Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

We all need to read this. These guys are down to earth and explain how we unknowingly jumped on the hamster wheel and can't get off. They're not condescending and don't lecture, they just threw a lifeline and I caught it with both hands. It's smart, funny and real. If you feel like your life is not your own, and want to stop feeling so out of control, this is the solution. I highly recommend this book.

TL;DR: Make Time has helped both my wife and I take much greater control over our days, helping us focus more on what fulfills and less on just marking days off of a calendar.There's a real line between being a productive person, and being a productivity person. Someone who focuses on so many "hacks" or ways to get more out of every second, that efficiency in and of itself becomes to goal to the expense of everything else. That may be useful in a manufacturing job, but in our daily lives, there is surely more.This is where Make Time really shines. Far from being a mad dash to some invisible finish line, Make Time provides simple, easy to read tools that can be used to refocus on what truly makes you happy. The book is written as a bit of a toolbox, meant to allow you to take pieces that work for you, and leave the ones that don't. Using that approach has massively improved my lifestyle.As an example, after reading a few chapters in Make Time, I started having a morning ritual with my wife of making a hot cup of herbal tea, nuts, and cheese. Meanwhile, we would rearrange our chairs in our front room to face the sun and talk about what our highlights would be for the day as we watched the sunrise over the mountains, wrapped up in warm blankets. After that, I would perform a quick 7-minute exercise, ready to hit the day with a plan and energy to do it. I would frequently take a mental break in the middle of the workday, even giving myself opportunities to nap in my building's cell phone booths (with a visible 15-minute timer for passersby) to recharge my batteries and finish the workday hard. Then, on the ride home, I would meditate, newly recharging my brain and allowing myself to move on from work and to be truly present at home. Probably most importantly, I turned off almost all notifications on my phone. I noticed that when I was home, I was way more proactive spending time with my wife, getting things done around the house, and engaging in meaningful and fulfilling hobbies.My story isn't all that unique, but it has all amounted to huge changes in my quality of life. All of the things I mentioned above are simple changes that were integrated over time, I'm positive that if you pick up this book and try out its experiments, you too will find something in there that will help you become more present, more fulfilled, and more able to enjoy everyday life.

“Perfection is a distraction—another shiny object taking your attention away from your real priorities...And you won’t have to start over if you ‘fall off the wagon,’ because each day is a clean slate.”The Make Time system is simple. Choose one activity/goal to serve as the day’s prioritized highlight, employ a laser focus to avoid distractions to ensure completion of the activity/goal, become energized, and reflect on the process and progress. The first step is choosing a single highlight to prioritize in your day.Along the way, both authors share their experiences and tips. I like the simplicity of the system, how the focus is on progress rather than perfection, and how the reader is encouraged to try out different strategies, ditching those that don’t work and adopting those that do.Highlights, which should take between 60 and 90 minutes to complete, are to be chosen by considering urgency, satisfaction, and joy. While I really dig the idea of selecting a highlight, my favorite concept in the book is the use of a burner list. With a multi-step activity/goal on the front burner (with counter space for expansion), a secondary activity/goal on the back burner, and a kitchen sink for all the other stuff. This concept is cool because it works well for multi-step activities/goals and allows for crossing off/celebrating completion of myriad steps. The burner list is meant to be disposable and recreated frequently, which works nicely with another concept—pivoting when priorities change. The laser focus section contains tons of golden tips for breaking away from social media “infinity pools.”The concepts and tools are presented in a fun, lighthearted manner and an easy quick start guide is included at the end.

Make Time was a game-changer for me. It gave me permission to work on my own priorities instead of reacting to everyone else's. I was a test reader for this book and had the chance to practice the techniques for the past 6 months. I have to say, I've noticed a big change in not just how I work but also what I consider important.One of my biggest fears in life is the sense that I'm not using my time in the best way that I can. There's so much I want to make time for but it just never works out - new things come up, other things take longer than expected, I'm constantly interrupted or interrupting myself. (After finishing the previous sentence, for instance, I wanted to have a "quick" Twitter check.)Make Time was a therapeutic read in more than one way.First, it made me reassured that I'm not the only one. If two superstar designers, who also happen to be NYT bestselling writers and ex-Googlers, have the same uphill struggle against distractions, then I'm not a complete write-off.Second, it's hilarious. The silly sketches, opinion battles, descriptions of oh too familiar bad habits made this an entertaining read, as opposed to a dry self-help book.And third, it's incredibly useful. It's basically a list of techniques to ring-fence your own time and stay focused. Once you've read it, a quick browse of chapter headings is enough to refresh your memory on how to stay focused.I still occasionally procrastinate, but I'm also about 200% more efficient and 200% calmer. If you read this book, prepare to be relieved of guilt, pressure and stress.

