First Things First by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of First Things First
Book Review: A Revolutionary Resource!
Summary: 5 Stars
As someone who juggles many different responsibilities and a crowded calendar, I approached this title with high expectations. I was not disappointed! Covey here offers a revolutionary resource for time management. Rather than following the standard theme of how to do more in a given period of time, the author emphasizes the importance of setting priorities and planning ahead. His analogy of the clock and the compass is priceless in describing the two elements that should both be balanced in our prioritizing and scheduling.
I've been exposed to many varied techniques of time management, but have not experienced anything as revolutionary and life-transforming as this title. For anyone who can't find enough time to "get everything done that needs to be done," I highly recommend this book. It's been a huge help to me!
Book Review: A Worthwhile Read even for time management junkies
Summary: 4 Stars
The Stephen R. Covey engine has kicked out numerous books on self-help, and they consult 200 out of the top 500 Fortune companies. After all of those books and years, they have heard enough stories and waded through enough crisis situations to get a good handle on what works and does not work in all of those environments.
Now, if you've read every book they're written, then undoubtedly you're going to begin this book and say "I've read this all before". Naturally, when they begin a book, they have to assume that some readers haven't read the other books yet. They have to catch them up on the background and basics. If you don't need that primer, then skim for a while. It's not a bad thing, it's a normal thing. It's how book writing works :) If you pick up book 5 of Harry Potter, you still have to go through a little bit of scene setting for the .00002% of the population who skipped the other books and lept into Book 5.
So now, onto the key points of this specific book. Time management is good. Organizing your goals is good. But all of these things are only good if your goals are actually valid ones. If you spend all your time creating to-do lists, and carefully plotting out weekly goals ... but your goal is to get a "bigger fur coat" while your children are starving and you're miserable at work, something is out of sync. This book is all about making sure that what you do is what you REALLY want to do. It's about a higher level of time management.
So they're not saying the other time management systems are bad. They explicitly say that each has its place in life! However, if you work very hard every day to climb a ladder, and find after many years that the ladder you've climbed was against the wrong wall, then you'll be very disappointed. You should always make sure you are working for a goal that you really feel is important at a basic moral level.
This isn't a book to just plow through in an hour and see what you remember. It's asking you to really think about why you do things in life. Is it because your parents harassed you when you were young, and you want to get a flashy car to prove you're something? Do you try to out-do your co-workers even if it hurts your home life? Sometimes these answers don't come easily. If they did, I imagine we wouldn't need a book to help us sort them out.
This is a good book to read a chapter, then put down for a while. Go back and read another one, then think about it for a while. The basic concept is easy enough to understand. Divide your tasks up based on what category they fall into -
Quadrant I - urgent, important
Quadrant II - not urgent, important
Quadrant III - urgent, not important
Quadrant IV - not urgent, not important
Sounds easy, yes? But how many of us get sucked into a ton of "urgent" but really not important tasks for all sorts of reasons? It's the planning - the Quadrant II time - that can help fix those issues. But we have to make time to plan. If your life is full of incessant urgent demands, it may seem impossible to do this. But it can be done.
A hard idea to wrap your mind around is that we all only have 24 hrs a day. Leonardo Da Vinci, Ghandi, every one of us has 24 hrs. You might say "Well but I have 3 kids at home". True! So in your life, you made children your priority. You wanted those kids! So embrace that, and accept that as your mission. Put aside other less important things. We all make choices in life about what is important to us. When we make those choices, we should accept that, be happy with that, and find ways to emphasize our time in those areas. You have to choose to spend the time on things you love - not to divide your time up amongst various things that are "OK". That's what the main lesson is here. Focus on what is most important - don't try to do 80 quadrillion things that are all "OK". It can't work.
Book Review: A bit too warm-hearted, though
Summary: 5 Stars
"First Things First : To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy" offers a lot of inspiration as well as a real guide how to find the right way to organize oneself.The most impressive paragraphs for me are those which ask you again and again, are you trying to climb a ladder that is leaning against the wrong wall?
On the other hand, sometimes it's just too much of loving kindness in this book, too much of "this is the overall solution, we found the Holy Grail". Nevertheless, the authors tried quite hard not to restrict the view to a Western or Christian view of the world, with more or less success.
So, if one is aware that the book *is* a bit too warm-hearted and nice, it is a wonderful book. Sometimes one needs a warm shower for a change ... Perhaps the best approach is to have this book for inspiration and in addition another one by different authors that might serve as a more down-to-earth reference.
Book Review: A great follow through from the 7 habits
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a good follow through from the 7 habits of highly effective people. This is a must read first before you read all other management books. Most of other books has the same principles.Book Review: A great simple framework
Summary: 4 Stars
The book provides a great framework for being productive - focusing on the important over the urgent. It covers the dangers of spending too much time on things that others deem mandatory, sacrificing what is truly valuable.
Two dissenting thoughts on the book. The first is the obvious - "If only it were so easy..." Of course if it were easy, there would be no need for the book. The second is that the key concepts could be delivered in a much shorter format. But that's a small complaint - how expensive is a $12 paperback? It pays for itself with even a small improvement in personal productivity.