Getting Results the Agile Way


Book Description

A guide to the Agile Results system, a systematic way to achieve both short- and long-term results that can be applied to all aspects of life.




Extreme Productivity


Book Description

“Required reading for professionals—and aspiring professionals—of all levels.” —Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Former Chairman of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Robert C. Pozen, one of the business world’s most successful—and productive—executives, reveals the surprising secrets to workplace productivity and high performance. It's far too easy for working professionals to become overwhelmed by a pile of time-sensitive projects, a backlog of emails, and endless meetings. In order to be truly productive, they must make a critical shift in mindset from hours worked to results produced. With Extreme Productivity, Pozen explains how individuals can maximize their time and energy by determining and focusing on their highest priorities. He also provides a toolkit of practical tips and techniques to help professionals at all stages of their careers maximize their time at work. This essential handbook empowers every person with proven methods for prioritizing their time to achieve high-impact results and refine their career goals for long-term success, all while leading a full and meaningful personal life as well.







I Didn't Do the Thing Today


Book Description

How to release productivity guilt and embrace the hidden values in our daily lives. Any given day brings a never-ending list of things to do. There’s the work thing, the catch-up thing, the laundry thing, the creative thing, the exercise thing, the family thing, the thing we don’t want to do, and the thing we’ve been putting off, despite it being the most important thing. Even on days when we get a lot done, the thing left undone can leave us feeling guilty, anxious, or disappointed. After five years of searching for the secret to productivity, Madeleine Dore discovered there isn’t one. Instead, we’re being set up to fail. I Didn’t Do the Thing Today is the inspiring call to take productivity off its pedestal—by dismantling our comparison to others, aspirational routines, and the unrealistic notions of what can be done in a day, we can finally embrace the joyful messiness and unpredictability of life. For anyone who has ever felt the pressure to do more, be more, achieve more, this antidote to our doing-obsession is the permission slip we all need to find our own way.




Sell Yourself an Hour Every Day


Book Description

It's as important as it has ever been for lawyers to build profitable books of business, but it's harder to find the time to do so. Higher billable hour requirements, 24/7 connectedness, unceasing distractions, and increased competition all conspire to make business development a difficult endeavor. In Sell Yourself an Hour Every Day, lawyer, author, executive coach, and consultant to the legal industry Jay Harrington lays a step-by-step approach that successful lawyers use to motivate themselves and manage their attention so they have the time-and the mental and emotional strength-necessary to develop business. This book is not merely a collection of disparate and unrelated productivity tips or hacks. Rather, it lays out a comprehensive system that will: (1) challenge you to determine what you really desire out of your life and career, (2) prompt you to examine your limiting beliefs about what you're capable of accomplishing, and (3) provide you with fresh and unconventional ideas that will transform the way you think about productivity. By reading this book, you'll be armed with the knowledge and tools you need to prioritize the time necessary to build a profitable legal practice.




Make Time


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Sprint comes “a unique and engaging read about a proven habit framework [that] readers can apply to each day” (Insider, Best Books to Form New Habits). “If you want to achieve more (without going nuts), read this book.”—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit Nobody ever looked at an empty calendar and said, "The best way to spend this time is by cramming it full of meetings!" or got to work in the morning and thought, Today I'll spend hours on Facebook! Yet that's exactly what we do. Why? In a world where information refreshes endlessly and the workday feels like a race to react to other people's priorities faster, frazzled and distracted has become our default position. But what if the exhaustion of constant busyness wasn't mandatory? What if you could step off the hamster wheel and start taking control of your time and attention? That's what this book is about. As creators of Google Ventures' renowned "design sprint," Jake and John have helped hundreds of teams solve important problems by changing how they work. Building on the success of these sprints and their experience designing ubiquitous tech products from Gmail to YouTube, they spent years experimenting with their own habits and routines, looking for ways to help people optimize their energy, focus, and time. Now they've packaged the most effective tactics into a four-step daily framework that anyone can use to systematically design their days. Make Time is not a one-size-fits-all formula. Instead, it offers a customizable menu of bite-size tips and strategies that can be tailored to individual habits and lifestyles. Make Time isn't about productivity, or checking off more to-dos. Nor does it propose unrealistic solutions like throwing out your smartphone or swearing off social media. Making time isn't about radically overhauling your lifestyle; it's about making small shifts in your environment to liberate yourself from constant busyness and distraction. A must-read for anyone who has ever thought, If only there were more hours in the day..., Make Time will help you stop passively reacting to the demands of the modern world and start intentionally making time for the things that matter.




