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Pick Three: You Can Have It All
A New York Times bestseller!
In this motivational handbook—both a business how-to and self-help guide—the New York Times bestselling author of Dot Complicated takes on the fallacy of the "well-balanced" life, arguing that the key to success is learning to be well-lopsided.
Work. Sleep. Fitness. Family. Friends. Pick Three.
In an increasingly demanding world, we’ve been told that we can do everything—maintain friendships, devote ourselves to work, spend time with family, stay fit, and get enough sleep. We just need to learn to balance it all. Randi Zuckerberg doesn’t believe in being well-balanced. We can’t do it all every day, she contends, and trying to do so only leaves us frustrated and feeling inadequate. But we can succeed if we Pick Three.
Randi first introduced the concept of Pick Three in a tweet—"The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma"—that went viral. Now, in this book, she expands on her philosophy and inspires others to follow her lead. From entrepreneurs to professionals, busy parents to students, Randi can help everyone learn to reject the unrealistic burden of balance and enjoy success in their own lives—by picking the most important areas to focus on in any given day.
This practical handbook includes stories from Randi’s career learning that there’s no such thing as a perfect balance—as well as insights and examples from other professionals at the top of the biggest businesses in Silicon Valley, new moms searching for permission to focus on family, and recent graduates convinced they should have it all under control, including Arianna Huffington, Reshma Saujani, Laurie Hernandez, and Brad Takei. We can’t have it all every day, and that’s okay, Randi reminds us. Pick Three is her much-needed guide to learning to embrace the well-lopsided life.
In this motivational handbook—both a business how-to and self-help guide—the New York Times bestselling author of Dot Complicated takes on the fallacy of the "well-balanced" life, arguing that the key to success is learning to be well-lopsided.
Work. Sleep. Fitness. Family. Friends. Pick Three.
In an increasingly demanding world, we’ve been told that we can do everything—maintain friendships, devote ourselves to work, spend time with family, stay fit, and get enough sleep. We just need to learn to balance it all. Randi Zuckerberg doesn’t believe in being well-balanced. We can’t do it all every day, she contends, and trying to do so only leaves us frustrated and feeling inadequate. But we can succeed if we Pick Three.
Randi first introduced the concept of Pick Three in a tweet—"The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma"—that went viral. Now, in this book, she expands on her philosophy and inspires others to follow her lead. From entrepreneurs to professionals, busy parents to students, Randi can help everyone learn to reject the unrealistic burden of balance and enjoy success in their own lives—by picking the most important areas to focus on in any given day.
This practical handbook includes stories from Randi’s career learning that there’s no such thing as a perfect balance—as well as insights and examples from other professionals at the top of the biggest businesses in Silicon Valley, new moms searching for permission to focus on family, and recent graduates convinced they should have it all under control, including Arianna Huffington, Reshma Saujani, Laurie Hernandez, and Brad Takei. We can’t have it all every day, and that’s okay, Randi reminds us. Pick Three is her much-needed guide to learning to embrace the well-lopsided life.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 15, 2018
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January 9, 2025
Who is Randi Zuckerberg's book Pick Three for? Randi Zuckerberg's ego.
I agree with several other reviewers that this book could have been a successful blog post, or maybe it could have just stayed a tweet (really, this book was based on a tweet). A tweet certainly wouldn't have pissed me off this much. Reading the jacket of the cover will get the message across to you, and unless you love to hate-read like me, I advise you to do just that. Aside from a precious few pages at the beginning of the book, this work is a drawn-out brag sesh about Zuckerberg's accomplishments and smacks of a need to be more special and world-changing than her brother Mark. From the first chapter, I learned that she has a radio show, got a call from the White House, starred on Broadway, went to Harvard, does 40 speech engagements a year, and invented Facebook Live (which oh did you know that over two billion people use it and probably you have it on your phone right now yeah that was totally me I invented this magical piece of American progress)--NONE OF WHICH have anything to do with her method for living a balanced life.
When we finally get to that argument, we see that Zuckerberg has come up with this (to her) earth-shattering idea that we can't do everything every day. Which is true, and also not very new; but she truly does think she's Cracked it, and she's so excited for your life to change because of her ideas. But at the same time, she (yes literally) assures us that if she knew about how much we commoners try to accomplish in a week, she'd want US to sign the book for HER. We’re the Real Heroes. Girl, I never asked for your autograph, and you certainly shouldn't assume I want it after four pages of the introduction.
