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Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work
The practical guide to go from "drowning in work" to freeing up an extra business day per week for everyone on your team
“There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done!” Sound familiar? Forget the old concepts of time management and the hustle culture of working until you burn out. You and your entire team can get more done, in far fewer hours with the right blueprint. Come Up For Air is that blueprint.
Through years of building America’s leading efficiency consulting business, Nick Sonnenberg has discovered the primary reason why so many teams are overwhelmed. It's not because they don’t have enough time, managers expect too much of their employees, or there aren’t enough people. The problem is that everyone is drowning in unnecessary work and inefficiencies that prevent them from focusing on the work that actually drives results.
In Come Up For Air, you’ll discover the CPR® Business Efficiency Framework, a proven system for leaders, managers, and teams to maximize their performance and reduce overwhelm by using the right tools in the right way, at the right time. The end result? More output, less stress, happier employees, and the potential to gain an extra full day per week in productivity to use however you’d like.
You’ll learn the proven empirical strategies from someone who not only turned his company around when it was on the verge of bankruptcy but has also helped thousands of organizations around the world become more efficient, leverage the right productivity tools, and prepare for explosive growth.
Highlights include:
Gain an extra full day per week in productivity for everyone on your team.
Eliminate the 58% of employee time per day spent on "work about work" instead of being productive.
Stop wasting time on the “Scavenger Hunt” of trying to find where important information is stored.
Save an average of two hours per week per person just on optimizing your email.
Use the right tools, in the right way, at the right time to maximize your collective output.
Create immediate quick wins to start saving time without difficult implementation.
Simple hacks to stop playing “catch up” before and after work.
Stop losing time in meetings with four proven techniques.
Practical examples, case studies, and templates to help you sprint to success.
“There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done!” Sound familiar? Forget the old concepts of time management and the hustle culture of working until you burn out. You and your entire team can get more done, in far fewer hours with the right blueprint. Come Up For Air is that blueprint.
Through years of building America’s leading efficiency consulting business, Nick Sonnenberg has discovered the primary reason why so many teams are overwhelmed. It's not because they don’t have enough time, managers expect too much of their employees, or there aren’t enough people. The problem is that everyone is drowning in unnecessary work and inefficiencies that prevent them from focusing on the work that actually drives results.
In Come Up For Air, you’ll discover the CPR® Business Efficiency Framework, a proven system for leaders, managers, and teams to maximize their performance and reduce overwhelm by using the right tools in the right way, at the right time. The end result? More output, less stress, happier employees, and the potential to gain an extra full day per week in productivity to use however you’d like.
You’ll learn the proven empirical strategies from someone who not only turned his company around when it was on the verge of bankruptcy but has also helped thousands of organizations around the world become more efficient, leverage the right productivity tools, and prepare for explosive growth.
Highlights include:
Gain an extra full day per week in productivity for everyone on your team.
Eliminate the 58% of employee time per day spent on "work about work" instead of being productive.
Stop wasting time on the “Scavenger Hunt” of trying to find where important information is stored.
Save an average of two hours per week per person just on optimizing your email.
Use the right tools, in the right way, at the right time to maximize your collective output.
Create immediate quick wins to start saving time without difficult implementation.
Simple hacks to stop playing “catch up” before and after work.
Stop losing time in meetings with four proven techniques.
Practical examples, case studies, and templates to help you sprint to success.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published February 7, 2023
253 people are currently reading
819 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
February 21, 2023
This was good and bad. Good in that this system is brilliant for a business to use! You can definitely see the author is sharing this from actual experience. Fundamentally i think the “cpr” idea is sound. I learned a few things so was worth the read It was bad for 2 reasons.
1) my god everything was a push to get you to go to the website. Personally, it drives me crazy when the author is constantly trying to get me to go to their website. Either put it in the book or don’t, but don’t make me go to the website. Mentioning a companion website once or twice in the whole book is fine, but this was an “every chapter multiple times”.
2) I wanted more examples and stories to see how to apply the concepts. The concepts themselves are really smart and makes sense, but several times in the book I wasn’t quite clear how the author wanted me to apply them, and there weren’t sufficient stories or examples to help me understand, I would’ve appreciated a couple of brief examples for each of the concepts.