Grass Productivity: An Introduction to Rational Grazing


Book Description

SIMPLE questions often help us to understand problems better; and I think it indispensable, at the beginning of this work, to ask a question which appears simple in the extreme: "What is grazing?" The answer is generally as follows: "Causing grass to be eaten by an animal." That is correct! But here is another answer which, to my mind, is more realistic: "Causing the grass and the animal to meet." Since this book is almost exclusively concerned with grazing by cattle, I propose the following definition to the reader, requesting him to allow it to become well impressed upon his mind: Grazing is the meeting of cow and grass. It is by satisfying as far as possible the demands of both parties that we will arrive at a rational grazing, which will provide us with maximum productivity on the part of the grass while at the same time allowing the cow to give optimum performance. [From the Introduction]




The Productive Programmer


Book Description

Anyone who develops software for a living needs a proven way to produce it better, faster, and cheaper. The Productive Programmer offers critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use. Master developer Neal Ford not only offers advice on the mechanics of productivity-how to work smarter, spurn interruptions, get the most out your computer, and avoid repetition-he also details valuable practices that will help you elude common traps, improve your code, and become more valuable to your team. You'll learn to: Write the test before you write the code Manage the lifecycle of your objects fastidiously Build only what you need now, not what you might need later Apply ancient philosophies to software development Question authority, rather than blindly adhere to standards Make hard things easier and impossible things possible through meta-programming Be sure all code within a method is at the same level of abstraction Pick the right editor and assemble the best tools for the job This isn't theory, but the fruits of Ford's real-world experience as an Application Architect at the global IT consultancy ThoughtWorks. Whether you're a beginner or a pro with years of experience, you'll improve your work and your career with the simple and straightforward principles in The Productive Programmer.




How to Do More in Less Time


Book Description

"Everyone gets exactly the same 24 hours in every day. If you're struggling, the problem often isn't that you don't have enough time; the problem is that either you aren't managing your activities effectively enough to fit within the time you have available or you aren't using the tools you have as efficiently as possible. This book will help you tackle both"--




What's Best Next


Book Description

By anchoring your understanding of productivity in God's plan, What's Best Next gives you a practical approach for increasing your effectiveness in everything you do. There are a lot of myths about productivity--what it means to get things done and how to accomplish work that really matters. In our current era of innovation and information overload, it may feel harder than ever to understand the meaning of work or to have a sense of vocation or calling. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity? Matt Perman has spent his career helping people learn how to do work in a gospel-centered and effective way. What's Best Next explains his approach to unlocking productivity and fulfillment in work by showing how faith relates to work, even in our everyday grind. What's Best Next is packed with biblical and theological insight and practical counsel that you can put into practice today, such as: How to create a mission statement for your life that's actually practicable. How to delegate to people in a way that really empowers them. How to overcome time killers like procrastination, interruptions, and multitasking by turning them around and making them work for you. How to process workflow efficiently and get your email inbox to zero every day. How to have peace of mind without needing to have everything under control. How generosity is actually the key to unlocking productivity. This expanded edition includes: a new chapter on productivity in a fallen world a new appendix on being more productive with work that requires creative thinking. Productivity isn't just about getting more things done. It's about getting the right things done--the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. You can learn how to do work that matters and how to do it well.