Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style

by Carson Tate

Make work simple by using the tools and tactics that are right for youYour time is under attack. You just can’t get enough done. You find yourself wondering where the hours go. You’ve tried every time-management system you can get your hands on—and they’ve only succeeded in making your work more complicated.Sound familiar?If you sometimes feel you spend more time managing your productivity than doing actual work, it’s time for a change. In Work Simply, renowned productivity expert Carson Tate offers a step-by-step guide to making work simple again by using the style that works best for you.Tate has helped thousands of men and women better manage their time and become more productive. Her success owes partly to the realization that most of us fit into one of four distinct productivity Arrangers, who think about their projects in terms of the people involved; Prioritizers, who are the definition of “goal-oriented”; Visualizers, who possess a unique ability to comprehend the big picture; and Planners, who live for the details.In this book, you’ll learnHow to identify your own productivity style as well as the styles of those around you—bosses, coworkers, staff, and family.How to select your “tools of the trade” to maximize your effectiveness, from the style of pen you use to the way you decorate your office.When face-to-face conversations are more effective than e-mails—and vice versa.What it takes to lead the perfect meeting.Why a messy desk is right for some, but a disaster for others—and how to tell.After reading Work Simply, you’ll come away with a productivity system that truly and fundamentally fits you—and you’ll never feel overwhelmed again.

Genres: Productivity, Business, Nonfiction, Self Help, Personal Development, Professional Development, Psychology

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 2, 2015

About the author

Carson Tate Personal productivity expert. Coach. Business consultant. Spiritual butt-kicker. Author of 'Work Simply' published by Penguin.

Reviews

[Jenny Levine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if you've read other books about managing your time and have tried multiple approaches, this book is still a good read because of its focus on four different productivity styles - prioritizer, planner, arranger, and visualizer. There's a quiz to help you find your preferred style, and then tips and recommendations for ways to align your style with how you work, participate on a team, manage, coach, and generally interact at work.

The book didn't help me come up with a specific plan, mainly because I don't have one productivity style. Instead, I'm equally spread out across all four styles, but I'll still take some of the tips to heart and continue tweaking my routines. That said, I found it valuable to understand why I do some of the things I do and realize I probably shouldn't fight those tendencies because they're a natural inclination for me. I'll also probably take productivity style into account when pitching ideas and presentations at the office.

If you haven't thought about this kind of approach to your time management, I would definitely recommend reading this book.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for these type of books. The type that promise to help me organize and simplify my workload. Most leave me disappointed or overwhelmed, but this book is actually user-friendly and practical, more than most. It has a Road Map at the beginning that helps direct you to the chapter that addresses your specific needs or weaknesses. For example, "Tired of meetings?" or "Too many papers?" - etc.

There is a simple assessment test that helps you identify your Productivity Style. (Again, I'm a sucker for these....) And then each chapter relates solutions geared for each of these styles. This was nice and helped me understand the differences/overlaps for me personally. It also gave me a renewed appreciation for others who have a very different productivity style than my own.

My rule for reading professional-development books like this is to focus on only 1 or 2 simple, practical things that I will actually implement in my work day. So - after reading this book I will try to (1) check work email ONLY 3x per day; (2) consolidate my "to do" lists to ONE master list to eliminate "popcorn brain". I currently have 5+ places I list things to do (so "popcorn brain" is the perfect description for me!). The thought of ONE list sounds impossible but oh so wise. I'll give it a try!

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy books that help you to do things more productively. This one focused on finding your productivity style and then using that knowledge to work smarter and more productively. Surprise, surprise! I am a planner as my productivity style.

[Dr. Tobias Christian Fischer · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are different types or roles of people working. Knowing that helps us and others to work more effectively. For example, a visionary style sees things and has certain obstacles. A key take-away is that you can earn money but not time. Thinking about it: it makes completely sense.

[Achmad Lutfi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bukunya singkat, padat, dan jelas.

Satu hal yang paling melekat buat saya, "Find your productivity style. Figuring out what type of person you really are will help."

Penulis menonjolkan betapa pentingnya buat kita untuk kenal terlebih dahulu diri sendiri dan bagaimana kita bisa efektif dalam manajemen waktu, karena tiap orang bisa beda-beda.

