Insane Productivity for Lazy People is a comprehensive, step-by-step system for making productivity your superpower. It is based on 10 years of research and experiments to find out exactly what can increase the productivity of an average lazy person several times. Many elements of this system are used by billionaires, Olympic champions, CEOs and even presidents of countries. The book is entertaining to read and has plenty of examples and insights about what can destroy or skyrocket productivity. The goal of this book is to change your mindset and encourage you to implement several simple productivity tools that will allow you to do more work in a day than the majority of people can do in a week — while working less hours and having more fun.
At the age of 19, Andrii obtained his CCIE (Certified Cisco Internetwork Expert) certification, the most respected certification in the IT world, and became the youngest person in Europe to hold it. At the age of 23, he joined an MBA program at one of the top 10 MBA schools in the USA as the youngest student in the program, and at the age of 25 he joined Cisco Systems' Head Office as a Product Manager responsible for managing a router which brought in $1 billion in revenue every year. These and other experiences have taught Andrii that success in any endeavor doesn't as much depend on the amount of experience you have but rather on the processes that you are using. Having dedicated over 10 years to researching behavior of world's most successful people and testing a variety of different techniques, Andrii has uncovered principles that will help you to unleash your potential and fulfill your dreams in a very short period of time.
Self-help books are usually a hit-or-miss, depending on the person reading it.
I wouldn't rate this as a great self-help book but it does make some decent points. It falls into some misleading self help tropes like "Everyone has the same 24 hour in a day".
The 'find your passion and pursue it' directive is rather impractical as well. A decent programmer makes more money than a decent singer. And the world definitely needs more of the former.
The author alleges that "successful people work less but more productively", while the truth is closer to "successful people work more AND productively". He also puts the 40 hour workweek as the most optimal, though it is more nuanced than that. He proposes a "school bell technique", which isn't very different from the Pomodoro technique.
The "acidic foods bad - alkaline foods good" generalization sounded plain wrong, and has indeed been discredited as pseudoscience.
The book lists willpower and passion as the two primary drivers, but it completely misses out on the biggest one - habits.
It does offer some good, if not new advice on setting concrete goals, visualization, willpower fatigue, instant gratification, task switching cost, etc.
I found the extrapolation of Pareto's principle which implies that 50% of the consequence is borne out of 1% of the causes to be quite profound.
My favorite quotes from the book:
"The difference between having no car and a Honda Civic is much bigger than the difference between having a Civic and a Porsche"
"The most important quality of a successful person is the extremely short time between an idea and its implementation"
Great book! I loved the fact that this book provides practical advice that you can initiate immediately. Too often, these self-help books geared toward productivity are too aspirational and lack real-world practical advice.
Nothing new or groundbreaking, most advice is well-established. But it's good to have it bundled in a book, all those things you heard left and right in your life at work, at school or just on the internet. Andrii cites a lot of research, but unfortunately doesn't provide any sources whatsoever. Which is a bit of a bummer. Sometimes his use of "x% this" or "x% that" seems also arbitrary.
Some of the advice is hogwash or pesudoscience, though. For example the alkaline/acidic food diet to provide you with energy. Also his take on the nature vs nurture aspect in which he states your strong points are determined for 95% by innate talent given by Mother Nature and only 5% hard work, is not my cup of tea. He argues everyone was given certain skills through lottery at birth and its your job to determine those skills and focus on them rather than anything else. This seems too much focused on those world class athletes, ignoring that most people will never reach such levels anyway so its better to focus on becoming mediocre/relatively good in something that pays well or makes you feel okay. At least in my point of view.
All in all some useful advice to take to heart, but I'm sure there are better books on the subject.
Book is well-crafted, researched and highly practical
The book authored by Andrii Sedniev is a great book and presents some of the most-workable ideas one can look for productivity. The teachings and the scientific explanations for each process is well-crafted not loosely presented.
There are basically 10 precise ideas or processes explained for increasing one's productivity.