Her whole thing is that being a lopsided person day-to-day will lead to a balanced life in the long run: basically that choosing some things and doing them well is better than half-assing everything, and that doing some things well every day will lead to doing everything well overall. Okay, sure, yeah, wait, is that the beginnings of an idea I see peeking out between the bulging leather-and-gold-upholstered couch cushions of privilege? Sure, that's something to think abou--aaand less than a page later we're back to talking about her Broadway stardom. Her book is lopsided--just like her strategy for living life, which would be a lovely thematic parallel. But it doesn't accomplish the goal of being balanced over time. It's a kernel of an idea of changing your perspective on living a full life and then a non-stop hammering home of how self-absorbed Zuckerberg is.
And y'all, I HATE having to pick on a woman for being confident and self-assured; I really do. But this work is so over-the-top and disconnected from her audience it’s embarrassing. Let's look at some of these missed connections. Her five categories are work, sleep, family, friends, and fitness. "The five main categories in your life might be slightly different than mine, but... let's assume that my five categories work for you." On page 4 she's admitting that these categories are tailored to her; but instead of having part one be a self-discovery journey of naming your own categories and examining your lifestyle and goals to build the perfect Pick Three approach for you (hire me, publishers), she barrels through and assumes that everyone will have these categories.
Early on, she actually goes out of her way to critique the many books she's read that assume everyone has the same privilege as the author, and promises that she's not going to assume that. She's going to look at life complexly and from every possible angle and relate to everyone from the CEO to the college student. After making this lovely sentiment, she crumples it into a ball and throws it in her infinity pool.
My first question after reading about the five areas of life was "...when do I do the laundry?" I'm a twenty-something with a partner and no plans to have kids, so I have nowhere near the number of chores and errands a typical family has to do. And yet none of these categories included laundry, which is just one of the things I have to do to maintain my basic household. What category accounts for the mundane realities of being an adult and having to shop for yourself, cook for yourself, clean your house, etc.? What about parenting? She's so disconnected from reality that there is not a single sentence in this book that mentions housework beyond a hint at paying people to do things you don't want to do. So already her audience is limited to people who are financially able to offload the grunt work of life onto others. No shame in that, honestly--great for you if that's the life you've built (and she makes it painfully, PAINFULLY clear that she wants us to know that she's built it with her own perfectly manicured hands), but if you're so entrenched in the 1% that you can't even conceive of your readers needing to do housework (and/or work work) AND/OR parent children or a partner… you probably shouldn't be writing for the masses.
Then we come to her tirade about her work ethic, and trust me, if this Is your style, it's so worth it to hate-read. She worked in her dad's dentist office after finishing her homework, caddied at the local bridge club, invested in Google when she was a teenager, she waitressed (see? She's just like US!), she did three internships at a time WHILE she was in college, and she didn't take a break after graduation to travel around the world (aren't you impressed that she gave up that opportunity that each of us is afforded equally?)--she went straight to her first job and worked 12-hour days. And then she stayed out on the town until 4 am. And then she worked some more! And whenever she had a break, she worked for fun! (Seriously this is how she describes her day-to-day life.) And her "for fun" work was creating Facebook Live. By the way, did you know that Facebook Live is used by over two billion people including Katy Perry and the PRESIDENT? Randi Zuckerberg really wants you to know. And not that anyone was asking, but by the way, direct quote, if you don't love working for fun, Zuckerberg recommends you don’t even think about starting a company (but she doesn't want to scare you).
While admonishing her fictional Pick Three example guy Steve for choosing work too much and forfeiting his health, she humble-brags about her insane work ethic and how she picked work as all three of her things for years to get where she is. So wait now the Pick Three principle is limited to people who have already established their careers, families, and finances? If you haven’t, how do you not pick work every day if you're working two and a half jobs? Randi doesn't need to know, and remember, there's no room here to adjust the strategy of Pick Three for yourself--just assume her life works for yours. Her other example, Emmy, accidentally sleeps in on the day she picked fitness, work, and family, and Randi's critique is that she "picked sleep" which is a fourth thing, and her "multitasking" (wtf) made her have a shitty day: rushing to spin class, traffic, cranky kids, and a restaurant that forgot part of her order. No, Randi, you're right: accidentally sleeping through your alarm clock is just an example of consciously failing your perfect method, and will definitely cause cranky kids and restaurant order mistakes. This is so rhetorically misleading.
