At some point in our lives, most of us have felt overwhelmed by the number of things we need to do and the lack of time we have to do them. And although technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, giving us new ways to help keep track of our tasks and organize our lives, these technological advancements also bring even more demands on our time.
Join Ciara Conlon, leadership and productivity coach, author, and keynote speaker, as she guides you through tried-and-true strategies that will help you set goals, reduce clutter, elevate your productivity, and get more out of every day. Ms. Conlon will provide you with tips, tools, and techniques to help you lessen stress; have more clarity; focus and prioritize; and, above all, get and stay organized.
Through this series of 10 lectures, you’ll learn how to effectively set goals and define your priorities; efficiently use technology to control your life instead of letting technology control you; make small and simple changes to your routine, which help increase your energy and your ability to get more accomplished; and avoid common pitfalls such as procrastination, distractions, and interruptions.
With these lectures, there’s no need for you either to make big changes in how you work or to learn new technology. Ms. Conlon will introduce you to dozens of little changes that can help you to feel more in control not only of your task list, but also of your life, overall.
The book covers the basics of organization. It's a nice listen, like a life coach motivating you to get organized starting from the very beginning: setting goals, planning, selecting tools, organizing, avoiding procrastination, maintaining energy, managing distractions, and building good habits.
Get Organised: Do More in Less Time written and narrated by Ciara Conlon Audible original. The Great courses lectures were constructed, and I had listened to all of them make me say it was pretty persuasive. Recommendations seem very adjustable and easy to apply in daily life. I would recommend it.
This is like a time management seminar with some mindfulness training thrown in. I went through something similar when I worked at McDonnell-Douglas. Very helpful at the time. Less helpful for me now that I am retired. The mindfulness stuff she talks about is good stuff. Not too deep. Worth following up on. I don't use mindfulness per se. I do something similar though. Very helpful.
I doubt I will listen to this audio course again. This is not a reflection on the professor. She was well organized (go figure!) and presented well. I think she could have gotten her same points across in 8 lectures rather than 10. It got kind of repetitive toward the end. But I simply have no need to be as organized as she suggests.
You may find this book helpful if: You have ADHD/ADD. You find yourself fascinated by squirrels unless you're up against a steep deadline (once again, see first item).Your inbox is threatening to metaphorically suffocate you. Your desk is threatening to literally suffocate you. You enjoy a thick Irish accent. Or is it Scottish...
In regards to self-development books, my theory is that it's worth the read if I come away with one new thing to help me. With this, I came away with several including the Pomodoro Technique, although I don't particularly care for tomatoes.
Ciara Conlon narrates her own material in this Audible original lecture series, hence the comment about Irish/Scottish accents (deepest apologies to the residents of both countries. I would assume the level of outrage at being mistaken for one another is similar to when I am mistaken for a Canadian [my less sincere apologies to Canadians- it is what it is]).
Not a lot of new ideas for someone who avidly consumes organizing books, but an excellent collation of various strategies and scientific studies to support them.
If it is the first material you read/listen to about getting organized the book could be 5 stars. It is very well structured and straight to the point with almost no fluff.
If you've already delved into the topic of self-organizing and optimization of your time then chances are that you already know 90% of the content.
Still a good reminder if you want to repeat and solidify the knowledge.
Summary The book is structured in a lesson way, every chapter represents a lesson where the author teaches a concept or way to achieve more in less time. A lot of focus on decluttering and environment setup: the easier way to not go down into a slippery slope, is to completely avoid any slippery pavement entirely (who would have said). The book contains a lot of examples, real ones as well, on how to solve common problems that people face daily and that prevent each one of us from achieving what we are able to achieve at our best.
My evaluation What did I like the most? The lesson structure is really good, it provides a guided reading experience and the fact that the book has some exercises you can follow along and do while reading is really nice. I enjoyed listening to this book.
The book is quite brief, it feels like a summary of another big book on productivity and that makes it easy to read. Every concept is small and can be isolated, being standalone.
What didn’t I like? The book repeats a lot of concepts, a lot of time, and that makes it a bit annoying if you read it all at once or in a short amount of time, since you can jump into the same concept and suggestion multiple times in a row during your reading/listening session.
What would I have done differently? I would have shortened the book a bit to avoid those repetitions and just mention them (e.g.: the author says that X is a good practice, as explained in chapter N, and then goes ahead and re-explains it. I would avoid the second explanation, just the mention would be enough).
Introduction: If you are looking for a self-help book, it doesn’t get more self-help than you’ll be finding here, and the cheap Audible variety of self-help. The book is a string of cliches and buzz-words. The advice is scattered everywhere, and little of it is particularly useful. I recall one of the central pieces of advice the book: ‘Start with the end in mind.’ It’s a piece of good advice, and I read the book because my time was being wasted. This book does not show that it’s capable of delivering the promise. This is its main flaw. Some books, like Man’s Search for Meaning are not particularly self-help, but they serve that function much better than most self-help books because of their enthusiasm and sincerity, and their author’s mastery of the ideas presented. This kind of mastery is what we ultimately envy, which we wish to emulate in any author of a self-help book. It does not exist here, which makes this book unappetizing to boot.