Few of those include: i) Having a long-term vision inorder to be able to achieve goals ii) Working for a maximum of 8 hours per day and spending the rest of the time in relaxation, developing hobbies, spending time with family inorder to maintain that perfect balance of work as well as creativity iii) Applying the school bell technique while working, i.e; first work for 45 minutes and then take a short break of about 5 minutes then again work for 45 minutes and after that take a long break of 10-15 minutes and the cycle continues untill you have achieved full 8 hours of optimum productivity for the day iv) Keep taking breaks often,i.e; after 8 hours of productivity few hours of relaxation, after 5 days of productivity 1 day off from work and after 3 months 1 complete week of vacation. This not only helps you rejuvenate but also boosts your productivity and your creativity v) Unleashing a productive avalanche means working on a task for the first 5 minutes will get you over that inertia of delay in starting a work after you have started a work you don't feel like stopping it due to the Zeigarnik principle and hence would most likely end up completing the task vi) Applying the Pareto principle to your golden action- it means that 80% of your results are obtained from 20% of your actions hence concentrate maximum time and energy on your most important task that you think will yield the highest benefit from your to-do list vii) Planning the to-do list a day before and hence prioritizing the golden task so by this after the completion of the golden task the feeling of achievement would get you into action for more productivity the following day viii)Setting deadlines for your tasks will drastically improve your productivity ix) Visualising your goals inorder to engage your brain to come up with ideas and best plans for achieving it fast x) Organizing your workplace and work environment for best frame of mind to start working on the task
Overall, the book is not very lengthy, well-presented, contains practical ideas that can be implemented and results can be measured with time. Give it a read and boost your productivity.
It isn't a waste of time.
It's a good read. I would rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Vừa hoàn thành xong cuốn "Vượt Lười" và đây là đôi dòng cảm nhận của mình:
Trước khi đọc mình cũng không có quá nhiều kỳ vọng vào sách vì thường mấy cuốn với title ấn tượng vầy thì nội dung lại khá rập khuôn với những câu quotes hay mấy dòng push tinh thần nhàm chán. Nhưng không, “Vượt lười” không đi theo lối mòn đó, mà như một cuốn sách điều trị, đi sâu vào gốc rễ của bệnh lười.
Theo tác giả, bệnh lười là căn bệnh của người không hạnh phúc, thiếu năng lượng, và để thoát lười, ta phải tìm được niềm vui, sự hoạt náo trong cuộc sống. Chính 1 cuộc sống thiếu động lực, một cơ thể rệu rã là con quái vật đang ăn mòn ta mỗi ngày, giết chết nhiệt huyết của ta. Vậy làm sao để thoát được nó?
Mỗi chương sách sẽ là những giai đoạn của quá trình chữa lười, kết hợp lại thành một liệu pháp hoàn chỉnh cho căn bệnh này. Từ việc luôn tập luyện sức khỏe hằng ngày, luôn giữ vững một tinh thần thoải mái lạc quan, luôn sống với đam mê cháy bỏng, mọi thứ tưởng vô cùng đơn giản vậy mà lại có tác động to lớn đến ta. Để củng cố cho luận điểm của mình, tác giả có dẫn chứng thêm những khảo sát uy tín, cho ta thấy rõ ràng hơn sự khác nhau giữa người sống hạnh phúc và người không, giữa người thành công và số còn lại. Ngoài ra, ở dưới mỗi chương, tác giả để lại những câu quotes từ những cá nhân nổi trội trong đa lĩnh vực, như một cách thúc đẩy động lực cho người đọc.
Phải thú thực là cuốn sách này đến với mình đúng vào thời điểm mình đang mệt mỏi với mọi thứ xung quanh, và nó đã mang lại cho mình kha khá nguồn cảm hứng để tiến bức và nỗ lực hơn trong mọi việc. Mình rất thích câu quote: "Hạnh phúc là quá trình ta nỗ lực để hoàn thành mục tiêu”. Đúng vậy, không phải kết quả, mà là quá trình, chính trong lúc đó, ta sẽ tận hưởng sự cố gắng của mình, và sinh ra hormone hạnh phúc. Cứ khi sắp hoàn thành một mục tiêu, ta lại vạch thêm một mục tiêu khác, từ đó sản sinh ra thêm nhiều hormone hạnh phúc hơn nữa, và cuộc sống của ta luôn tràn ngập niềm vui. Từ đó, bệnh lười cũng biến mất lúc nào không hay.