1) my god everything was a push to get you to go to the website. Personally, it drives me crazy when the author is constantly trying to get me to go to their website. Either put it in the book or don’t, but don’t make me go to the website. Mentioning a companion website once or twice in the whole book is fine, but this was an “every chapter multiple times”.
2) I wanted more examples and stories to see how to apply the concepts. The concepts themselves are really smart and makes sense, but several times in the book I wasn’t quite clear how the author wanted me to apply them, and there weren’t sufficient stories or examples to help me understand, I would’ve appreciated a couple of brief examples for each of the concepts.
January 12, 2026
Major take aways are:
- know the difference between processes and projects
-as soon as a process is repeated the first time document a procedure so it can be handed off and refined over time
-workflow management tools are your friend
-store information for ease of retrieval, not ease of transmittal or for the needs of the current task
-keep a centralized repository of procedures
-conduct periodic process audits and role switching
- know the difference between processes and projects
-as soon as a process is repeated the first time document a procedure so it can be handed off and refined over time
-workflow management tools are your friend
-store information for ease of retrieval, not ease of transmittal or for the needs of the current task
-keep a centralized repository of procedures
-conduct periodic process audits and role switching
September 22, 2023
Actionable and thought provoking. Loved all the suggestions. Planning to implement a lot of these ideas
March 24, 2024
Really wish I hadn’t read this book because I feel like I’ve taken the red pill and I’ve been awakened to every bit of inefficiency at my office with the knowledge that nothing besides my own actions will change.
August 16, 2024
This book is full of very useful tips to help "clear the clutter." My office has seem some steady increase in productivity and efficiency since we started reading it.
December 16, 2023
Bit a of brain dump
Overall I thought this book was pretty good. The application of the principles in this book is probably most geared for smaller companies who still have the ability to more easily enact change. I work for a company of 5-10k employees and implementing these tools, even at a department level, would require a ton of effort.
# Communication
I really like the idea here of using distinct tools for different types of communication - with the main goal to be optimizing for information _retrieval_. Most people optimize for information delivery (I.e. get this email out of my inbox). This concept really resonated with me and I could see a large benefit in my organization
Email is described as the tool to use for external communication and teams/slack is the tool for internal communication. I think this would be really well received in my organization because it’s currently a cluster fuck of teams channels and a massive amount of emails.
# Planning
The next area was planning in this section he describes the use of work management tools. This section described basically putting everything in a centralized to-do list app (Asana, Monday.com, etc) This makes so much sense and aligns with a lot of other principles in this space (I.e. GTD, Inbox Zero, etc). The craziest thing is that my current employer doesn’t even offer us one of these tools to use.
If there’s any major change I could implement within my own workplace it would be the implementation of a work management tool. For us, it’d probably be whatever Microsoft Planner/To Do ends up turning into (side note: Microsoft needs to figure their shit out)
My ideal tool would be Notion or even Coda.
# Resources
Nick describes/allocates resources to knowledge management tools and process management tools.
Processes are defined as how to do something, whereas the remaining type of information goes into the knowledge base and describes the who, what, when, where, and why.
I did my master’s paper on knowledge management and Nick did a pretty good job at simplifying things down into a chapter. The main things here are to set up a knowledge system architecture at the onset of this. Speaking from experience, it’s a big effort to re-architect a knowledge base once it’s been established. Differing from my research, Nick recommends a ticketing system to request changes to the knowledge base. Our current setup is _very_ democratized: anyone can edit anything. There’s pros and cons to each type of system, but the main benefit to the ticketing system is at least a layer of review.
I wish he had more examples and differentiations of the interplay between process “tasks” and tasks that go into your work management tool. It was really unclear to me how you manage the tasks between both systems. Overall the process part of this book was the hardest for me to follow because it seemed so vague and lacking of real concrete examples and how it ties into the other parts of the system. Most of the other sections left me with a pretty good idea of how I would implement the system, but the process section left me wanting more.
Overall I thought this book was pretty good. The application of the principles in this book is probably most geared for smaller companies who still have the ability to more easily enact change. I work for a company of 5-10k employees and implementing these tools, even at a department level, would require a ton of effort.
