6. Carry a note taker
7. Learn to scan
8. Ask for help
9. Finish a task in one sitting
10. Move on (let go) – what’s done is done

5 + 2 Great Ideas

1. Time is your most valuable commodity
2. Time management is about choices
3. Be aware of how you use your time, decide what you need to accomplish, choose the most important actions to take to achieve your goals, prioritize them and complete the most important activities first
4. Practice the 80/20 Rule: Figure out which 20 percent of your actions yield 80 percent of your results
5. When you try to do more than one task at a time, you do none well
6. Create routines so time is not wasted (Have a place for things so that time is not wasted looking for stuff, plan the menu for the week so time is not wasted everyday deciding what’s for dinner, have an exercise schedule so you do not have to decide each day if you are going to the gym)
7. Be proactive instead of reactive: take actions that move you closer to your goals instead of activities such as reading emails and checking voice messages.

Books Mentioned

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch

The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, Alan Lakein

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy

The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life, Leo Babauta

The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, David Rock

Triple Your Reading Speed, Wade E. Cutler

Jim Randel also recommends a YouTube video of Randy Pausch‘s presentation on time management. For those who may not know, Pausch is known for The Last Lecture, and he died from pancreatic cancer. To view the video click here.

Though I did not like the way The Skinny on Time Management was presented, I heartily recommend it for the reasons why I did  not like it. You can tell from the information provided that it is well thought out and researched. Jim Randel distills the information and presents what he thinks is important and holds the reader’s hand every step of the way. I felt like the author was spoon feeding and thinking for me. I am very detailed oriented and like to think for myself. Now having said that, I appreciated that he included the books that he used in his research so that I can go back and sink my teeth into them.

Hey what can I say, I am a square peg and have my share of quirks.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content.

Note: All book links are affiliate links
Photo Credit: Yahoo via Apture

Related articles by Zemanta

• Randy Pausch – The Last Lecture (myventurepad.com)

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

3 Responses to “The Skinny on Time Management: A Book Review”