5 reasons why you should start reading Make Time today
I just finished reading Make Time : How to focus on what matters today by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, and I must admit I had a blast reading it !
I also found myself recommending the book to friends the passed couple of days. So I thought, why not writing about it.
Therefore, here are 5 reasons why you might want to start reading Make Time today.
For each of these 5 reasons , I added a quick note on how it resonated with me on both my professional life (🖱) and my personal life (🥁).
Those are just examples than you can very well skip if you just want a quick read through the article.
Disclaimer : I’m just random dude who liked the book. I’m not affiliated with the authors in any way.
Reason 1 : Time is your most valuable resource … and you’re wasting it copiously.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
- Pretty much everybody.
Have you ever found yourself telling someone you didn’t have time to meet for coffee, to go to the gym, or to read this awesome book some internet stranger recommended you ? (😉).
Of course you did. And I did it too.
The interesting part about this is that it really boils down to saying : “ I’m sorry, this is (you’re) not my priority at the moment”.
Let’s be honest for a second. 99% of the time, you manage to find a way for something or someone if it (or he/she) is your top priority.
Don’t feel bad about it though. It’s perfectly ok.
Time is your most valuable resource. It’s scarce and absolutely nothing can bring it back.
If you’re reluctant to spend your money … well you should be even more picky with how you spend your time.
👉 How I applied it :
🖱 — User Research is very time-consuming and energy-intensive. Lately, even by ticking boxes on my to-do list, I had the feeling that weeks were passing-by like crazy, and I didn’t necessarily feel a great sense of accomplishment out of it.
By identifying a highlight for my day (as recommended in the book), I felt like I was more in control, and proud of what I achieved at the end of the day.
🥁 — I’ve always been very curious and passionate. Lately on top of playing the bass, painting miniatures, working and seeing my friends. I started playing the drums again and going to the gym more regularly.
I’m still struggling to make it all fit in the span of a week, but the few tactics I tried had a positive impact, especially on my ability to prioritize. Which is great … and which is linked to reason #2 !
Reason 2 : You’ll get to think about what really matters to you the most.
Most of our time is spent by default
- J.Knapp & J.Zeratsky in Make Time
No spoiler here. It’s literally the first thing you’ll read if you pick up the book.
And it’s probably one of the key takeaways from it.
Because you’re running after time today, doesn’t mean it has to be the case tomorrow.
Our time can be optimized. Especially because we’re wasting so much time everyday without even noticing it (i.e “by default”). I’m pointing at you Instagram 👀
This also implies that those “defaults” don’t contribute to make us happier (on the contrary) or to create a feeling of fulfillment.
This is exactly why you need to rethink your priorities, to identify what really matters to you. And only then, you’ll be able to work towards these goals.
Good news if you’re like me and you struggle to identify what/where you want to be : This book features tactics to help you doing just this.
Especially, I loved tactic #6 called “The Burner List”. It forces you to identify a top priority, a secondary priority, and to keep track of all the additional tasks that pop during your day, and that are not a priority.
I also really liked that this book is not your average productivity book that wants to turn you into a robot at work. It really aims — as the title reads — at helping you make time for what matters to you : Whether it be at work or in your personal life.
👉 How I applied it :
🖱 — I feel like rethinking my own priorities has been very helpful to manage my time better. Instead of just ticking to-do’s blindly or being too focused on dealing with my emails.
🥁 — I’ve always struggled with prioritizing between my various hobbies, or not to cancel those “me-time” when someone wants to meet.
I started many projects over the last couple of years, but didn’t fully complete any of them. Which is very frustrating.
I’m still not great at prioritizing, but I feel like I’m getting better at it everyday. And the “Burner List” is very helpful on this regard.
Especially it really helps differentiating what’s just cool to me and what really matters to me.
Reason 3 : You don’t even need to finish the book to start improving your days.
I’m usually not a fan of productivity or self-improvement books. This, for 2 main reasons :
- I usually feel like the whole idea of the book could have been summed-up in 5 pages instead of hundreds of them.
I had this feeling with How to win friends and influence people for instance, and I’ve been reluctant to read this kind of books ever since. - I don’t necessarily feel like the change in me can happen today, or that I can start acting now as I’m reading the book.
This is especially the case for me when reading motivational contents. It inspires me … and now .. what ?
I didn’t feel like this at all while reading Make Time. Because the book is written as a collection of small tactics, therefore it’s directly applicable.
The authors also encourage you to just browse through the book and find 1 tactic you want to try each day from the 4 main areas of their framework : Highlight (Prioritize), Laser (Focus), Energize (Be more energetic), Reflect (Assess what worked or not).
👉 How I applied it :
🖱 — The first day I read the book during my daily commute, I directly tried the tactic #13 called “Design your day”, especially with the paper version that allows you to re-plan throughout the day (p.68).
