The Productivity Handbook: New ways of leveraging your time, information, and communications

by Donald Wetmore

From renowned time management consultant Donald Wetmore comes The Productivity Handbook , a guide for the overworked and overwhelmed.

The Productivity Handbook reveals how true productivity doesn’t mean doing more things faster. It means being more effective –and this requires better ways of prioritizing your time, communicating with others, and absorbing information. In this concise and entertaining book, Wetmore offers powerful tips and techniques in these three

Time – includes making short- and long-term plans, managing multiple priorities, and overcoming procrastination

Information – includes shrinking your inbox, writing effective notes, and improving your memory

Communication – includes networking, public speaking, and having efficient meetings


Dr. Donald J. Wetmore is the founder of the Personal Productivity Institute, an organization that teaches productivity tools and techniques to participants at major corporations including J.P. Morgan Chase, General Electric, and Duracell. A member of the National Speakers Association, Wetmore is frequently featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and on PBS. He is also an attorney and an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Mercy College, New York.

Genres: Self Help

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 9, 2005

Reviews

[Vicky]

Maybe the best productivity book ever read. bought secondhand in an old bookstore in antiparos.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Productivity Handbook: The Productivity Handbook: New Ways of Leveraging Your Time, Information, and Communications
Donald Wetmore
Random House Reference

Up front, three key points. First, this is a handbook. Wetmore wrote it to be taken in hand and, once its contents have been absorbed and digested, put to practical use. Second, he brings some fresh perspectives to core concepts (about time, information, and communication) that have been around for many years. Third and finally, this book and any of the other excellent books which cover much of the same material are essentially worthless if those who read them do not make and then sustain a long-term commitment to continuous improvement while using the tips, tools, and techniques recommended.

Wetmore immediately and correctly stresses the importance of having a balanced life built on a sturdy foundation. What does that mean? That for most people, attention, time, and effort are like a currency which should be spent, over time, almost equally within seven areas: physical health, family, financial, intellectual, social, professional, and spiritual. Appropriate balance depends upon appropriate proportionality. Hence the importance of establishing priorities prior to the allocation of resources. To some people, having a "rich" spiritual life is far more important than material wealth. To others, many of them academics and artists, the intellectual area is most important. Of course there are always trade-offs and compromises. Wetmore is right: "A deficit in one area [e.g. physical health] can and does affect every aspect of your life." He seems to agree with Jack Canfield and others that the first "rule for success" in life is to know what you want. Only then can you select the appropriate tips, tools, and techniques. Only then will the inevitable sacrifices required to obtain what you really want seem well worth it. Of course, attitude can also play a decisive role. In this context, Henry Ford's observation seems especially relevant: "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right."

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main thing that's unique about this particular productivity book is that it emphasizes balance in one's life. Spiritual, physical, emotional, financial, social, etc. I appreciate the well-rounded nature of the book even if most of the actual suggestions were ones I'd heard before.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on how to be productive in your job as your manage your career.