Untuk ini kita perlu mencoba dan menemukan. Artinya jangan ragu untuk gunakan intuisi, sampai menemukan gaya paling pas buat kita mengelola waktu.

Hal lain yang saya ingat adalah bahwa untuk fokus, kita justru mesti bisa memanfaatkan waktu untuk hal yang lain, semisal hobi. Karena yang demikian justru bisa membantu kita kembali konsentrasi dalam bekerja. Saya setuju untuk hal ini.

Selain tentu saja, tidak terlepas dari willpower yang mesti kita punya. Itu modal besar untuk bekerja secara efektif, efisien, dan sederhana.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about maximizing your productivity at work. Who knew that we don't all approach work in the same manner. Carson Tate includes a quiz designed to help you determine whether you are a Planner, Prioritizer, Arranger or Visualizer. Based on my scores I learned that I am equal parts Planner and Prioritizer. She does point out that the quiz is not designed to put you into a box. It just helps you understand yourself much better. I do think that in some situations, one can fall into a different productivity style e.g. Visualizer--those who like to map things out on paper/board with diagrams, arrows etc. The book has very useful tips for handling email e.g. setting aside a time to check email, and it does not necessarily have to be in the morning. That time can be devoted to tasks that require a higher level of attention. Other tips include using the email subject line effectively e.g. Action Required or if the message is really short--Meeting moved to 3 pm Tuesday-EOM(End of Message). The last one means someone doesn't have to open a message just to read one or two lines. The section on meeting is invaluable.

The National Statistics Council reports that eleven million meetings occur each day, and that 37% of employee time is spent in meetings.

One of the 1st steps is to determine whether a meeting is necessary. She conveniently categorises meetings, into 6 types: Informational meetings, Decision-making meetings, Problem-solving meetings, Brainstorming meetings, Team-building meetings, and Instruction or Skill-development meetings. Determining your meeting agenda is just as important, use the acronym POWER; Purpose, Outcomes, Who, Execution and Responsibility. This book will undoubtedly work for those in more corporate environments. Other people who might benefit could be students or even entrepreneurs who often have to come up with their own schedules. I like that this book is structured so that you can skip from chapter to chapter depending on what you want to learn, which is what I did. It could be a useful reference as well especially when transitioning between different work places or jobs. Easy to read, would recommend.

[Jenny Tonks · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book teaches time management at the most basic, middle school or high school level. I wouldn't recommend it to busy professionals or folks with full plates. But to kids and young people who have never entered the waters of time management before, it could make a good jumping off point, for all of its simplicity. The author embarrassingly admits she is actually overwhelmed, stressed out, and herself has no time to enjoy family life because she is so busy with her time management consulting business (haha!) and also admits that this book is just an expansion of a college paper on time management. But professionals with truly busy schedules would do well to stick with the tried and true classics, like Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just started this book today. And...... I'm not getting it. I'm not sure what I expected but it doesn't seem to relate information in an easily digestible manner. So far, the author is talking more about her own life rather than directly outlining issues that the reader may pick up this book to address. I feel there are better books on the market about productivity. But, it's still early. I may revise this review once I finish.

Ok: Revision..... I did enjoy this book a lot more than I initially said I did. The author did lay out many helpful suggestions and team building exercises that I think would be valuable to any working environment and collaborative process. I plan on buying this book for the office and help my team work more efficiently together.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this on GoodReads.

I’m sure that you’ve all had friends or coworkers rave about a new time management system that made their life so much simpler, only to have it make things worse. In “Work Simply”, Carson Tate helps you discover your personal productivity style and use that knowledge to customize a time management program that will work for you. I personally am a prioritizer. The system would work very well for anyone in an office type job or business owner, but there are ideas for dealing with work/home life management. This is an easy to read and understand program and is worth a try.

[Oday Zaher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book summary: "One-Shirt-Fits-All" does not work!

What makes this book different from the other productivity books: Each and everyone of us has his/her own productivity style. The book categorizes them and everyone can do a test to know his/her productivity style. you will be able to build your tailored productivity style using this book.