The rest of her book includes a ton of interviews with successful people (who I have never heard of)--who, by the way, do NOT use her Pick Three method or even vaguely endorse it!! Her goal for this part is to cater life advice to every reader's Pick Three Personality, whether you're "the passionista, the eliminator, the monetizer, or the expert.” No quiz or instructions to tell me which I am. But I don’t need one to know that I’m none of these. The monetizer is a person who "capitalizes on one of our basic human needs...through their products or services, they help us." One of the “personalities” (is this a personality?) that she thinks some of her readers will have is being a person who sells (in some form) work, sleep, family, fitness, or friends? She tries to categorize both her readers and interviewees into the same types and it doesn't work.
I really wouldn't be so mad at this if her book were marketed exclusively to career professionals, but she deliberately markets this to everyone including “busy students.” So as a member of Everyone, I'd like to say, This Is Not My Life. Maybe some people who are already successful AF can hashtag their way to a better life with Randi (have I mentioned the excessive hello-fellow-kids hashtagging?). I'm sure people who are already rich enjoyed her self-involved romp down Wall Street for a few minutes before needing to look in a mirror again. But sentence after sentence of this book had me making the "really?" face; I'm honestly floored at how some of this got through her editor (though if she had one, they're not credited). By page 30 I was so alienated and annoyed that I switched to skimming--at 30 PAGES IN.
Let's end our journey with a moment from page 29 where she (charmingly, she’s certain) dismisses Anderson Cooper’s Emmy win, describing it as "reporting live from a ditch in Haiti." I’m sorry, Randi. It really is confusing when someone doing real journalistic work wins out over the invention of live-streams of college bar giant Jenga games, isn’t it?
Randi (aggressively) inserts her personality into this book, which is totally appropriate for the genre. But that’s where a lot of the attitude comes from, and the attitude is unbearable. I mean, probably mine here will come off that way to some people too, but I’m not writing a self-help book or marketing myself to literally Everyone. By the end--really, the end of the introduction--of this book, Randi Zuckerberg wants to make sure you know how interesting and successful and hard-working Randi Zuckerberg is, and that horse is really, really, really dead.
I agree with several other reviewers that this book could have been a successful blog post, or maybe it could have just stayed a tweet (really, this book was based on a tweet). A tweet certainly wouldn't have pissed me off this much. Reading the jacket of the cover will get the message across to you, and unless you love to hate-read like me, I advise you to do just that. Aside from a precious few pages at the beginning of the book, this work is a drawn-out brag sesh about Zuckerberg's accomplishments and smacks of a need to be more special and world-changing than her brother Mark. From the first chapter, I learned that she has a radio show, got a call from the White House, starred on Broadway, went to Harvard, does 40 speech engagements a year, and invented Facebook Live (which oh did you know that over two billion people use it and probably you have it on your phone right now yeah that was totally me I invented this magical piece of American progress)--NONE OF WHICH have anything to do with her method for living a balanced life.
When we finally get to that argument, we see that Zuckerberg has come up with this (to her) earth-shattering idea that we can't do everything every day. Which is true, and also not very new; but she truly does think she's Cracked it, and she's so excited for your life to change because of her ideas. But at the same time, she (yes literally) assures us that if she knew about how much we commoners try to accomplish in a week, she'd want US to sign the book for HER. We’re the Real Heroes. Girl, I never asked for your autograph, and you certainly shouldn't assume I want it after four pages of the introduction.
Her whole thing is that being a lopsided person day-to-day will lead to a balanced life in the long run: basically that choosing some things and doing them well is better than half-assing everything, and that doing some things well every day will lead to doing everything well overall. Okay, sure, yeah, wait, is that the beginnings of an idea I see peeking out between the bulging leather-and-gold-upholstered couch cushions of privilege? Sure, that's something to think abou--aaand less than a page later we're back to talking about her Broadway stardom. Her book is lopsided--just like her strategy for living life, which would be a lovely thematic parallel. But it doesn't accomplish the goal of being balanced over time. It's a kernel of an idea of changing your perspective on living a full life and then a non-stop hammering home of how self-absorbed Zuckerberg is.
And y'all, I HATE having to pick on a woman for being confident and self-assured; I really do. But this work is so over-the-top and disconnected from her audience it’s embarrassing. Let's look at some of these missed connections. Her five categories are work, sleep, family, friends, and fitness. "The five main categories in your life might be slightly different than mine, but... let's assume that my five categories work for you." On page 4 she's admitting that these categories are tailored to her; but instead of having part one be a self-discovery journey of naming your own categories and examining your lifestyle and goals to build the perfect Pick Three approach for you (hire me, publishers), she barrels through and assumes that everyone will have these categories.