# 🚀 The Book in 1 SentenceMake Time is about creating space in your life for what truly matters using highlights, laser-style focus, energizing breaks, and regularly reflecting on how you spend your most valuable asset.# 🎨 ImpressionsThis is a life changing book. There are so many practical tips, or golden nuggets, throughout this book that will help us find time for what is important in our life without making even the slightest dent in our regular schedule. A must read for everyone.# 🔍 How I Discovered ItThis book was featured by youtuber Ali Abdal in his YouTube channel as one of the three books that changed his life.# 📖 Who Should Read It?- Anyone who feel exhausted by the busyness of modern life and are unable to find time for what is important to them.- Social media and smartphone users who feel like their devices and apps own them, rather than the other way around.- Quarter, mid and late-life crisis sufferers who sense their lives are slipping by in a busy, distracted blur.# ☘️ How the Book Changed MeThis book changed my life immediately in many ways -- I understood that I waste a considerable amount of time in my day scrolling through instagram and facebook, which were my distraction kryponites. So, I uninstalled both. It was tough at first, but soon I realised my life is a lot more peaceful now, and that I don't miss them anymore.- I used to create to-do lists. But this book made me realise that anyone who has a to-do list will try to check maximum boxes quickly, so will take up the easy tasks first, and hence the important ones are left out. This had a scary resonance with my own practices. Now, I started micro-managing my day, by creating a weekly agenda based on the to-do list, and adding those to my calendar each day, and reflecting at the end of the day on whether I could find time to do everything planned, and adjusting for the coming days accordingly. This has helped me finish off my tasks more efficiently- I now have a highlight for (almost) every day, and using the above tactic, I am able to find time for the highlight- I no longer get all panicked thinking I have wasted my day unintentionally.- Also I now realise that I do not have to achieve all the to-dos for the day and still be happy that I have finished the highlight, which is the most important thing I planned for that day.I am sure that as I start implementing more tactics detailed in this book, it will keep on changing my life in ways I couldn't imagine before I started reading this book.# ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes- Being more productive didn’t mean I was doing the most important work; it only meant I was reacting to other people’s priorities faster.- Part of the reason we’re all so hooked on distractions is that everybody else is, too. It’s the fear of missing out—FOMO—and we’ve all got it.- You only waste time if you’re not intentional about how you spend it.

Awesome, practical advice that is really down to earth (so not your typical self help book). I’ve already made changes to how I structure and organise my days using the tips from this book. This means I’ve actually managed to make time for learning to play the drums, do some volunteering and help grow my partner’s small business... All whilst working full time. Thoroughly recommend! 🦔

The last few months a recurring theme of mine has been trying to improve my focus and how I go about my process.Make Time actually fell on my lap at the right time. After reading SPRINT from these guys, I discovered Make Time and was very excited. So far, since I've been reading the book I've discovered how to "highlight" my most important task and then channel my focus to get it done. I never did that before and applying it to all the apps I use for productivity has been a pleasure.Can't recommend this book enough for professionals and people who are running a side project!I'm planning a review on YouTube of the book, so I'll post it here when I'm ready!

This book is highly recommended in personal productivity circles and remains a bestseller in this category. Naturally, I was intrigued by an approach that would allow me to make time for the things that truly matter to me. The book is written in a very engaging tone and is richly illustrated throughout. Much of the advice regarding productivity is not new, but the authors do a good job with integrating all the general advice around a central theme. That central theme is that we should identify a daily highlight that we can focus on for some time each day. That highlight can be something urgent, but it can also be something that we feel passionate about. The authors flesh out this idea with further specifications and with recommendations of how we can increase our focus so that we can dedicate our full attention to the highlight. Since reading the book, I added a daily highlight to my to-do list. This did indeed help me to dedicate time to projects that I would have otherwise neglected to deal with the onslaught of email and other urgent matters. For that alone, the book was well worth the time that I invested in reading it. The book is so entertaining and useful that I would recommend it to anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by the myriad of small tasks that knowledge workers have to deal with.