[Lorena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to skim this book very quickly because it was directly due back (and I had it checked out for six weeks!), but I found it of interest. I particularly appreciated Tate's emphasis on the value of time: how too often we give it away when we might not realize we were doing so; and how important it is to align your time with your goals. She also promotes having specific stretch goals in addition to your regular goals, which is not something I would have thought of.

Tate provides a quiz to determine your productivity style - I came out as equally a Visualizer and an Arranger, and I was surprised how often those styles connected with my actual behavior.

"Clutter is postponed decisions" - Barbara Hemphill (quoted in the book)

[Sorento62 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although well written, Work Simply was not helpful to me. None of the four productivity styles matches up really well to me. Many of the recommendations are for apps or computer tools or office supplies based on your productivity style; I would rather avoid most productivity apps as a waste of time, and aesthetically pleasing office supplies are not worth investing the time in seeking them out.

Postscript: Well, I do have to admit that the section on delegating was pretty good, had some ideas in it that I had not encountered previously, and probably actually was helpful to me. Staying at one star nonetheless.

[Vaughan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of the common hints for finding your productive work style... this one has many (snapshot point in time) technology specific tools to recommend. But the big differentiator is linking specific approaches based upon 4 personality workstyles (apparently I'm a prioritizer).
This makes the book a hard read at times... extracting reference mindmaps, bulletpoints or tables to get this info for when you need it would be more useful then trying to slog through and absorb from the book.

[Cathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, practical, easy-to-implement strategies. It's also an easy book to dip in and out of to find suggestions for particular work-related questions.

[Sam Cross · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally measure the value of (work or productivity-related) nonfiction on its abillity to a) impact my behaviour, and b) reframe my thinking. This book did both, so for my purposes, it "worked."

The most valuable insight I gained from this was that everyone's professional style really does fit one of the four "Productivity Styles" outlined here. I was surprised - it sounds like a cheesy concept, but as soon as I read the Arranger description, I knew that Tate was really on to something. More important than just shedding light on the makeup of my own team(s), I've found that our communication has improved, and I better understand how to convey information to colleagues of each type.

My second biggest takeaway is a very simple one: the importance of concise and actionable email. I never really struggled with this, but I didn't realize I wasn't maximizing the effectiveness of my e-communication. As soon as I finished the chapter on email (which mainly outlines the same gold-standard email tips - read, action, store), I immediately changed the way I write subjects. It sounds like a small, silly thing, but it's helped me keep track of exactly what actions are needed (and receive faster responses).

Now, the cons. The book is longer than it needed to be. The stories add context, but there are too many of them, and they're same-y. The book feels like it was written with a very corporate crowd in mind - middle and upper managers of traditionally-structured companies. This doesn't feel like it's for anyone who works at a studio, start-up, or any company that hasn't been around for more than 20 years.

The "productivity tool" suggestions felt like researched additions that were mentioned to flesh the book out (unnecessarily), and none of them stuck with me our sounded all that helpful. For a book entitled "Work Simply," there was too much mention of countless apps and gadgets and suggestions for decorating office space. That's my take - might be useful to some. Luckily, the book is well organized, so anything superfluous was easy to skip. It wasn't tough to sift for the gems.

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another time management book, but with a bit of a twist – the book suggests there are 4 different “styles” of getting things done, and whichever style you have can be optimized differently than for those having other styles. The styles are prioritizer, planner, arranger, and visualizer. The author includes a short test to categorize yourself. Of course, since I seem to defeat these kinds of tests, I fall into two different styles, so I focused on those two in the book. Note if you are just looking for advice for your style, you can skip or skim chunks of this book aimed at those other folks. Or you could read those parts to figure out what that do-nothing co-worker is actually good at. The author suggests ways to organize your work, what you’re best at, how to interact with people having other styles, etc. The author also recommends different web or computer programs that he thinks would tend to lend themselves to specific styles. This is always dangerous, as technology changes so rapidly, and these recommendations are already dated. Overall, I got a little more out of this project and time management book than I’ve gotten out of the past few I’ve read, so I think it has some value in its personalized specificity. I have my concerns that much of this was just a thought experiment by the author and was untested. It has that feel. But, compared to some of the other, more aspirational time management books out there, I thought this was better. On Goodreads scale, this is between 2 and 3.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received as part of Goodreads First reads giveaway in December 2014. Thank you.

