yooncon's review against another edition
Strategies for peak productivity:
1. Recognise your decision points. Once you're in the middle of a task, it's hard to change course. Maximise the power of the moments in between tasks to choose the next thing that matters most.
2. Manage your mental energy. Tasks that need a lot of self-control or focused attention can be depleting, and tasks that make you highly emotional can throw you off your game. Schedule tasks based on their processing demand and recovery time.
3. Stop fighting distractions. Your attention systems are designed to wander and refresh, not to focus indefinitely. The goal is to get back on track quickly when you get distracted.
4. Leverage your mind-body connection. Move your body and eat in ways that set you up for success.
5. Make your workspace work for you. Learn how to adjust your environment in a way that benefits you - avoiding distractions and priming you for the required type of work.
Aim for a couple of hours of peak productivity and spend the rest of the day on more mundane tasks which don't require much creative or strategic thinking.
Decision points can be uncomfortable because there is conflict between possible decision alternatives, and also you have higher awareness at those points so you can be aware of other things on the to do list.
Being intentional about what you plan to do immediately after you finish a task makes a lot of difference in effectiveness.
There are only a few decision points in a day. To maximise the use of them:
- savour each decision point
- plan your decision points in advance
- don't start a new task without consciously deciding it's the right one.
Planning the reactions we will have to our decision points before they happen allows us to maximise them. Research has shown that planning ahead for likely obstacles dramatically increases our chances of behaving how we would like to instead of just reacting. These plans are called "implementation intentions" - plans to implement a certain action if a relevant cue arises. But planning *not* to do something (like "I will not give into the urge") tends to fail. Instead, plan a new action which you'd prefer to take.
Mentally prepare yourself to deal with interruptions as decision points. You may not be doing the most effective thing at the time, so it's good to get an opportunity to reassess!
Anger is unusual amongst negative emotions in that it facilitates approach-oriented behaviour, ie actions that move us toward a person, object or idea.
Sadness makes us more thoughtful and critically thinking.
Anxiety can be reframed as being alert and ready to react - that's what it seems to be biologically.
Strategies to avoid getting mentally exhausted:
- don't look at the news
- complete most important work first thing in the morning
- label tasks on the to do list as "important decisions ", "creative", or "other", and push "other" tasks to the end of the day.
- limit email to an hour in the afternoon
- make a few decisions the night before a big day so you don't have to deal with them ON the big day as they might throw you off.
How to get refreshed:
- 3 minute meditation
- have a laugh
- 10 minute nap
Practise strategic incompetence, ie letting go of doing some things in order to allow yourself the time to focus on what's really effective.
The brain is wired to respond to distractions so it's futile to try to force it to focus on one thing. You need to remove distractions from the environment instead. However, meditation does help with sustained attention.
Mind wandering may have important benefits when it comes to creative problem solving and long term planning. Let your mind wander for some time as long as you aren't getting distracted with something else, and after a short while it should return to the original task.
A session of moderate exercise reduces negative emotions and increases positive emotions, and is good for self control.
1. Recognise your decision points. Once you're in the middle of a task, it's hard to change course. Maximise the power of the moments in between tasks to choose the next thing that matters most.
2. Manage your mental energy. Tasks that need a lot of self-control or focused attention can be depleting, and tasks that make you highly emotional can throw you off your game. Schedule tasks based on their processing demand and recovery time.
3. Stop fighting distractions. Your attention systems are designed to wander and refresh, not to focus indefinitely. The goal is to get back on track quickly when you get distracted.
4. Leverage your mind-body connection. Move your body and eat in ways that set you up for success.
5. Make your workspace work for you. Learn how to adjust your environment in a way that benefits you - avoiding distractions and priming you for the required type of work.
Aim for a couple of hours of peak productivity and spend the rest of the day on more mundane tasks which don't require much creative or strategic thinking.
Decision points can be uncomfortable because there is conflict between possible decision alternatives, and also you have higher awareness at those points so you can be aware of other things on the to do list.
Being intentional about what you plan to do immediately after you finish a task makes a lot of difference in effectiveness.