Early on, she actually goes out of her way to critique the many books she's read that assume everyone has the same privilege as the author, and promises that she's not going to assume that. She's going to look at life complexly and from every possible angle and relate to everyone from the CEO to the college student. After making this lovely sentiment, she crumples it into a ball and throws it in her infinity pool.
My first question after reading about the five areas of life was "...when do I do the laundry?" I'm a twenty-something with a partner and no plans to have kids, so I have nowhere near the number of chores and errands a typical family has to do. And yet none of these categories included laundry, which is just one of the things I have to do to maintain my basic household. What category accounts for the mundane realities of being an adult and having to shop for yourself, cook for yourself, clean your house, etc.? What about parenting? She's so disconnected from reality that there is not a single sentence in this book that mentions housework beyond a hint at paying people to do things you don't want to do. So already her audience is limited to people who are financially able to offload the grunt work of life onto others. No shame in that, honestly--great for you if that's the life you've built (and she makes it painfully, PAINFULLY clear that she wants us to know that she's built it with her own perfectly manicured hands), but if you're so entrenched in the 1% that you can't even conceive of your readers needing to do housework (and/or work work) AND/OR parent children or a partner… you probably shouldn't be writing for the masses.
Then we come to her tirade about her work ethic, and trust me, if this Is your style, it's so worth it to hate-read. She worked in her dad's dentist office after finishing her homework, caddied at the local bridge club, invested in Google when she was a teenager, she waitressed (see? She's just like US!), she did three internships at a time WHILE she was in college, and she didn't take a break after graduation to travel around the world (aren't you impressed that she gave up that opportunity that each of us is afforded equally?)--she went straight to her first job and worked 12-hour days. And then she stayed out on the town until 4 am. And then she worked some more! And whenever she had a break, she worked for fun! (Seriously this is how she describes her day-to-day life.) And her "for fun" work was creating Facebook Live. By the way, did you know that Facebook Live is used by over two billion people including Katy Perry and the PRESIDENT? Randi Zuckerberg really wants you to know. And not that anyone was asking, but by the way, direct quote, if you don't love working for fun, Zuckerberg recommends you don’t even think about starting a company (but she doesn't want to scare you).
While admonishing her fictional Pick Three example guy Steve for choosing work too much and forfeiting his health, she humble-brags about her insane work ethic and how she picked work as all three of her things for years to get where she is. So wait now the Pick Three principle is limited to people who have already established their careers, families, and finances? If you haven’t, how do you not pick work every day if you're working two and a half jobs? Randi doesn't need to know, and remember, there's no room here to adjust the strategy of Pick Three for yourself--just assume her life works for yours. Her other example, Emmy, accidentally sleeps in on the day she picked fitness, work, and family, and Randi's critique is that she "picked sleep" which is a fourth thing, and her "multitasking" (wtf) made her have a shitty day: rushing to spin class, traffic, cranky kids, and a restaurant that forgot part of her order. No, Randi, you're right: accidentally sleeping through your alarm clock is just an example of consciously failing your perfect method, and will definitely cause cranky kids and restaurant order mistakes. This is so rhetorically misleading.
The rest of her book includes a ton of interviews with successful people (who I have never heard of)--who, by the way, do NOT use her Pick Three method or even vaguely endorse it!! Her goal for this part is to cater life advice to every reader's Pick Three Personality, whether you're "the passionista, the eliminator, the monetizer, or the expert.” No quiz or instructions to tell me which I am. But I don’t need one to know that I’m none of these. The monetizer is a person who "capitalizes on one of our basic human needs...through their products or services, they help us." One of the “personalities” (is this a personality?) that she thinks some of her readers will have is being a person who sells (in some form) work, sleep, family, fitness, or friends? She tries to categorize both her readers and interviewees into the same types and it doesn't work.
I really wouldn't be so mad at this if her book were marketed exclusively to career professionals, but she deliberately markets this to everyone including “busy students.” So as a member of Everyone, I'd like to say, This Is Not My Life. Maybe some people who are already successful AF can hashtag their way to a better life with Randi (have I mentioned the excessive hello-fellow-kids hashtagging?). I'm sure people who are already rich enjoyed her self-involved romp down Wall Street for a few minutes before needing to look in a mirror again. But sentence after sentence of this book had me making the "really?" face; I'm honestly floored at how some of this got through her editor (though if she had one, they're not credited). By page 30 I was so alienated and annoyed that I switched to skimming--at 30 PAGES IN.
