Is it really that easy? Frankly yes, once you break down how and where time is so very easily wasted. Stever Robbins’ new book ‘9 Steps to Work Less and Do More’ does exactly that – takes what we should all so very easily be able to manage (our time), and presents us all with something to think about.
While many books like this exist, Robbins’ matter-of-fact digestation grabbed me on page one with the implication that we, as a society, has a lesser quality of life because we are programmed to work. On the other hand, our ancestors were programmed to ‘survive’, and this survival was embedded as the critical function of daily existence – to ‘live’. Today, we work to make money, and pay to survive. All too often, the quality of this lifestyle is all too less than desirable, and those first 65 years leading up to the day when one can enjoy life may as well be watched in fast-forward. Depressing.
The book discusses a 9 step plan to not only ‘working less’, but ‘living’. In short, they are as follows:
1. Live on Purpose
2. Stop Procrastinating
3. Conquer Technology
4. Beat Distractions to Cultivate Focus
5. Stay Organized
6. Stop Wasting Time
7. Optimize
8. Build Stronger Relationships
9. Leverage
Robbins’ book has a little bit that everyone and anyone can benefit from, and is on my ‘highly recommended reading list’.
Just one of my fascinations with the topic of greater daily efficiencies in work and personal life is likely due to the fact that I’m very pressed for time. “Aren’t we all?” you are probably saying…well yes, but I literally spend the majority of my awake daytime hours underwater. No phone, no Internet, no social networking, no distractions. Its all fixed-focus, high stress, high productive output time spent while being challenged on a number of physical and psychological levels. I suppose that is largely true for any field-intensive profession, work, or life. So, with what little time I have available up here on the surface – I have to be ultra-efficient, because quite literally, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
Robbins’ summed it up well in finding direction and purpose with all that we do. Be it for work or play – get out there, chase your dreams, keep your eye on the ball, and have a good time while you’re at it. It’s all there for the taking.Share
