If you think about it, time is one or maybe the most precious resource you own. Why? Because it’s limited. You also can’t reverse it. Can you buy time? Sure you can, in some ways.
→ When you get from point A to B using Beat, Uber or whatever car hailing app out there, you also buy time(and convenience).
→ You have a dishwasher. By using the machine you bought, you buy time instead of cleaning your mess yourself.
→ When you outsource work: For example home cleaning services, or the app you use for your grocery home delivery. You bought time, again.
Make Time is a book by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky . Both were designers in the tech industry who became obsessed with the idea of redesigning something invisible, their most precious resource. Time.
They both worked for years at Youtube, Google & Google Ventures. Jake Knapp is the inventor of the “Design Sprint” a methodology, that companies such as Slack, Uber, the New York Times, and LEGO, use around the world.
The essence of this book will definitely strike a chord for devs, designers, project managers and in general digital workers(but not only).
In the 21st century, there are 2 powerful forces that compete for your time 🕒
1.The busy bandwagon mindset
Our culture of constant busyness has become our default. After all everyone else is busy if you slow down you will fall behind. The busy bandwagon mindset, defaults to endless tasks. Another “obvious” point is that being busy doesn’t mean you are productive or do meaningful work.
Busywork vs Deep Work
2.Infinity pools
Infinity pools are apps and other sources of endlessly replenishing content. Think Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Netflix, TV, etc.
Infinity Pools in general, default in endless distraction.
The Make Time system is essentialy 4 steps repeated every day for improving focus, finding greater joy in your work, and getting more out of every day. Each chapter explores each step in depth and gives you a plethora of actionable tactics, that you can use to achieve one of the following four:
1. Highlight, will be your main focus for this day.
2. Laser Focus, to beat distraction/procrastination, you can experiment with these tactics.
3. Energy (your brain needs energy, excercise, sleep)
4. Reflect (adjust and improve)
Next books coming up 📚
Aldous Huxley, A Brave New World
Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed
Why book reviews?
I love books, writing and making questions. This is a way of documenting key takeaways of the topics I’m interested in and also for future use. Also keeps my habit of reading + writing running.
Fun Fact:
That was my first Audible experience. Looking forward for more titles. Feels great designing your idle time!
Idle time = can be commuting, waiting in lines, gym etc. Instead of scrolling through a feed, I try to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, or just my fav music. I’m not a gym rat but I finished this audiobook while at the gym, a great excuse actually to go there and force myself to work out, was to listen to the next chapters of this book. Whatever works man ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for reading ✌️