There are only a few decision points in a day. To maximise the use of them:
- savour each decision point
- plan your decision points in advance
- don't start a new task without consciously deciding it's the right one.
Planning the reactions we will have to our decision points before they happen allows us to maximise them. Research has shown that planning ahead for likely obstacles dramatically increases our chances of behaving how we would like to instead of just reacting. These plans are called "implementation intentions" - plans to implement a certain action if a relevant cue arises. But planning *not* to do something (like "I will not give into the urge") tends to fail. Instead, plan a new action which you'd prefer to take.
Mentally prepare yourself to deal with interruptions as decision points. You may not be doing the most effective thing at the time, so it's good to get an opportunity to reassess!
Anger is unusual amongst negative emotions in that it facilitates approach-oriented behaviour, ie actions that move us toward a person, object or idea.
Sadness makes us more thoughtful and critically thinking.
Anxiety can be reframed as being alert and ready to react - that's what it seems to be biologically.
Strategies to avoid getting mentally exhausted:
- don't look at the news
- complete most important work first thing in the morning
- label tasks on the to do list as "important decisions ", "creative", or "other", and push "other" tasks to the end of the day.
- limit email to an hour in the afternoon
- make a few decisions the night before a big day so you don't have to deal with them ON the big day as they might throw you off.
How to get refreshed:
- 3 minute meditation
- have a laugh
- 10 minute nap
Practise strategic incompetence, ie letting go of doing some things in order to allow yourself the time to focus on what's really effective.
The brain is wired to respond to distractions so it's futile to try to force it to focus on one thing. You need to remove distractions from the environment instead. However, meditation does help with sustained attention.
Mind wandering may have important benefits when it comes to creative problem solving and long term planning. Let your mind wander for some time as long as you aren't getting distracted with something else, and after a short while it should return to the original task.
A session of moderate exercise reduces negative emotions and increases positive emotions, and is good for self control.
apgarcia's review against another edition
4.0
Two Awesome Hours is not an ordinary book on time management. Its premise is that the human brain is not designed to exert itself 100% of the time throughout an eight hour day. The brain is like a muscle. It can only do so much work, and it requires a bit of rest in between periods of intense activity. Two hours is an arbitrary length of time that the author feels is realistically achievable for peak performance in any given day. This length of time is variable; it depends on the individual and on the choices one makes throughout the day.
The book contains discussions based on five different topics related to how the brain works, and how to use this to set ourselves up for peak performance when we need it most. The chosen topics are:
- decision points: changing tasks intelligently
- mental energy: planning how we spend it
- distractions: how attention shifting works
- mind-body connection: how food affects the brain
- workspaces: how noise and light affect productivity
Each section contains a hypothetical example of a workday in which one of the topics plays a part, and it cites some relevant research. Overall, it's an interesting look at the brain and how to use it to manage ourselves and our time most effectively.
The book contains discussions based on five different topics related to how the brain works, and how to use this to set ourselves up for peak performance when we need it most. The chosen topics are:
- decision points: changing tasks intelligently
- mental energy: planning how we spend it
- distractions: how attention shifting works
- mind-body connection: how food affects the brain
- workspaces: how noise and light affect productivity
Each section contains a hypothetical example of a workday in which one of the topics plays a part, and it cites some relevant research. Overall, it's an interesting look at the brain and how to use it to manage ourselves and our time most effectively.
jlwalk905's review against another edition
5.0
This book was amazing! It helps with multiple different problems including will power and time management. Loved this book and recommend for people who have issues with sugar addiction. IN FACT this book helped me curve a sugar addition that I have struggled with extremly for 15 years. For that alone this book goes above 5 stars
burnman325's review against another edition
3.0
It was an interesting read. Lots of scientific evidence presented in a readable format. A little lacking in practical application.
kiranhegde's review
4.0
Good book
Key points from this book,
Managing mental energy
Managing distractions
It's not working long hours and cramming more stuff but finding optimal 2 hours doing right stuff.
Key points from this book,
Managing mental energy
Managing distractions
It's not working long hours and cramming more stuff but finding optimal 2 hours doing right stuff.
More...