Blinkist Summary Book

2021-11-16 06:39:49 Do What Matters Most
Part of 6/16

 
Now imagine you book that flight weeks ahead of time. This would count as a category two activity: low-stress but still high-priority. If you plan ahead you subject your body to less stress and that leads to increased productivity. Finally the other two categories can represent anything from unnecessary meetings to procrastination. 
Now ask yourself: How much time do I spend in each of the categories? 
According to the authors only a quarter of your daily activities should be high-stress high-priority. Seventy percent of your time should fall under category two: high priority but low stress. 
What about the other unimportant areas? Well ideally you should only spend 5 to 15 percent of your time in them. But in reality we all gravitate towards these categories. It doesn’t have to be that way. 
Get familiar with your priorities by forming a vision for each of your roles in life.
Let’s say you want to build your dream house. Before you put together a budget or even an architec Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:49 Do What Matters Most
Part of 5/16

essing yourself and your current approach to your priorities. 
Before you can transform your approach to your priorities you need to get a good grasp on where you currently stand. How do you do this? One approach is to break down your daily activities into the “do what matters most” matrix. 
It divides your daily activities into four categories. One refers to activities that are both high-stress and high-priority another to activities that are low-stress and high-priority. And the two remaining categories represent activities that matter the least – stuff that’s either urgent and not important or – in the last category – not urgent and not important. 
For example if you wait a few days before an important business trip to make a booking sorting out flights and accommodation would become a category one activity. People who spend all their lives doing category one stuff may appreciate the adrenaline rush but they are also usually fire-fighting all the time – and that leads to burnout. Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:45 Do What Matters Most
Part of 4/16

ur professional and personal lives and planning the next week in advance. 
But just like the author needed a debrief to assess his flight you too need to step back before you start prioritizing – as you’ll hear in the next blink.
Start by assessing yourself and your current approach to your priorities.
Amy an executive at American Express was promoted year after year and eventually became senior director. But during the first months in her new role she realized that she was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. Sure she was proud of her professional achievements – but her relationships with her husband and daughter were slipping. 
When Amy attended the authors’ “do what matters most” keynote at a conference she realized that motivation alone was not enough. By the end of the presentation she understood a simple truth: having the drive to boost performance and productivity is great but she now needed to step back and reshuffle her priorities.
The key message here is: Start by ass Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:44 Do What Matters Most
Part of 3/16

what matters most. 
You’re probably not a fighter pilot but there’s a good chance that you too have experienced task saturation in daily life. Remember: task saturation happens when there’s a lot going on and too little time to address it all. Sixty-eight percent of managers surveyed by the authors said their number one challenge was focusing on what matters most. Eighty percent didn’t have a clear process for how to prioritize their time.
The authors’ answer was to create a simple process for managing time more effectively. It is loosely based on how the airforce works. Pilots are trained to focus on the most critical signals known as primary instruments. They may show for instance airspeed or altitude. In the jet you need to prioritize them if you want to stay alive. In your workspace you too can overcome task saturation by learning to prioritize. 
The “do what matters most” method consists of developing three habits: writing down a personal vision setting annual goals for both yo Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:44 Do What Matters Most
Part of 2/16

Here’s a story from one of the authors a former US air force pilot. He was on a routine training mission and everything seemed just fine. He banked the plane into a 180-degree turn and then an alert from one of the systems in the cockpit caught his attention. As he looked down to work the various switches and buttons another jet unexpectedly crossed his flight path. 
Both planes were tearing through the sky at 1000 mph. They nearly collided missing one another by less than 100 feet.
Later during the debrief both pilots gave the same reason for why they didn’t notice the other jet: they were overwhelmed by activity inside their own cockpits. This is an example of what’s known as task saturation. It happens when a pilot has so much going on that he struggles to process everything the environment throws at him. This can lead to dangerous oversight and it’s a problem in the airspace as well as in the workplace.
The key message here is: Manage your time more effectively by prioritizing Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:44 Do What Matters Most
Part of 1/16


What’s in it for me? Learn how to prioritize tasks and make the most of each day.
Do you ever work late into the night chasing deadlines? Are you behind on your to-do list? Do you feel like there is too much to do and not enough time to tackle it all? 
Well if you do you’re not alone. In fact there’s something most executives struggle to manage – and that’s their own time. Little surprise that many end up overlooking what matters most.
Luckily there’s something that can help you get the most of each day both at work and at home. And that secret sauce is – prioritizing. 
In these blinks you’ll learn a simple process to help you identify your priorities and stay focused on them.
In these blinks you’ll learn
how to establish a low-stress approach to life’s highest priorities;
why you should develop a personal vision for each role in life; and
how to achieve annual goals using a weekly planning tool.
Manage your time more effectively by prioritizing what matters most. Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:43 Do What Matters Most
Part of 0/16

Do What Matters Most (2021) is a guide to managing your time more efficiently. It will help you boost performance and stay focused on what matters most. This pack offers a whole bag of tricks such as developing a personal vision setting annual goals and following a weekly list of priorities. Open / Comment

2021-11-15 06:40:00 The Comfort Book
Part of 17/17

hopeful as we do to be fearful. And as the author says “Nothing is stronger than a small hope that doesn’t give up.” 
Final summary
The key message in these blinks is that:
Comfort arises from confronting your demons – and practicing strategies to deal with them. It comes from improving your self-esteem and knowing that you’re intrinsically worthy. Nurturing your mental health is a lifelong journey. And it’s personal. Only you know what you need to sustain yourself through difficult times.
And here’s some more actionable advice:
When you’re having a tough day make something.
Making something is one of the most soothing things you can do when you’re not feeling great. It could be a sandwich or soup or some music – anything that puts some power into your hands when you’re feeling completely out of control. 
> Open / Comment

2021-11-15 06:39:59 The Comfort Book
Part of 16/17

? Somewhere Over the Rainbow was composed by two Jewish musicians – Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg – for the movie The Wizard of Oz . The movie came out in 1939 the year Adolf Hitler unleashed a tide of anti-Semitism on the world. The fact that these musicians chose that moment to create one of the most optimistic songs ever written is probably not coincidental. 
There’s nothing rational about hope. In the middle of a global pandemic it can feel extremely irrational to be hopeful. And if you’re struggling with anxiety or depression hope can be even harder to find. 
But you don’t need to be cheerful or optimistic to have hope. It isn’t about being naive or Pollyannaish. It’s simply saying I don’t know what the future holds. And because so much is uncertain it’s entirely possible that things can get better. 
We can’t predict what will happen next year. Or even tomorrow. And yes that can be scary. But if we’re able to sit with the uncertainty we realize we have just as much reason to be Open / Comment

2021-11-15 06:39:59 The Comfort Book
Part of 15/17

ple say we should “be in the moment ” they often mean we should be mindful of the moment we’re in. But let’s face it being exquisitely aware of what’s going on in our minds all the time can be awful. In fact it was when the author was at his most depressed that he felt most in the moment. He was excruciatingly aware of his surroundings and of what was going on in his brain. He would have given anything to be mindless sometimes. 
So give yourself permission to not be in the moment. Watching TV and getting absorbed in a series like Game of Throne s is an excellent way to be mindless for a while. Chats with friends can also work. Or getting sucked into an addictive detective novel. 
The point is get through the moment whichever way you need to. Your survival is the most important thing and it doesn’t need to look a certain way.
Number fourteen: Cultivate irrational hope.
Did you know that one of the most hopeful songs was written at one of the most hopeless points in human history Open / Comment