Happy About an Extra Hour Every Day: 300 Time Saving Tips to Create a 25-Hour Day; Practical Time Saving Tips to Apply at Home, at Work and on the Go
Posted by Blogmaster in Work at Home Books, tags: *Create, 25Hour, About, Apply, Every, Extra, Happy, Home, Hour, Practical, Saving, Time, tips, Work
Product Description
Every day has 1,440 minutes and they pass quickly regardless of whether you are salaried, self-employed or own a business. Everyone who wants to achieve goals needs to carefully manage time. You can create a lot of extra time by increasing your efficiency. If you can save one minute 60 times a day you can gain the extra hour every day required to make your dreams happen.
Every person is different — and so are the proposed time saving tips. The book includes ~300 practical time management tips and everybody should be able to find at least 50 that work in your every day life. Tips that are easy to implement are marked as “quick wins.” These quick wins help generating initial successes and increase your motivation to apply more time saving tips. In the ideal case, you will revisit the book from time to time searching for new tips that can be applied at home, at work or on the go. Over time, you will achieve more within a given period of time. Can you afford to let this book slip by?
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I agree with the gist of everything he said in the basis of Time Management. Have clear goals. Goals come before action. Then have a to do list and prioritize it. Write things down. Habits are one of the best ways to gain effectiveness. Plan. All simple but effective. What I was looking for was new tips. I am a bit of a tough customer for new tips since I have read most books published in the last 10 years on the topic.
The book is not advocating a particular system, rather it is a compendium of tips.
Much of the book seemed fairly junior. Perhaps I am too studied and practise too much of it? Many of the tips seemed too obvious. Some seemed too trivial.
Some of his tips:
1 – Chaining as a way to build a habit. Think of building a chain for each day or week you do something. EG. If I want to run daily, each day I run is a new link. Perhaps I build 20 links then skip a day. I then start a new chain and try to break 20 etc.
2 – In cleaning, use 2 hands. Why not use 2 cloths instead of 1?
3 – Less credit cards or bank accounts means less paperwork, less reconciling etc.
4 – Have a don’t do list. (one of my favourites)
5 – Buy in large quantity (EG Business Cards) to save the time of re-buying
6 – Pay annually rather than monthly – EG insurance.
I liked the list of websites the book has. They are good resources.
The book is short which I like – 100 pages.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is a fairly short read (105 pages), perfect for the person who desperately needs an extra hour a day! After reviewing the basic principles of time management, the author provides practical tips for saving time in three areas: at home, at work, and on the go.
My Review
This book reads like a bullet-point or numbered list of ideas. It isn’t long enough to go through a lot of examples and illustrations – it is very much practical and to the point. And I do love lists, so I enjoyed the format.
A lot of the tips are common sense. There are some good reminders along the lines of writing stuff down, planning your time, getting up early, and overcoming procrastination.
There are also links to some great tools, including online checklists and digital post-its.
And then there are tips I hadn’t thought of, like leaving a paper clip on your passport – since with international travel you’re often having to fill out forms to present with the passport, and this cuts down on search time to find those forms when needed. Very practical and something I wish I had done with all the border crossings we did while in Mozambique.
Or activating the single click option (Windows) on my computer – why waste time on all those unnecessary double-clicks?
Or using both hands while cleaning; e.g. spraying the windows with one hand while wiping with the other.
As dry as the content is, there were things that made me laugh with the realization that a man is writing this. Such as this comment: “The time required for housework has reduced significantly with all the technological aids available and it may one day completely be done by a house robot.”
Or this tip for women: “Use a decent color for your nails. Scratches will not be that visible and it allows extending the period until a renewal is due.” I’m still trying to determine what a “decent” color is.
For more information on this book, check out the Happy About site. You can buy the book on Amazon.
And I highly recommend checking out the An Extra Hour Every Day blog for lots of great time-saving tips.
Rating: 4 / 5
I was initially skeptical that the nature of the book would force it to read like a “to do” list, but the language of the book is very natural and flowing. Sorgel mixes many tips, such as “chaining” with short but good examples that make the concept more clear. He also has links to the websites and tools he mentions.If you want a quick, easy to read book full of good tips and instruction for saving time, this is it!
Soergel does a good job consolidating a lot of tips that I have seen in other places (Franklin Planner, 7 Habits, GTD), and mixes it with some common sense and his own practical experience in saving time.
I enjoyed the practical tips that I can use with my family, particularly when it comes to organizing the bathroom for short home occupants (my children), especially the one about the….oh wait, I am tempted to list out more of my favorite tips here, but instead suggest your buy the book for yourself…The section on “how to identify and change bad habits” was the most useful for me.
The advice Sorgel gives is like an energy drink in the morning…short and to the point.
Rating: 5 / 5
Get organized, monitor yourself, then improve. This book has plenty of ideas collected on how to improve your daily workflow as well as extraordinary tasks that don’t happen everyday for everybody. Many useful links and hints to tools online help you avoiding to invent the wheel again (checklists for any event, idea collecting). Reading this book will definitely not be a waste of your precious time.
Rating: 5 / 5
What’s a gift many of us would cherish? Particularly when extra time is a luxury item and life seems ever more hectic? Nicolas Soergel’s “Happy About an Extra Hour Every Day” maps out a strategy for ‘never have enough’, time-crunched 21st century citizens.
It’s a valuable compendium of useful ideas to better organize one of our most precious commodities. There’s nothing mysterious here – just plenty of sensible tips on time management principles; why managing it is so critical in achieving our goals; and how to save time at home, at work, and when travelling. Some advice you may be familiar with, other items are new ways of approaching daily tasks.
Setting goals is one example of what Soergel deems an ‘action item’ to be tracked and executed. Likening each goal as a project in itself, he suggests several steps to take (similar to project management methods). If a goal proves difficult to attain, announcing it in public makes it harder to give up or procrastinate; asking family or friends for support can help keep you motivated and moving.
One tip many will appreciate – I really liked this one – is making meetings shorter and more productive; his idea is a ‘stand-up’ meeting where you’re more inclined to get down to business and finish ASAP. No more coffee and pastry needed to see you through!
“An Extra Hour Every Day” is a great guide for many of us who daily juggle life’s tasks, large and small, knowing there are more effective ways to do things. If you do the arithmetic, one extra hour daily translates into about 350+ hours more per year! And who would argue with that?
Rating: 5 / 5