The Un-Review

I love reading, in fact, my kids think that my Kindle is a permanent attachment, and know when I miss place it that everyone needs to get on board to help me find it or bad things are going to happen. Ok, that might be a bit dramatic but hopefully, you understand my point, I LOVE READING.

It is hard to believe that this post was written 7 years ago but I have embraced the sentiment in my personal reading I don’t know why I have trouble embracing it in my professional reading.

Stop reading a book if I don't enjoy it.

The truth be told since I do work hard to keep work at work I should have been embracing this philosophy even harder for professional books. I block time in my workday to read these types of books or articles because I feel it makes sense as it is part of professional development. But if I am slogging through a book and not getting any value from it then I am essentially wasting my time and not being productive.

Two weeks ago on my blog I said I was going to do a book review, and you know what that is just not going to happen and that is ok. I had debated if I would include any information about the book because I didn’t finish it, and I looked over the notes/highlights that I had taken and decided to include them here. This is not a review of the book because I didn’t finish it but I did find a bit of value for me, and it isn’t that it was a bad book, it just wasn’t the book for me.

..picking fewer projects to finish also requires discipline. You’re carrying too many projects because you’ve said yes to so many that you’ve effectively said no to making massive progress on any of them.

What that quote above means to me, is that the power of saying “No” will lead me to say “Yes” to something else that will be more productive and fulling.

In my opinion, the whole point of time management is to get the necessary things done, even if they are not pleasant to create more time for the pleasant things that you like or want to do. And that is why I love schedules and lists so much. I use and embrace them in my personal and professional life to help me feel less stressed and do more of what I want and like to do.

About The Book

The book I was going to review is probably a fantastic book for some people, but the author’s writing style just wasn’t working for me. I read roughly 18% of the book according to the tally at the bottom of my Kindle and has taken me well over a week to get that far! For me that is insanity and means I don’t like the book for whatever reason, it was time to cut this off and take what I can from the book and move on.

The reason that I picked up the book in the first place is that I have felt like I have not been doing well in terms of time management. I feel like:

• I have too much to do
• No time to do what needs to be done
• My head is spinning and I don't know where to start
• There is too much that I don’t want to do but I think it ‘needs’ to be done
• I feel like I am doing a ton of stuff but have nothing to show for it
• I start too many things and they are left unfinished (so you can see why the title called to me)

All of that adds up to me realizing that I need to take a step back and take a look at what I am doing and how I am doing it so that I can make either tweaks, changes, or just simply start doing things again. I exported the highlights and notes and it comes out to 3 pages plus one line and I thought about why I felt those bits were important.

As I looked over the snippets that I had saved I realized that the items that I was drawn to made me think more about things that I had read in previous books like Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin and 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam, specifically things that I had implemented in my life when I felt things were going well. The problem it seems is that I no longer embrace those habits that helped me to be successful in the past.

Discipline channels our energy into purposeful, constructive action; a lack of discipline diffuses our energy into destructive outlets — and what we destroy the easiest and most often is ourselves. Habits are discipline made automatic, but they’re made automatic in the beginning and maintained via discipline. … An additional upshot to discipline is that it limits the decision fatigue that plagues so many of us.

Moving Forward

Now that I have stopped reading the book, looked at what I took note of it is time to make a plan. Part of my plan is to go back to what I was doing when I was successful, it worked once so that is a good place to start and then make tweaks and adjustments as necessary. My life is different than it was before so I don’t expect that doing exactly what I did before will be the best fix, but it is the best place to start.

The image above is the link to my Pinterest board I have the following sections:

• Things to look into
• My past blog posts about time management
• Things that I currently use

And then I just have a few links in the general section that seemed like good things to look into and get ideas from. Already I am feeling more energized and focused now that I decided to drop the book and go where it was leading me, which is back to things that I have done in the past. I feel like I can take these ideas and make them work for me while still exploring some new things that I think will be beneficial to where I am today.

Lessons Learned

• It is ok to drop things that are not working for you
• It is normal for you to drift but you need to course correct when that drift becomes a problem
• ” you aren’t uniquely defective, you aren’t constitutionally wired to struggle, and you aren’t fated to be unable to get your shit together.” Charlie Gilkey
• The best place to start is where you once had success and adjust as necessary.

Comment on my Facebook page and let us know your favorite time management technique or tool that you always come back to.

And if you would like to skip the back and forth to find a convenient time for a meeting, check out my schedule on Calendly! Schedule Now

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NOTE: I am not being paid for my mentions of people, articles, products, or books I used above nor do I receive referral compensation unless it is disclosed within the post itself, the links are for convenience.

Unless otherwise indicated I sourced the links provided while researching a post. Links that I provide at the request of another person/business will be noted, and if I am paid to provide a link I will disclose that information on the post in which it is applicable. All opinions are mine, regardless of whether or not I am compensated, and are not in any way influenced by the requesting party.

DISCLAIMER: This advice is general in nature and not to be taken as personal professional advice. This blog does not provide legal advice if you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.