# Communication
I really like the idea here of using distinct tools for different types of communication - with the main goal to be optimizing for information _retrieval_. Most people optimize for information delivery (I.e. get this email out of my inbox). This concept really resonated with me and I could see a large benefit in my organization
Email is described as the tool to use for external communication and teams/slack is the tool for internal communication. I think this would be really well received in my organization because it’s currently a cluster fuck of teams channels and a massive amount of emails.
# Planning
The next area was planning in this section he describes the use of work management tools. This section described basically putting everything in a centralized to-do list app (Asana, Monday.com, etc) This makes so much sense and aligns with a lot of other principles in this space (I.e. GTD, Inbox Zero, etc). The craziest thing is that my current employer doesn’t even offer us one of these tools to use.
If there’s any major change I could implement within my own workplace it would be the implementation of a work management tool. For us, it’d probably be whatever Microsoft Planner/To Do ends up turning into (side note: Microsoft needs to figure their shit out)
My ideal tool would be Notion or even Coda.
# Resources
Nick describes/allocates resources to knowledge management tools and process management tools.
Processes are defined as how to do something, whereas the remaining type of information goes into the knowledge base and describes the who, what, when, where, and why.
I did my master’s paper on knowledge management and Nick did a pretty good job at simplifying things down into a chapter. The main things here are to set up a knowledge system architecture at the onset of this. Speaking from experience, it’s a big effort to re-architect a knowledge base once it’s been established. Differing from my research, Nick recommends a ticketing system to request changes to the knowledge base. Our current setup is _very_ democratized: anyone can edit anything. There’s pros and cons to each type of system, but the main benefit to the ticketing system is at least a layer of review.
I wish he had more examples and differentiations of the interplay between process “tasks” and tasks that go into your work management tool. It was really unclear to me how you manage the tasks between both systems. Overall the process part of this book was the hardest for me to follow because it seemed so vague and lacking of real concrete examples and how it ties into the other parts of the system. Most of the other sections left me with a pretty good idea of how I would implement the system, but the process section left me wanting more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 7, 2024
The key points are valid, but this book was mostly filler
I rated this book 3 stars, but was very tempted to rate it lower. It is hard to recommend since it expounds on obvious points and I felt it was rather repetitive. The key points the CPR business framework - Communication, Planning, and Resourcing. These are fundamentals for success. Nick Sonnenberg correctly points out that companies typically do not put enough emphasis and time into organizing information and making it easily accessible/easy to find. This results in a ton of wasted time with employees searching for information and interrupting others for information that should be readily available. Great point, but the repeated example calculations of time wasted was not effective to me. How to use email and Slack/Teams type of internal communication tools was okay, but drawn out. The Wiki style information sharing vs document sharing is a common problem that this book hits on but does not really solve (or maybe I missed the solution in all of the words or 'examples' of the problem). Overall it is hard to recommend this book even though it has some good information.
I rated this book 3 stars, but was very tempted to rate it lower. It is hard to recommend since it expounds on obvious points and I felt it was rather repetitive. The key points the CPR business framework - Communication, Planning, and Resourcing. These are fundamentals for success. Nick Sonnenberg correctly points out that companies typically do not put enough emphasis and time into organizing information and making it easily accessible/easy to find. This results in a ton of wasted time with employees searching for information and interrupting others for information that should be readily available. Great point, but the repeated example calculations of time wasted was not effective to me. How to use email and Slack/Teams type of internal communication tools was okay, but drawn out. The Wiki style information sharing vs document sharing is a common problem that this book hits on but does not really solve (or maybe I missed the solution in all of the words or 'examples' of the problem). Overall it is hard to recommend this book even though it has some good information.
March 22, 2024
This book transcends the typical productivity hype. It's a battle plan that equips you with the tools and mindset to achieve lasting peace of mind.
Nick explains how to achieve inbox zero through comprehensive filters and optimized search, and the "RAD" (Reply, Archive, Defer) technique.
This frees you from constant email management anxiety and empowers you to be proactive, not reactive.
He also encourages you to think of your inbox as a dynamic to-do list, not a bottomless pit.
This book goes beyond individual transformation, you would learn to restructure the digital foundations of your organization for optimal internal and external communication.
Nick tackles a seemingly basic concept – choosing the right digital tool – and dives deep, offering a clear and actionable approach on when and how to use it.