Let's end our journey with a moment from page 29 where she (charmingly, she’s certain) dismisses Anderson Cooper’s Emmy win, describing it as "reporting live from a ditch in Haiti." I’m sorry, Randi. It really is confusing when someone doing real journalistic work wins out over the invention of live-streams of college bar giant Jenga games, isn’t it?
Randi (aggressively) inserts her personality into this book, which is totally appropriate for the genre. But that’s where a lot of the attitude comes from, and the attitude is unbearable. I mean, probably mine here will come off that way to some people too, but I’m not writing a self-help book or marketing myself to literally Everyone. By the end--really, the end of the introduction--of this book, Randi Zuckerberg wants to make sure you know how interesting and successful and hard-working Randi Zuckerberg is, and that horse is really, really, really dead.
June 16, 2018
The book has a good underlying concept. Just did not need to be a book, a long-form article would have sufficed.
July 24, 2018
Read the first few pages and you should have this concept down.
August 10, 2018
I liked the general idea of the book - choosing three main areas of focus everyday and let the rest go until another day - however the intended audience for this book was very confusing. It felt like unless you are some high powered executive and self employed millionaire, there wasn't a lot to relate to. I'm just a mom who works in health care trying to get through the week... someone in my circumstances clearly should be able to manage as there were very few examples/stories that made any connection to my lived experience. Also, every section - work, family, sleep, fitness and friends - always centered around work which made no sense to me. Many suggestions
are for the wealthy or to advertise for a wealthy friend - having trouble prioritizing sleep? Book a carnival cruise! Clearly a logical solution...
are for the wealthy or to advertise for a wealthy friend - having trouble prioritizing sleep? Book a carnival cruise! Clearly a logical solution...
March 5, 2019
What a pile of garbage.
January 19, 2021
Seems like more effort is put in to tracking what three things to focus on then just getting shit done. This book could have (should have) been a blog. New York Times best seller? Good for her. Motivational handbook? I think not.
Life is easy until it's hard. You might be able to pick three on most days but there will definitely be days you can't.
Life is easy until it's hard. You might be able to pick three on most days but there will definitely be days you can't.
October 13, 2018
This was really meh. She had an interesting idea but it should have been an article, not a whole book. I found it extremely repetitive, and throughout the book she uses real life examples of people that are, for the most part, not that compelling.
July 4, 2021
Good concept, but it honestly could have been a TED talk. Most of the stories seemed a bit advertisement-y…and I’m not sure that my life categories were completely parallel with hers. Not a bad listen (at 1.25 speed), but not my favorite.
July 10, 2019
LET'S GET LOPSIDED
Enlightenment in making choices for a healthier and happier you. It's okay not to do it all, making choices, and yes, even saying no. In Pick Three, it is placing things in a priority that works for you. Choices of the BIG FIVE--Work; Sleep; Family; Fitness; and Friends. With the message of "You Can Have It All" --just not every day.
I won a copy of this book during a Goodreads giveaway. I am under no obligation to leave a review or rating and do so voluntarily. So that others may also enjoy this book, I am paying it forward by donating it to my local library.
Enlightenment in making choices for a healthier and happier you. It's okay not to do it all, making choices, and yes, even saying no. In Pick Three, it is placing things in a priority that works for you. Choices of the BIG FIVE--Work; Sleep; Family; Fitness; and Friends. With the message of "You Can Have It All" --just not every day.
I won a copy of this book during a Goodreads giveaway. I am under no obligation to leave a review or rating and do so voluntarily. So that others may also enjoy this book, I am paying it forward by donating it to my local library.
September 3, 2019
I agree with the premise and think it’s a lesson we all can use: pick three areas of your life to focus on each day. You can’t do it all everyday, but you can choose to prioritize a few in order to get things done / not feel overly bogged down and to find a balance that works for you. And - to let go of the guilt for not getting to family/friends/working out for the day.
While I was excited to read the book, I found it fell flat: I agree with other readers that the book was almost unnecessary—- the chapters with antidotes of each five “passionista” and “eliminator” just dragged on and seemed unnecessary. Parts I found interesting, but I would have found it more helpful if it was a workbook with some text vs a book with a bit of a workbook at the end.