It has been really efficient and I’m still doing it currently.
“Design your day” is nothing more than a method to write down everything you need to do today, and plan them around your daily Highlight (your main focus).
🥁—In my case, it has been way easier to apply the first half of the book to my professional life than to my personal life.
The “Energize” section though, has been really insightful and by the time I finished it, I had a clearer view of how to apply the first half of the book to my personal life.
Reason 4 : You are encouraged to fail, and it feels great.
If you’re like me, and you’re doing something, you want it to be perfect right away. We’re mistaken.
In my case, it has been a hurdle many a time because it depleted my motivation by setting absurd standards.
Failing is totally ok, and it’s actually a great way to become better at what you’re doing.
I realized this as I started reflecting more and more about what it means to be working in User Experience (UX).
That’s basically what we aim at : Failing until we find the right solution to the right problem.
The best part is, nobody will care if you fail, as long as you identify what worked and what did not, and if you improve on the next attempt.
This is very close to the recommended approach — by the author — to this book .
Pick a tactic. Apply it to your day. See if it worked. Then choose between one of the following :
- Pick another tactic that might make the previous tactic more effective ( especially if you had trouble focusing or were too low on energy)
- Abandon this tactic, and pick another one that might suit your better
And most importantly, the goal is not to aim at perfection, but at getting better and feeling better each day.
👉 How I applied it :
🖱 — I usually felt like the productivity tactics didn’t quite apply to my daily work, unless they were very Design/UX oriented.
Though, by understanding that there’s no such thing as a one-fits-all approach to this, I felt way more confident just trying tactics and dump them if they don’t really work as intended.
For instance, tactic #5 called “The might-do list” is not very suitable for me, as my curious nature makes me keep a huge might-do list at all time.
The burner list (#6) seems to work best for me so far.
🥁 — This idea that I just needed to try something and see if it works had a twofold positive impact.
First, it made me try things and therefore do something, instead of searching endlessly for the perfect thing to do.
Then, in order to know if something worked or not, you have to assess what happened during your day.
Writing (or even just thinking) about your day is super helpful and insightful, as it makes you focus on what worked and what you can do to improve it. It’s all positive.
Reason 5 : Most tactics are not groundbreaking, but you probably need to read about them.
I didn’t really feel like anything in this book was truly groundbreaking. Though I do think it was not aimed as being so.
Instead, it was made to be very easily applicable and tested. Which the author are doing right in my opinion.
Even if it’s not groundbreaking per se, you might need to read about certain mechanisms to really grasp how much time and energy you’re losing insidiously.
Especially, the different tactics about cutting down your social media consumption may seem crazy at first. But once you truly realize the extent to which screens are dictating our daily lives, you just cannot think about it the same way.
The best part is. The authors give you tactics you can apply today to get your freedom back. And trust me, you’ll struggle.
👉 How I applied it :
🖱 — After reading the Laser section I realized how much I was checking my phone at work and that I could improve the way I dealt with my emails.
Also, by blocking time on my agenda for “focus mode”, I feel like I’m more efficient on the daily.
🥁 — It also helped me realize that I was spending too much time on my phone while I was around people.
I’m now trying to cut distractions as much as possible in order to spend more quality time with people I’m around.
And so far, It really feels really good.
Reason 6 (*BONUS* ) : I applied a few of these tactics to write this article !
Especially “Design your day”(#13), “Play a laser soundtrack”(#51), “Start on paper” (#54), and “Turbo your highlight”(#74)
This helped me to : Block time to write, get in the zone, get a clearer idea of what I wanted to express in this article, and to write during my energy spike.
I guess it worked out pretty well, if you’re reading this very sentence 😉
Thanks a lot for reading me. As usual feel free to share and/or clap if you liked what you read today ! 🤘
Going Further : Cool articles I’ve read recently & More
Articles :
▶️ “Make Time Month” — I’m redesigning my days and I want your help by Jake Knapp | The genesis of Make Time
▶️ Why Is Tech Advertising Jobs To Women And Not Men? by J.C Delanoy | Very interesting article about diversity and recruiting in Tech.
▶️ J’ai l’impression d’être un OVNI dans un monde normal by Alexis Minchella (in French) | Great article about the value of reading regularly ( Your next Highlight ?)
▶️ The case for empathy in UX Research : Through the lens of Mindhunter by Adrien Talal | Shameless auto-promotion !
Playlist :
▶️ 新しい日の誕生 by 2 8 1 4 (Spotify Link) | My Not-so-secret-anymore Secret Laser Soundtrack to stay laser-focused
Noisli | A website that allows you to pick nature sounds to boost your focus.
My personal favorite : Wind + Crackling Fire + Thunder + Leaves.
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