Tag Archives: book review

Book Review: The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

This is the book that triggered the deluge in my current reading schedule. While working through a Blender tutorial one day last month it was suggested that reading The ONE Thing would fundamentally change the way I approached my work (and life in general) forever. I was sufficiently curious to open another window on my browser and link to my (primary) library to see if it was available. It wasn’t but was put on an inter-library exchange hold and (three weeks later) here it is. Last in time as far as reading (borrowing) but easily first in importance.

This book by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan was worth the wait. Starting with the front flyleaf it points out that we want more (productivity, satisfaction with life, time for self and family) and at the same time we want less (distractions, work stress, interruptions). This book offers the hope we can have both, and provides tools (one tool, actually) to cut clutter, reduce stress, achieve better results in less time, gain energy and master what matters to you. A pretty large claim, eh?

It delivers in spades. It starts with three chapters of introduction and background. Chapter one reveals the power of focus by aiming as small as possible. By limiting your focus to only one thing you are better able to use your energy and ability to their fullest.

Chapter two discusses the domino effect, where small actions cascade into unbelievable results. A domino can topple another half again as large, then a chart shows the effectiveness of a geometric progression. In less than twenty cycles of growth a 2″ (5cm) domino grows to taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the thirty-first looms over a thousand yards (900m) taller than Mount Everest and in 57 dominoes you can nearly reach the moon.

Chapter three gives examples of how success leaves clues to follow, using several examples of single focus and the resulting success.

What follows are three parts. In part one, “THE LIES: they mislead and derail us,” each of the six chapters reveals and debunks a commonly held belief that is wrong (but repeated often enough that we begin to believe it is true). These ideas, that everything is equally important, that multitasking works, more discipline leads to more success, willpower is always available if we just try (harder if needed), we need to live a balanced life (work and home) and that big dreams and vision is bad, are each refuted in turn and shown to be obstructions to success.

Part two “THE TRUTH: the simple path to productivity,” presents the Focusing Question (ultimately the central theme of the book): “What’s the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” to drive focus, a chapter on creating the success habit (which takes 66 days on average, not the 21 or 30 days so commonly believed) , and ends with a chapter designed to ask and answer great questions.It uses a four quadrant chart of Big/Small and Broad/Specific to aim for Large-Specific questions to drive extraordinary results.

The last part EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS: unlocking the possibilities within you” contains five chapters of application, showing how to implement this principle in real life. Examples of how to put the rubber on the road and head the way towards your goal.

The book is an easy read, with many drawn illustrations and important segments already highlighted with a virtual pencil (saving you the need to hunt down a highlighter to mark the good stuff), Each chapter (apart from those in part one) end with a collection of Big Ideas summary of the main points of the chapter. In keeping with the basic philosophy, the acknowledgements, author biographies, and copyright pages are all at the very back of the book (rather than the front per the Chicago Manual of Style).

Perhaps the best indication of how much of an impact it has made on my understanding of success (and how to get there) is the simple fact it is at the top of my “Must buy NEXT” list. In terms of ranking, this book gets a 1 rating out of 1. I think it’s just that important. A must read.

Now, go out, read it, and apply what it teaches. I’ll meet you at the top.

Phred

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Book Review: Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Mind

Another book read as a result of a tutorial blog suggestion. This was useful in bringing focus to my daily activities and schedule. Manage Your Day-To-Day is a collection of twenty articles listed in four categories (and a couple of additional articles to introduce and wrap up the book) by as many different authors. It’s edited by Jocelyn K. Glei.

Section one is Building A Rock-Solid Routine and includes one of my favorite blog authors, Leo Babauta from Zen Habits. These five articles set reasons for why having a regular set of activities done regularly (preferably daily) and using specific triggers (location, setting, ambiance) help key your mind to be effective and creative. Consistency and habit work together to build inertia and increase productivity.