Chapters: The book is divided into ten lectures. The 1st lecture is mainly concerned with how to properly define our goals, and which goals are ultimately achievable (and by comparison, which aren’t). The 2nd chapter is about arranging priorities so that we can best achieve our goals. In a similar vein, the 3rd and 4th chapters are about planning and thinking well about how to put down our plan on paper (writing down our goals to off-load our minds, a technique also advocated by the renowned social psychologist, Roy Baumeister). The chapters offer nice pieces of advice some of which helped a bit in organizing my time and schedule. But just like all other self-help books, there is really not much that could be done if we do not actively put in the effort. The 5th and 6th lectures are a bit weird. The most used word in these two chapters is ‘clutter.’ And I would agree with the author that clutter is really bad for any work environment. I cannot work or study or write if my desk is not clean, and anything that might distract me will distract me. As for the 6th chapter, its overreliance on applications annoyed me. I do not like to use my phone to plan. I usually write what I want to be done on a piece of paper and stick it on any wall I would see every day. And as a testament to its futility, if it’s a tough task I do not want to do, I procrastinate or do anything but the assigned task. It is tough to make it work, and applications distract more than organize, in my humble opinion and in my experience. The 7th to 10th lecture-chapters are the most interesting. They are titled, in order, Avoiding Procrastination, Maintaining Energy, Managing Distractions and Interruptions, and Developing Positive Habits. These are all perfect advice for someone who has not studied psychology. A lot of what psychology textbooks do is study these things. Motivation, procrastination, awareness, wakefulness, etc… That is, along with the major mental capacities and processes and on human physical and psychical development, and on the functions of the senses, and so on. The book would help those without a clue, but the book can do little to reform the actions of those who do not want to heed its advice and solutions. This is no fault of the book. But just as well, it will not serve those who want instant gratification in the form of changed behavior and attitudes towards work.
Criticism: The book, quite frankly, is so boring. Not in its monotonic voice (as it is an Audible Audio Book), but in its monotonic style of writing. It may be a feature of a physics textbook to be succinct and straight to the point (although many physics textbooks are so fun to read even so). It is not a feature here. I think it is because the subject by itself is bland. A great novelist (pick Camus at random) can use banality in his favor. The author here doesn’t. Another fault of the book is its shallow understanding of scientific findings. A survey, in general, can tell us what the average human being does. But we cannot so easily prescribe a solution to real (and not average) men these solutions. An example is due: Average people may find it restful to practice yoga after work, and they also might find it helpful to meditate. However, for someone who’s on a very tight schedule, that might not be a very good solution. It might really help him relax, but such a solution, though it works for the average man, does not work for him. Sometimes, it is good to be a little bit stressed. I do not advocate putting one under high stress. Stress can do a score on your body. But there is a function to stress that is often good for the short run, and if it’s manageable, for the long run, too, for achieving many goals in a short term. If stress, though it is harmful, is managed well, it can also be better for one’s health indirectly in that if I become rich, I can better take care of my health, and one way to do that (though it does not necessarily work in that manner) is to work hard and to constantly work. And best, to love such work. The shallow understanding of scientific findings comes from not looking too well into what stress is good, what isn’t, what cripples us, and what puts the perfect amount of pressure on us in the long run. In fact, not being put under stress on relatively easy days to prepare for the harder ones will put much greater stress on us, and a strain that might snap us in two.
Conclusion I picked this book wanting a cheap read, and I got it. It’s a nice book filled with pieces of advice, a lot of which are relevant. But I would not advise anyone reading this book. In fact, if this book is good for anything, it is to tell us that the best way to be organized and productive is to choose to be organized and productive. We know what’s good for us. What remains for us is to do it. We play around because we do not want to do what we ought to do. But there is no escape if we do not want to do what we ought to do, and there are no simple solutions without trade-offs. Some advice, which can be found everywhere nowadays, is concerned with the little advice from psychology books. Put your notes somewhere where you can see them. Off-load your ideas on paper. Snap out of it when you procrastinate, and so on. Score: (4/10)
- Using your inbox as a to do list is a bad idea. - Only handle it once, for tasks and also messages - Process, Archive, or Trash e-mails. - Tasks should be managed in their own system so that they don't fall through the cracks or get forgotten. - Sleep and exercise are extremely important. Insert usual suggestions for both. - Procrastination arises from a lack of clarity or emotional obstacles to completing a task (it's daunting). - Break tasks down into less daunting tasks - Don't constantly check e-mails. Pick specific times and batch process them. - Don't waste your time on social media - Spend your time doing things like educating yourself
A very average primer on the subject, which is why it only got 3 stars from me. With that said, the basics are often what trip people up the most. As Hormozi says "winners never don't do the basics".
There's nothing new or earth-shattering here; if you've gone through other productivity guides, this is just the same material (often quoted directly from other sources).