This approach empowers you to reclaim control of your time and attention, leading to a more fulfilling work life!
Nick explains how to achieve inbox zero through comprehensive filters and optimized search, and the "RAD" (Reply, Archive, Defer) technique.
This frees you from constant email management anxiety and empowers you to be proactive, not reactive.
He also encourages you to think of your inbox as a dynamic to-do list, not a bottomless pit.
This book goes beyond individual transformation, you would learn to restructure the digital foundations of your organization for optimal internal and external communication.
Nick tackles a seemingly basic concept – choosing the right digital tool – and dives deep, offering a clear and actionable approach on when and how to use it.
This approach empowers you to reclaim control of your time and attention, leading to a more fulfilling work life!
August 2, 2023
My main takeaway from this book it is to "optimize for retrieval of information" rather than "transmission of information". It may be faster to just transmit information but going the extra step to make sure it will be fast to retrieve has multiplicative efficiency savings.
The book goes through a lot of concrete ways to invest into tools and processes to save individuals and companies a lot of time through reducing time in emails or meetings and optimize work dedicated to building and creating.
Working in a research team, for which the creativity and innovation is central to what we do, the idea that most things can be a process doesn't always resonate. That said, there are still a lot of best practices to learn from and it's a very quick listen so I'd still say it's worth the few hours that will make you reflect on ways to optimize how you and your team work.
The book goes through a lot of concrete ways to invest into tools and processes to save individuals and companies a lot of time through reducing time in emails or meetings and optimize work dedicated to building and creating.
Working in a research team, for which the creativity and innovation is central to what we do, the idea that most things can be a process doesn't always resonate. That said, there are still a lot of best practices to learn from and it's a very quick listen so I'd still say it's worth the few hours that will make you reflect on ways to optimize how you and your team work.
June 28, 2024
It is an excellent book for working in knowledge systems. This is not a book for everyone – as you must have a working knowledge of an organization and specific platforms and work systems and functions and leadership and how to integrate people, performance, and functionality within a workforce to optimize outputs. For me, it hit all points. I think there is value for every knowledge worker contained within, but I think few would read this whole book for how it was written and the technical delivery. I believe this is a way of thinking that needs to be taught and imitated from the top down in organizations for it to be adopted and stick. These ways of working and thinking live within organizations as the heartbeat of function – not a once-and-done type of training. That takes a change in thinking - which is not easy to do within people or systems – although so worth it.
July 26, 2024
There's a lot to like about this slim volume. It's unashamedly practical and somewhat anecdotal rather than built on a mountain of research, but it nicely bridges the gap between organisational effectiveness theory and practical tips to get the best of specific software tools. Thus I suspect it will date relatively quickly. It also bridges the gap between organisational effectiveness and personal productivity, and in that respect could be an interesting team-focused companion for managers alongside more personal-effectiveness focused books like Covey's classic 7 Habits or Tiago Forte's Building a Second Brain. We read this as an executive team and got a lot out of it, implementing several initiatives that have indeed reduced time wastage and frustration among staff.
July 2, 2024
The book delivers a refreshing approach to managing time and efficiency in the workplace; packed with practical, actionable strategies that can significantly improve productivity, which I found particularly valuable. Sonnenberg's insights into streamlining processes and enhancing team collaboration are both innovative and applicable.
However, I found the constant promotion of his website throughout the book detracting. While it's understandable to showcase the success of his methods, the frequent advertisements can feel intrusive and take away from flow of the reading. Despite this, the book's core ideas are strong and worth the read for anyone looking to optimize their professional life.
However, I found the constant promotion of his website throughout the book detracting. While it's understandable to showcase the success of his methods, the frequent advertisements can feel intrusive and take away from flow of the reading. Despite this, the book's core ideas are strong and worth the read for anyone looking to optimize their professional life.
July 7, 2024
Some good tips that I have put into action already. I didn’t mind the web links but found the outcome disappointing: I did sign up and found the process captured an unnecessary amount of personal information, and ultimately provided something that wasn’t really that useful.
If you are in total control of an organization, I can see that many of these concepts and principles are sound and implementable. It will be much difficult if you are just one business unit that is part of a much larger organization.