This is a very good book for business productivity as it shows how to structure work and present information for different personality styles. In addition it helps in preventing possible personality work style clashes. This is important no matter which field you are in.

The book is very business focused as that's the target audience. While I'm not part of that I can still use a lot of the information in the book. While meetings and days in my field are not structured the same, the types of meetings, the roles people play and productivity styles still apply. The examples used are helpful as well. They are not superfluous or jarring, flowing well with the text and fitting well in each topic.

Again as this book is business focused the tools and how to shape your spaces. This may not be as applicable in other fields. Even there some suggestions may be helpful to any field.

[Gail Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you manage projects, this book should be an essential part of your reference library. Carson Tate offers specific ideas and insight to help you manage all aspects of your project, and gives practical tips and step by step techniques to help you communicate with your team, manage your email and other project tools, and stay organized to achieve project success.

Based on your Personal Productivity Style and the styles of others involved in your project, this book clearly outlines suggestions for big picture thinkers (Visualizers), detailed planners (Planners), goal-oriented individuals (Prioritizers), and intuitive project leaders (Arrangers).

I highly recommend this book.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Know the TWIST": You need Know yourself, learn to manage your Time, have the WIllpower to focus on the tasks at hand and find your own productivity STyle.

Actionable advice:

Know yourself and how you work.

The next time you start a project, take notes on the task, particularly how it fits your goal and how much you liked doing it. Do this a few days in a row and you’ll gain practical insight on how you can tweak your working style to best fit your personality and make lighter work of your daily tasks.

[Cari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a revelation while reading this book: I already do all this stuff. For some reason, I continue to seek out books and articles about productivity when in fact, I could probably write a book like this myself. This was crystallized when I realized that my "personal productivity style" as outlined in the book is all of them! I believe Tate is very talented, and the insights in the book are important and powerful. They just weren't relevant to me.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I have to go with five stars. It is not a thrilling read as the subject matter is practical, however I never finish these books. NEVER. This had me devouring every word right to the end. Already applied so much and am amazed at the huge changes from Simple Simple ideas and strategies. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in working smarter, saving time and relating better to those that surround you in the work place.

[Lauren Tomlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book! This book is written to help you be productive at work, but I also found the techniques beneficial for getting housework done. I highly recommend this book. I think the techniques and application can be applied to many different avenues.

[Sharla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tips on how to manage productivity and approach to work, debunking the one-size-fits-all methodology for time-management. This one is dog-eared to the max, and will be getting a lot of use for practical application.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

what I learned: 1. each person is different and you need your own approach to productivity. 2. I don't think that I have heard a new strategy. 3. important to understand who you work with and optimize your approach for each person and team.

[John Abrahamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more of a good refresher for everything we've already learned about productivity and efficiencies. Has some good lists, tools and acronyms.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting organized is never easy for creative, clutter-bunnies like me. Lot's of helpful ideas and guidance.

[Rina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of good, practical tips to be productive, based on Personal Productivity Style (one of the four: Prioritiser, Planner, Arranger, or Visualiser.

As expected, my quiz sorted me to be a Prioritiser/Planner (1 point difference). There were a lot of 'hacks' in this book that I had done regularly, but this was still a good reminder/affirmation to have.

For a Productivity fan like me, there was nothing amazingly new/fresh in the book. But this would make a great starting kit for Productivity newbies.

[Robin Peake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot on personal productivity, but shamefully not a lot written by women. This is excellent. The notion that our productivity styles are shaped by our personality makes so much sense when you say it, but is overlooked so often. I'm a Prioritiser and found this language helpful and motivating to work in the mould that is me

[Max D'onofrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not for me. It tried to divide you up into different types of productivity styles, and after taking the test I was equal between them all and the book failed to explain what to do in that scenario. I didn't find that I connected with any of the styles after reading them anyways. I did like the idea of taking time to be productive before you get into your email in the morning, which can be a time suck and brain drain.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this book in our staff book club. Excellent! I would recommend it for any type of team that is working closely together.