Chapter two is Finding Focus In A Distracted World. Today’s information rich environment provides excessive opportunity for distraction (ding…another e-mail has arrived) and this chapter suggests ways to strengthen your resolve to avoid distractions. It also includes an article debunking the multi-tasking myth (human brains are wired to focus on only one thing at a time, so what we really do is task switching and each change adds overhead reducing overall effectiveness). Several good reminders here that I am trying to implement in my own environment (SQUIRREL!).

Taming Your Tools is a chapter that deals with the over consumption of information (rather than using “information overload” as an excuse… it’s not the information’s fault we look at it) and hov to bring sanity into the use of social media and e-mail. The world really WON’T end if we don’t immediately check each e-mail that comes in (unless you happen to be a SAC commander or bomber pilot). A reminder of who is wielding who.

The last chapter is Sharpening Your Creative Mind, giving several ideas about ways to enhance and produce creativity when it’s not flowing of it’s own accord. For me, the writing on letting go of perfectionism was required reading (perhaps not immediately obvious from reading these posts, I am afraid), several times until it really sunk in (2-3 cm so far). There’s help for what to do when you are “stuck” that was useful.

Overall, the book is an easy read (short articles, though not quite as brief as Rework) but there are a couple of formatting issues I have problems with. To breakup the sections, they used three different colours of paper, so there are some introduction pages in each chapter with white text on red paper, and summaries using white on black paper. While it makes finding the sections quite easy, the contrast, font style, and point size made reading more difficult than necessary (for me, at least), especially the red pages.

There was enough good stuff in here for me to use (some were reminders and some were insights) so I would give it a rating of 41 out of 67. The four times I read it this past week will probably be the last time I rent the book from the library (but at least I know where I can find it if necessary).

Phred

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Book Review: Rework

In my internet scanning to increase my abilities in computer graphic design, I was pointed at a few (several) [many] resources to help grow my skills and usefulness. A couple were interesting enough to see if they were available at the local library. I found three quickly and put holds on them to grab them next time I passed by. Later I collected one of them (in stock, the others will be when they come back into circulation) and spent part of the day reading it.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson is a collection of practical ideas about business success, gathered from their own experience in running their own successful business (37Signals).

It’s an easy read, in part because it is written in seat of the pants language and in part because each chunk is small. I has 94 articles in 14 chapters within the span of just 280 pages (by their own count only about 27,000 words total). REALLY small chunks. I read it in about an hour, waiting for the evening news to start.

The first pass through was not revelational (to me, at least) as this was pretty much a collection of things I had discovered or determined over my 30+ years in the workforce. It was during the second reading the scope and power of the book came into focus. It was precisely because it took me three decades to accumulate the wisdom contained in this book that makes this a great read. The proverb “experience is the best teacher” may be true, but better is the idea it doesn’t have to be YOUR experience. You should leap at the chance anytime you can pickup tips that work by spending an hour or two reliving another person’s experience (rather than paying years of effort yourself).

I originally intended on picking a couple of articles to point out as areas of wisdom to share (and cling to).  After the third read of the book I gave up. In essence I’d have to include everything (a low productive use of time). So, instead I will point out several chapters for first consideration and review (although you should probably just read cover to cover anyway).

The chapter Takedowns provides a different paradigm to view work through, debunking many traditional ideas about what it takes to start. Progress articles shift towards quality versus quantity in overall focus, that the goal is to “build half a product rather than a half-assed product.” Productivity includes the best synopsis of why meetings are a horrible waste of time I have read.

Then there’s the chapter Hiring. Every single place I have ever worked (including BNI/SAR, my own consulting firm) would benefit from making EVERYONE involved in the process read this chapter. Read it over and over again, until it is burned on the backs of the eyeballs of the whole group. Then another read just for good measure. This one section would result in game-changing results for the company bold enough to apply it.

I highly recommend this book (if you haven’t figured that out by now), giving it a rating of 37 out of 39. While I don’t think I will add a copy of this to my personal library, I will keep it in my reference list of go-to places for inspiration.

Why else have nine (9) library cards in my wallet?

Phred

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