Dù rất ấn tượng với nội dung, nhưng sách vẫn có vài điểm hạn chế làm ảnh hưởng đến trải nghiệm đọc của mình như lỗi lặp câu từ, sai chính tả, và thiếu những đoạn thực hành chuyên sâu. Nhưng dù sao thì đối tượng độc giả của cuốn sách là những người lười, nên cũng dễ hiểu khi nó cần ngắn gọn các ý, để giúp truyền tải thông tin một cách nhanh chóng và dễ tiếp cận nhất.
Lâu lâu mới đọc cuốn sách hay, mình sẽ cho 4 sao nhé!
Wenn man sonst Seligman und Birkenbihl liest ist es wirklich sehr ernüchternd. Die selben 5 Grundlegenden Dinge (die man höchstwahrscheinlich in jedem "5 Tipps für mehr Produktivität bei der Arbeit" YouTube Video auch hören würde) werden wieder und wieder von neuem erklärt. Weiterhin stört mich: - die Sprache: Wurde dieses Buch nicht lektoriert ? - die Alltagstauglichkeit (subjektiv!): für Leute im Dienstleistungssektor ist dieses Buch einfach nicht zu gebrauchen, ich muss Öffnungszeiten bedienen und kann nicht nach 2 Stunden hyperfokussiertem Arbeiten heim gehen weil ich so viel geschafft habe. Auch Multitasking ist halt on der Gastro essentiell. -keine Quellen Angaben, viele Studien Ergebnisse werden ohne jeglichen Zusammenhang oder Erklärung genannt - das Buch geht überhaupt nicht in die Tiefe. Man soll seinen "attention muscle" trainieren um länger fokussiert zu arbeiten. Und wie? Ganz einfach: wenn man Abschweift soll man seine Gedanken einfach wieder zur Arbeit lenken. Wow! Wo ist der Nobelpreis für diesen Autoren ?! Sarkasmus beiseite: Dopamin wird hier mit keiner einzigen Silbe erwähnt ! Wie kann man das hier auslassen? Systematisches Arbeiten an der Aufmerksamkeitsspanne durch "Entwöhnung" von Handy und Co.? Nope. Meditation als Hilfe gegen Monkey Mind? Keine Silbe.
Dafür, dass dieses Buch so viele gute Kritiken hat, war ich maßlos enttäuscht
As someone that works from home I sometimes need a little more help reevaluating my goals. This book has really helped me think about how I need to set my goals and create a really important foundation for my future.
The book had lots of relatable analogies to productivity and I found this quite interesting. The book itself reads well and is very easy to follow. It would be ideal for anyone that is interested in creating their dream lifestyle and laying those all important goals.
I liked the part where the book went on to say everyone has a carrot in front of them and if individuals are productive then can find a way to use that carrot, or their individual why, to really push their goals and productivity forward. I found reading this book helped me to consider my why and delve a little deeper which I know will help to increase my own productivity.
This book was full of great ideas that’s I’d never previously considered, and very helpful. If utilized, the tips outlined in the book definitely do help with productivity. My only complaint is that a better editor would be beneficial. The word order is sometimes wonky and requires re-reading for proper comprehension.
Well written and backed up with real experience from the author. The ideas behind the system are no rocket science, but concise, actionable and to the point. I've already implemented some of them and I believe my results have improved. Can't wait to read another book from Andrii. Keep up the good work!
I like the book very much. Well,actually I had already knew all of the topics in the book. However the book summarizes everything in short, easy to read and remember, chapters.
Easy to Read- Easy to Understand - Easy to Implement these Principles. I would recommend this book to anyone who does not understand why they are not accomplishing as much as they would like to day to day.
The book stresses on anyway known psychological tips and tricks. If you are not lazy you will already be implementing these tips in your life. I was expecting some techie stuff like apps to simplify your life.
This is an easy to understand, no nonsense book about productivity, not only time management, but also energy management, goal setting etc. Highly recommended.
Hated the ancedotes and some of the advice fell into the usual self help strawman or just was inaccurate to the vast majority however I feel like I did get some more strategies to try out through the book.
This book is nice, plain, simple. All the ideas are vital for a decent and productive living. However the whole idea of the book is basically at the last 3 pages of it. For some people i believe it would be useful. I believe all these could be a great article or a 30 minute youtube video.