Overall, some good info I highlighted (I got this book free from my library for a summer reading program) - but it’s one you can probably skim at the bookstore or read sections from the library. A great idea to put into practice but the book was overkill.
While I was excited to read the book, I found it fell flat: I agree with other readers that the book was almost unnecessary—- the chapters with antidotes of each five “passionista” and “eliminator” just dragged on and seemed unnecessary. Parts I found interesting, but I would have found it more helpful if it was a workbook with some text vs a book with a bit of a workbook at the end.
Overall, some good info I highlighted (I got this book free from my library for a summer reading program) - but it’s one you can probably skim at the bookstore or read sections from the library. A great idea to put into practice but the book was overkill.
July 16, 2018
This is a book with 1 great idea. Unfortunately, it's in the first chapter and everything after that is repetition. "Pick Three" could have been a blog post but instead the book keeps echoing the same mantra for hundreds of pages to justify its existence.
July 4, 2018
It's probably 1.5 stars. Bought this on a whim and was kind of a waste of time and money. So many better books out there about managing time and fitting in all the pieces of your life.
January 6, 2019
This was such an utter waste of time. Unchecked privilege of every kind abounds, there is rampant fat shaming, and most of the suggestions are advertisements for herself or her other rich friends.
January 10, 2019
In theory I like the concept and may try it. However, a lot beyond the initial idea seemed unnecessary and not particularly helpful or illuminating.
June 22, 2018
I was surprised by this one. I don’t usually believe in the idea that you have to “pick three” of what matters most to you, so I found her perspective on picking three different things knowing it will even out over time refreshing. Her voice was distinctive and authentic, with a writing style that made this one easy to fly through. I enjoyed the different perspectives for every category and this one didn’t leave me feeling like too much or not enough. I’m excited to try out picking three and tracking it to see how it goes.
April 16, 2021
I liked this book more then I thought I would. I almost walked away early on thinking it wasn’t for me, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Maybe it’s because I find myself pondering my future more and more these days and this book was very optimistic. I’m not sure I will ever adapt a pick 3 habit but I still enjoyed the concept.
December 17, 2018
I liked this book, as Zuckerberg was authentic. I feel as if her perspective on picking three things to focus on each day and do those three things really well is a much more realistic approach then the work/life balance we hear and read so much about! Of course it is hard to pick your top three each day, but I am going to try it and track it and see how it goes! Glad I saw this one on the best business books for entrepreneurs and professionals to read in 2018.
July 22, 2022
See other reviews!
July 6, 2019
FIVE STARS...For Randi...You will fall in love with Randi Zuckerberg's funny and witty sense of humor throughout the book while she tells you how she is so lopsided. Pick Three is ABSOLUTELY a “do-able”, easy method for anyone, a housewife raising children, a business executive and doctors, etc… attaining your daily goals using Pick Three that when you follow correctly is EXTREMELY effective. Pick Three helps you to choose from your everyday categories: Fitness, Work, Family, Friends & Sleep and instead of trying to accomplish ALL of these tasks every day without feeling bad about yourself or guilty that you haven't completed ALL of your daily goals AGAIN… Randi tells you to choose just 3: Work, Family, Sleep and to change your choices each day so the next day I might choose: Fitness, Work, Friends, but YOU ONLY GET TO CHOOSE 3...That's the point of the book. Use Pick 3 and you will start to prioritize your categories and find out you work (studying, learning a new skill, job) too much or spend to little time with friends (lunch, drinks, out to an event) and you might be a little lopsided. Like Randi. I thoroughly enjoyed Randi's book Pick Three. I am using the Pick Three method myself. I am discovering my daily tasks can be soooo much more efficient and productive using The Pick Three.
July 2, 2022
Like others said, this book could have easily been a blog post or YouTube video. While the premise is good (not great) it gets over complicated with the long winded book. I would say this book is more like a biography about the author, sprinkling in her productivity habit system.
June 8, 2018
Love this concept. We always want to do too much.
July 18, 2018
It wasn't awful, but as much as I am struggling to prioritize, this just didn't click for me. The author's "conversational" tone also grated a bit. Too millennial. (All the hashtags had me cringing.)
September 11, 2021
Pick Three
Author is the sister of Mark Zuckerberg, who helped launched Facebook and was the person who created Facebook Live. She has other passions in theatre and left Silicon Valley for a career in advertising, theatre and other genres.