If you are in total control of an organization, I can see that many of these concepts and principles are sound and implementable. It will be much difficult if you are just one business unit that is part of a much larger organization.
June 6, 2024
This is a good book for supervisors or small business owners I can use some of it On my personal laptop that because I work for the government. A lot of the tools are not used. Within my government agency. In my current job, there is a lot of manual processes. A lot of my work is still on paper. But if and when I start a business. I will definitely use what I learned in this book to save time and money.
January 1, 2025
This book helped me make sense of all the business tools we use and how they should be used to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. Within the first 50 pages, I had already incorporated a few suggestions to make me more productive and help me avoid reviewing of hundreds of old emails. Finally, the book provided a practical framework to manage all of the modern tools and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is eager for a better path forward at work.
June 11, 2025
It got me thinking and wishing everyone in my organization would read it. While in theory, many of the concepts would and should work for any organizations, most would be impossible to implement without full buy-in and a bit of money.
That said, there are key-takeaways and areas to grab onto and just start implementing. It has given me ideas for improvements to make just in my own role, then possibly by modelling certain behaviours l, others will gravitate towards them.
That said, there are key-takeaways and areas to grab onto and just start implementing. It has given me ideas for improvements to make just in my own role, then possibly by modelling certain behaviours l, others will gravitate towards them.
March 5, 2023
Great for Real Estate Teams
I have worked on residential real estate teams of varying sizes for 18 years and these concepts are spot-on for how I ran the operations department. I highly recommend you read this book with your entire team and set about implementing the tactics to streamline your business and make work fun again!
I have worked on residential real estate teams of varying sizes for 18 years and these concepts are spot-on for how I ran the operations department. I highly recommend you read this book with your entire team and set about implementing the tactics to streamline your business and make work fun again!
April 16, 2023
Mostly explains what some common practices for modern software companies. Does good job explaining the value of practices but very light on any actionable details.
Ticketing systems are widespread adopted and spending a chapter on them felt like a waste. Lots of similar chapters explaining a common concept.
Core concept of optimise for speed of retrieval is useful.
Ticketing systems are widespread adopted and spending a chapter on them felt like a waste. Lots of similar chapters explaining a common concept.
Core concept of optimise for speed of retrieval is useful.
June 26, 2023
Very useful book. Rather than delving deeply into any one topic, it lays out the basics in terms of multiple useful areas. I have used the idea of "optimizing for information retrieval" several times already. Appreciate the clear framework regarding when to use what tool and hope to work towards implementation.
February 25, 2023
Nick Sonnenberg speaks from a place of experience like a mentor encouraging others not to follow his path but learn his lessons. Come Up For Air provides insights into proven methods to avoid drowning in nonsense and deliberately manage your time. Well written, easy to digest, and insightful.
April 17, 2023
Very practical and easy to read. Particularly liked the idea that individual productivity doesn't necessarily equate to team productivity and that we should always optimize for speed of retrieval of information.
May 9, 2023
A quick and engaging read, this book lacks the fluff typical of most business books. The reader leaves with a few practical things to implement immediately, and a shift in mindset around digital workflows.
July 13, 2023
I learned so much about how to increase efficiency and effectiveness in this book and how to optimize systems I’m currently using. This book provided realistic examples and suggestions for things you can accomplish as quick wins and also longer term goals.
August 25, 2023
This has some useful information, but I was torn. The advice seems sound, but occasionally, it lost me in some rambling that happened. Overall, worthwhile with some solid ideas that government organizations could learn from.
March 17, 2025
Business book make good at business
Easy to read & understand, simple concepts that seem very obvious once they are pointed out & you really want everyone you know to adopt immediately.
Easy to read & understand, simple concepts that seem very obvious once they are pointed out & you really want everyone you know to adopt immediately.
May 19, 2025
You might need to read this one twice as I will, while taking notes, and sitting next to a computer. It is quite insightful while speaking in a foreign language. Good ideas that will probably be beneficial, once I can digest the recommendations.
March 5, 2023
Lots of practical tips.
June 8, 2023
Read for book club at work. Everything covered was so relevant to our team and has started so many new conversations about how we do things. Excited to implement these strategies.
August 28, 2023
More inspirational and a bit light on how to actually implement
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews