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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful: Find your Passion - then be totally efficient with your time., | |||||||||||||||
Identifying what's important and your goals is key to the whole process. From this point you can then begin the process of observing where your time goes each day. Should you, like me have very different days, then the use of time will vary. I found that the days I'd selected to do more work were dwindling during the day. Slow starts, dragged out pre exercise routines(before exercising), followed by dragged out showers, lunches and coffee ended in the day going nowhere. Furthermore, I'd then be tired when getting home, go for a 90 minute nap, make dinner, surf internet, watch tv till 2 or 3 am(hence the need for daytime naps) and repeat cycle if another day off to do video work.
Hmm.. wonder why the projects weren't getting done?
So now the routine is more like this: get up 2 hours earlier, take a slowish start but still get out a lot earlier than before: train, shower, coffee then back home to do some dvd work. No more need of naps. Should I choose to loaf a bit during the day I'd begin the editing earlier in the evening until 22.30-23.00 watch tv until 1.00.
This gave me on the whole 4-5 hours more effort on my editing work, without leaving out the core enjoyment of the day. So its very interesting.
Other thoughts on the book....
The chapters are just the right length. I found it much easier to see the divisions in the thoughts and information shared.
Cetain aspects of it are priceless.
The key to this book is for the reader to be ripe for the info. If you've been struggling to get things moving. You've read many books. Yet still you are your own worst enemy, Duncan will help you clear the fog and zone into the most important use of your time for you. Investigating why the projects are losing vitality, completely transforms your efforts thereafter.
Also once one sees a project moving again it creates its own momentum.
I love the fine tuning of the whole process. There's enough in the book to keep learning for the next 30 years.
I own 3 of his books now. This is the first one I've finished. As of this reading its his latest. I noticed that this one and the previous one, How To Be Smart With Your Money, they had lept forward in readability. Learning books are not novels. They need to be chunked out in much smaller mouthfuls. So once again Duncan has thought it through, perhaps had some feedback and delivered flawless pace and size of chapters.
As far as i'm concerned even if this book is a temporary fix until my next block its got me to the end of my current project.
Yet I hope to make the lifestyle adjustments necessary to transform from a man with ideas and passion to one who can also execute those ideas.
The things that have really stuck in my mind are firstly: REREAD THE BOOK!! 2/ identify the time wasters and then restructure your time. Duncan is a master at this and hounds down seconds to save time. Case in point he presses for the lift and then goes and grabs something before it arrives. He's timed 3 routes to a given destination that's a frequent route. He takes the shortest one that saves a minute or two. These are extreme examples and don't reflect the core time wasters. He has his meetings last for 20 minutes!! Every person has to prepare before hand to get to that level of efficiency.
TV,Internet and lack of a good working Diary are my biggest culprits. Also by not having a proper diary and items in it to get done, means a day starts in vagueness.
However, I really don't believe in the other extreme either where you work your leg hairs off with no goal or reason, for peanuts and have no time for yourself. I believe in making time to reflect on your life. Taking a step back. Where I have struggled is coming out of a corporate Computer Programmer world to being self-employed. No work time keeper or project time keeper. Having no projects delivered to you on a plate. Even if you are self-driven, without direction and focus there's a natural human tendency to drift aimlessly.
In the early years Duncan sold his TV when trying to raise funds. He found so much extra time on his hands as a result. Modern man would have to sell the computer too but that might backfire!!
One can watch tv but it makes sense to record it. Save 20 minutes in a 1 hour show. Watch 2 shows in 80 minutes saving 40 minutes. It all adds up. Get to bed earlier, have more energy for the next day, get more done, clearer head, lots of good things. Yet I find even with a late starting lifestyle, I can still enjoy that but have it working for me instead of against me.
Also I've found a good timezone for me to work. While everyone else is doing the Internet/TV thing at home I'm doing 3 to 4 hours of work. I then watch limited TV after everyone's gone to bed. I considered what programs I could cut back on thereby limiting my weekly viewing. Living TV are doing back to back series(season 2,3, and 4) of Criminal Minds. I enjoyed one episode then made the mistake of recording the shows. I was doing 3 a night!! I was unable to catch them all up. I decided 120 minutes of watching shows about serial killers wasn't the best use of my time or pre-bed relaxing ritual. I'm supposed to be this tranquil Tai Chi Teacher.
Key factors are also to work with a to do list. You list everything. Then split it into sections. Some of them are moved to a wish list. Finally you place this into your diary. Without this a to do list is just a list of paper. A wish list really.
I'd like to see some tightening on my daily diary. Compared to a few weeks ago I was in a mess with my project. I really really wanted to get the USA DVD version completed. But the structure of my day just didn't exist. Having enough income to get by, no boss(yippee), I got away with it. But I knew. You can't hide from your Inner Eye. But now I feel I can have the tools to get myself back on track with it.
The key for me to get going again was identifying whether my second DVD and the whole Zen Tai Chi Series was worth doing or not. Re-firing up the original passion was most useful. It helps when you know why you're sitting at your Computer doing fiddly editing work.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the constant revelation of priceless information. Usually with books of this kind it dies a death and loses momentum. Just when I thought there can't be any more gems left now, he's covered everything. Bang. He dishes out more gold. I've done a lot of reviews for Amazon. It doesn't reflect just how many books I've read. This one is, for me, so good it ranks as the best book I've read on this kind of subject.
Lastly, this book is like a complete map. It links in your lifestyle , passions and goals. Its not about finding time just for the sake of it.
I found it truly a Zen book about getting your life in order and focused. There is no waste. No fluff. Its a rich gold mine.
Creator of the Beginner Tai Chi [DVD]
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