The book talks about the author’s idea of picking three, meaning you can only pick up to three things in a day to prioritize out of Work, Sleep, Fitness(Self-care, Eating etc), Friends and Family. It helps you mitigate guilt for things you could not prioritize that day.
Some notes I took:
WORK:When you choose work, remember to think about what your job does for YOU. Also, Randi as well as other authors in this age discuss how being a ‘creator’ that helps other people is necessary to be know as an expert in the area. For me, more input and output, as well as a wide range of experiences, is needed for this.
SLEEP: Quantity and quality of sleep has a direct link to diseases. There is no long-term trophy for sustained sleep deprivation, and it is a responsibility to continue to perform for those around you.
What I thought:
For about half a year, I’ve been used to choosing just work and family (plus sleep if I’m lucky). This book showed me how lopsided my life truly is, how this is not normal, and how I need better conscious control over my working hours.
Pondering about the next 80 years of my life makes me realize how much the other aspects are essential to my well being. It takes a lot of courage to make a conscious effort to leave work, but it’ll be good training for future times when I’ll have no choice but to limit work hours to tend to family etc.
Author is the sister of Mark Zuckerberg, who helped launched Facebook and was the person who created Facebook Live. She has other passions in theatre and left Silicon Valley for a career in advertising, theatre and other genres.
The book talks about the author’s idea of picking three, meaning you can only pick up to three things in a day to prioritize out of Work, Sleep, Fitness(Self-care, Eating etc), Friends and Family. It helps you mitigate guilt for things you could not prioritize that day.
Some notes I took:
WORK:When you choose work, remember to think about what your job does for YOU. Also, Randi as well as other authors in this age discuss how being a ‘creator’ that helps other people is necessary to be know as an expert in the area. For me, more input and output, as well as a wide range of experiences, is needed for this.
SLEEP: Quantity and quality of sleep has a direct link to diseases. There is no long-term trophy for sustained sleep deprivation, and it is a responsibility to continue to perform for those around you.
What I thought:
For about half a year, I’ve been used to choosing just work and family (plus sleep if I’m lucky). This book showed me how lopsided my life truly is, how this is not normal, and how I need better conscious control over my working hours.
Pondering about the next 80 years of my life makes me realize how much the other aspects are essential to my well being. It takes a lot of courage to make a conscious effort to leave work, but it’ll be good training for future times when I’ll have no choice but to limit work hours to tend to family etc.
August 20, 2018
First off, I have to laugh at the fact that for someone who proclaims that she works very hard to have a life outside of her brother's fame, she sure TALKS about her brother a lot! At first I found it pretty relatable... but then it got boring.
As for the "Pick Three" concept, like others are saying, this could have been condensed in a series of blog posts or some other online forum (perhaps a Facebook live. ;-) ) I was sort of bothered that while she DID address how important sleep is, and that everyone should get enough, she never really got too deep into how to NOT make sleep one of your "pick 3" and still live healthfully.
That being said, sleep, and my job (so, "work") are non-negotiables for me. I will be creating categories outside of those two, and will still "pick 3" every day--I love the concept--but I'm not going to skimp out on sleep, ever. And I'm not going to say to myself on a Monday, "well, today isn't a "work" day so I think I'll just sit around and twiddle my thumbs instead of doing my job." (Yes, I know there's more to it than that, but she didn't really address it in the way I would have liked her to, so it was bothersome and unsettling.)
I want to say this was a life-changing way to look at organization, and I hope that by implementing the concept in my own way it will help, but I'm just pretty unimpressed.
As for the "Pick Three" concept, like others are saying, this could have been condensed in a series of blog posts or some other online forum (perhaps a Facebook live. ;-) ) I was sort of bothered that while she DID address how important sleep is, and that everyone should get enough, she never really got too deep into how to NOT make sleep one of your "pick 3" and still live healthfully.
That being said, sleep, and my job (so, "work") are non-negotiables for me. I will be creating categories outside of those two, and will still "pick 3" every day--I love the concept--but I'm not going to skimp out on sleep, ever. And I'm not going to say to myself on a Monday, "well, today isn't a "work" day so I think I'll just sit around and twiddle my thumbs instead of doing my job." (Yes, I know there's more to it than that, but she didn't really address it in the way I would have liked her to, so it was bothersome and unsettling.)
I want to say this was a life-changing way to look at organization, and I hope that by implementing the concept in my own way it will help, but I'm just pretty unimpressed.
