š About this episode
In this episode, I talk about my favorite productivity book. Make Time is about creating space in your life for what truly matters using highlights, laser-style focus, energizing breaks, and regular reflection.
I discuss my favourite strategies out of the 87 strategies to make more time in the day which are mentioned in the book. The two authors find a middle ground in panicking about life's small-level details or worrying about long term goals. They focus on identifying one central task as the focus of each day and arranging your energy and time to support this one activity. The book is broken down into 87 tips within four key steps:
- Select one activity to be the main focus of the day
- Focus all your attention on this specific task
- Fuel your body to support the mind
- Reflect what worked best for you to focus
The author's ideas fit into the 3 categories:
- focus your attention,
- protecting the focus
- and caring for yourself to increase your mental energy.
šš¼āāļø š§ So overall, the primary goal in this book is to give you tips how to improve your mental and physical wellbeing. I totally loved this book and kind of use it is like my bible where I sometimes take a glance into it before going to sleep. It has helped me to realize that without good health and energy I cannot do any good work and that I have to create barriers now for my future self that it will not get distracted when studying.
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Transcript
Yes. Hello everyone and welcome to this episode. Today I want to make a little book review about, uh, really cold book I currently. Yeah, I actually read it is called Make Time by um, Jake Knap and John Zaretsky. And Make Time is really about creating space in your life for what truly matters, using highlights, laser style focus, energy breaks, and regular reflection.
So, um, it starts with that you set a single task as your highlight that you want to accomplish today. And I already talked, uh, with you about this, so in, in one episode. And, um, yeah, the book is a generally. It is, yeah, for the, it is made that you have more time for the things you care about. So it consists of the four step I just mentioned.
So the highlight, laser, energize and reflect, and it includes in, um, total 87 different tactics. Custom tailor the framework for you so you can choose the tactics you like and skip the ones you are not interested in. Um, I really like the book because you can just implement those tactics from. Today on, So from the day you read this and most of the tactics are really simple and you don't need much, uh, preparation or understanding.
And it's also not really difficult. Uh, it's not really difficult to read. So if you want low effort and big results, then I would totally recommend this book. So let's start with the highlight. Um, the highlights. It's everything about learning to plan less. So also the authors found that, uh, they could actually spend more time on the things that really mattered if they planned less.
So it's important to don't try to plan more into your day and to do more, but, um, to have this highlight which gives you joy and satisfaction, and then to only, um, yeah, to really focus on this and to put it onto your calendar that it's, um, really Yeah, it's in your calendar for me. Everything, which is in my calendar, I, um, yeah, I have to do, um, And you can then really build your day around this highlight.
The second thing, uh, which they mention is the laser style focus. So to remove all your distractions. And when we think about habits, which we do each day, um, they are. Yeah, there's like a cool monic, it's called a car. So environment, queue, action, and reward. So for example, if you, um, watch tv, always when you get home, um, it's the environment of your, the couch, the sofa, and the tv you see and it's in your home.
And then the queue is that you see maybe the thet. And also the, the device with which you, you control the tv. That's the queue and action. Okay. You see this device and you think like, Okay, I want to watch tv. TV and action is to. Press the button to press the on button. And then the reward is, yeah, all the, all the neurotransmitter, which, which get released when you then watch your favorite episode and you feel good and relaxed and calm again.
And if you know that these, uh, distractions really. Are not good for you and actually like watching tv, um, your brain has to work more. Then you should, They say that you should add friction to any part of the process. If, if it's a habit. So to maybe, um, Yeah, put out the batteries of the device with which you, um, control the, Yeah, the remote, um, to, so to put out the, um, batteries out of the remote and then it, there's a little friction.
So to watch tv you have to put the batteries in again and then close the remote and then, um, press on. And this little friction already helps that you don't, um, watch TV as often. I think maybe you can try it. Um, It's really, really cool how this helps. And, uh, yeah, a lot of distraction trust come from technology, like, uh, your phone, for example, uh, where you check your WhatsApp messages or general mail, email, um, maybe once, uh, twice, three times an hour.
Um, I would also, yeah, if you, if you don't make the decision where to put your attention in the moment, but plan ahead of time where you want to put your attention. So I personally recommend an app like Freedom. Um, it's an app where you can block some Yeah. All different kind of apps you think. Yeah. Which wastes your time.
So like YouTube or, um, WhatsApp, Facebook, all those apps, and I really highly recommend it. Then um, the third, yeah, the third part is energize, so. Body. So to energize your body and mind with good habits and to really take care of your whole body. And if you want, you can try this exercise where you just, um, write on a piece of paper in one section, all the energy givers, which give you energy and all the energy zappers, which, um, extract energy from.
Those energy zombies, like I have energy givers are really, um, friends. So talking to friends, the sun, some good food like fruits and also sports like going to the gym or um, yeah, just running outside in the woods. Then also meditation. Um, a good audio book, Water and adventures and energy. Zappers are, yeah, eating late at night or watching Netflix.
Also friends, which are really, Yeah, which are really down and um, bring me down actually. And, um, or too much sleep. Also sugars. Um, those processed sugars and yeah, if you have all these things and wrote them down and know them, you can also maybe put it on your, on your refrigerator or on the door and you get reminded of them and when you're down, then sometime you can just look at the energy givers and ask yourself, Huh, can I do this?
Maybe do a little bit more. Or meditation and to do less of the energy sas. Maybe I've just had too much sleep and I'm eating a lot of processed sugars lately and that's why I'm so down. So that's the third point. Energy. The last one is also really important. One, it's uh, called reflect. So should really then, uh, reflect at the end of the day on your performance.
So what really brought in value for myself today and. Could I actually get rid of, um, today what wasn't so good that I did today or what was really cool and, um, what do I want to continue for tomorrow? And those are the four points. So the highlights, then the laser focus, then the, um, energy breaks, and also the reflection.
And those were only, I only mentioned some, some tips, uh, in those quadrants. So if you want to learn more and, uh, have some more tips on how to make more time, um, definitely check out, check out the book in the description. Um, make time and, uh, I hope this book reviewed this little book. Um, Yeah. Was entertaining for you and also brought some value, and I will see you in the next one.
Bye bye.