The author's thick Irish accent makes listening to this interesting, but also highly distracting for American English listeners, as many words are pronounced differently than we are used to.
A lot of tips are crammed into this very short work. Sleep. Hydrate. Maintain a to-do list. Schedule in planning time on your calendar. And so on. Technological tips are a mix of generic advice ("Google for how to do X") and quite specific advice about specific software tools.
I have no idea why the author says that keeping a lot of files on your desktop, as opposed to another folder in your computer, will impair computer performance, slowing down your computer. I've never heard that before and don't know why that would be.
This work is ok - but I feel there are plenty of more useful and engaging productivity resources out there.
Perhaps fleshing out the work with more personal examples and stories would help.
Yeah, this was quite good. It's a series of lectures that offers multiple solutions to each problem so you can find which works for you, rather than a single approach method that quite a few productivity books offer.
I'm docking one star because there was a continued promise that greater detail on the weekly review was coming in lecture 10, which really built my expectations up to a point that she couldn't deliver on, and a print out mentioned that I would have found helpful is no longer available at the website.
The book is divided into ten lectures: 1. Effective Goal Setting 2. Clarifying Your Priorities 3. Productive Planning 4. Organising Your Mind 5. Organising Your Environment 6. Organising Your Technology 7. Avoiding Procrastination 8. Maintaining Energy 9. Managing Distractions and Interruptions 10. Developing Positive Habits.
I gave this book a rating of only two stars as there was nothing new for me. The first half of the book is a good summary of all the familiar organisation methods and tools. The second half is repetition of the first.
3 and a half. I love the Great Courses books, but this one wasn't what I fully expected. It is aimed mainly at work and those that work in an office environment. I went into it thinking it was about being organised at home. It also repeats a lot from other productive, organisation books such as The Power of Habit and Atomic Habits. Still some really good information in here, but I would ignore the part about not using a to-do list. Personally, using a to-do list has led to me becoming a lot more organised and productive.
Não vou dizer que falou nada novo, mas juntou muitos conceitos modernos com a pesquisa que a gente tem hoje em dia e deu bons conselhos em várias áreas; não é um livro de se jogar fora, pra alguém desavisado pode mudar bastante a vida da pessoa. Pra mim, que já sabia a maioria, foi só mais confirmação, mas tá valendo.
A parada é que o livro começa a se repetir um pouco demais; nesses dias que ela falava e se organizava num espaço de tempo pra escrever tantas palavras, ela deveria ter se atentado que tava sendo muito repetitiva na escrita e encurtado o livro por alguns capítulos.
I read a lot on productivity and this was a pretty solid (and short!) listen on the topic, including goal setting, prioritizing, how to organize home, digital, and work spaces, and more. It discusses methods like the Pomodoro technique and creating an Eisenhower matrix, in addition to the more well-known concept of SMART goals. If you’re looking for a quick introduction or refresher on productivity techniques to get yourself back on track, this is a good one.
Reflections and lessons learned: “Take responsibility for things that are in your control…”
Procrastination, delegation, hydration, accountability and responsibility - practical tips from a series of structured lectures, and a final prompted section with reflection sections. No hugely new theories but a great collection of creating positive habits
Great little read or listen to be reminded of how small changes can improve our organisation and that organisation is more than just work related. I like how it felt like a wholistic approach… including my favourite topic decluttering, as well as some nice reminders about physical and mental health.
Started off thinking I was doing most of the recommendations so this wasn't helpful, but actually there was a lot to consider, take on board and to try out. Actually turned out to be really very helpful so I am glad I carried on with the audiobook, and can say that for those just starting out trying to organize their work life, and for those already taking steps, this will be useful for both.
Listening to this audiobook during a very cozy weather made me organize a lot of my stuff. By the end of the book, I had a very clean inbox (only less than 10 messages now in it!) and more organized areas in my room.
Great ideas. Great plans. Great helps and aids. She breaks it down into very manageable bite-sized chunks. This is not scary, does not threaten, is supportive, and very encouraging. I wish everyone who reads, and follows these guidelines great progress towards a more organized life.
Nothing necessarily bad .. if you're new to this genre.. go for it , because it explains all the basics in few hours that other self help books droning about . but for me I didn't get what I was looking for .
yes, I will create a morning routine, exercise, meditate and look after my body after I stop being a sack of sad potatoes. I do feel the book is a good "how-to" guide to building a good foundation for adulting things.
A nice little book I got to listen for free on audible. Good advice. Nothing mind-shattering but its good to have things reiterated sometimes. I enjoyed the non-preachy, non holier-than-thou tone. It did contain some solid advice and I would listen to it again for motivational reasons.
A well delivered and concise read. The book provides lots of different suggestions in a way that is easy to follow, but has the potential to be highly effective. I give it 4.5 stars and I would be happy to listen to it again.
Nice summary of all the best time management techniques. I have not learnt anything new because performance management is already my hobby, but this book is the best summary/overview I have ever found.