January 31, 2019
Pick three is an interesting concept, the writing style is casual and engaging, and the interview subjects fascinating. But it falls short in its key promise, that you can have it all by rotating though five categories, picking only three each day.
Zuckerberg mentions in the beginning of the book that she’s very fortunate & not everyone has her resources, and she wants to acknowledge that. She says she wants to make sure that her method is applicable to those who don’t have the level of support she has, but then she doesn’t follow through.
I found no mention of how to balance the kinds of things most of us have to deal with - groceries, house cleaning, childcare, laundry - while also trying to be the best with our spouse, our work, our friends, our family, and our health, while getting enough sleep. Her Family category, where many people might put those things, translates to attending her kid’s events, or being home for dinner.
There might be a way to use pick three when you’ve got to do your adulting yourself, but Pick Three doesn’t address it directly. My takeaway is that you can have it all picking three, but only if you can also pick a fourth: “Spend money to have other people do things for you”
Zuckerberg mentions in the beginning of the book that she’s very fortunate & not everyone has her resources, and she wants to acknowledge that. She says she wants to make sure that her method is applicable to those who don’t have the level of support she has, but then she doesn’t follow through.
I found no mention of how to balance the kinds of things most of us have to deal with - groceries, house cleaning, childcare, laundry - while also trying to be the best with our spouse, our work, our friends, our family, and our health, while getting enough sleep. Her Family category, where many people might put those things, translates to attending her kid’s events, or being home for dinner.
There might be a way to use pick three when you’ve got to do your adulting yourself, but Pick Three doesn’t address it directly. My takeaway is that you can have it all picking three, but only if you can also pick a fourth: “Spend money to have other people do things for you”
January 4, 2020
Read for my book club. This was a quick read, and not as much of a slog as I was expecting. While she had some interesting perspectives to offer on the section about work, this book does not have much to recommend it overall. The actual thinking behind Pick 3 takes up about 13 pages, and the rest of the books seems like mainly a vehicle for Zuckerberg to tell stories about herself and her friends (which were at least interesting, thankfully). She came up with these "personas" to explain how people might function within her five life categories (passionista, eliminator, renovator, superhero, monetizer, and expert. They work fairly well for the Work bucket, but she struggled mightily to fit them to each of the categories (a sleep "monetizer"...so she profiles a cruise line CEO). She even confused her personas in the Friends category and had the headlines switched between the Friends Superhero and the Friends Renovator (editors obvi asleep on the job for that one). Not sure this is worth anyone's time.
July 4, 2018
I got very little from this book.
I thought Randi would be sharing time management techniques, but all she does is encourage the reader to not feel guilty about prioritizing only 3 of the 5 categories (work, family, fitness, sleep and friends) on any given day. She does this with too many lengthy examples.
I thought Randi would be sharing time management techniques, but all she does is encourage the reader to not feel guilty about prioritizing only 3 of the 5 categories (work, family, fitness, sleep and friends) on any given day. She does this with too many lengthy examples.
February 8, 2019
Oh gosh...this book....it just made me SO mad! Like, I get the concept, and it´s actually a good idea. But after the introduction, I felt like it was all over the place. Randi tries to describe different "personas" based on their pick three, but I just didnt relate to any of them, and least of all her. Her EGO is just way over the top in this book. It didn´t help that I listened to the audiobook (narrated by her). Overall I´m just VERY disappointed. She didn´t say anything that I didn´t already know or provide any AWE-inspiring revelations about leading a "well-lopside" life. And all her little comments and sarcastic remarks throughout the book I just didn´t need them honestly. They made me angrier in fact. I really wanted to like this book, but just...no.
February 8, 2019
I really liked the idea of this book when I heard the title, and thought it would offer a helpful framework for prioritizing and giving yourself permission to not do everything every day. But the book is overly rigid in its prescription (as the women of By the Book podcast learned, and I agree), plus there are very few concrete actionable tips. Instead it's all about anecdotes and workbooks, both of which I hate in self-help books. Plus, the style and tone are obnoxious and irritating (or is it #OBNOXIOUS and #IRRITATING, with a side of multiple "self-plugs" for her podcast or whatever). I skimmed the whole thing and very rarely stopped, intrigued by something I wanted to read in further detail. I do not recommend.
July 2, 2018
An idea that's already improved my life even though it's not entirely functional for this point in my life (I gotta change the categories around to fit me). The concept is great. The book had a lot of filler and examples which is good or bad depending.
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