User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I'm a Michael Hyatt fan. Even so, I'm sometimes (frequently) disappointed by the amount of fluff that he and his company sometimes pass off as substance. THIS book, however, is all good. I took the course about a year ago, and the book is even better. It's revolutionized my way of planning my entire life, and I'm a better man for it (dare I say it?) The audiobook is good, but you need the text version to really get the most out of it. Couple this with Deep Work and Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, and you can seriously change your relationship with time, work, and your own legacy. Recommended.
Rating: really liked it
Time is fixed. Our energy level is fixed.
Period. Simple. Easy. Fun to read.
Rating: really liked it
This is one of the few business/productivity books that isn’t bloated and cuts straight to the chase with a simple, thoughtful system. I admire Michael Hyatt’s discipline and commitment to doing what he loves and is proficient at.
Free to Focus balances productivity insights and theory with plenty of practical application. Hyatt also provides helpful worksheets that will help you implement his ideas. Unlike most other business books, he doesn’t go overboard on specifics that won’t work in your context and fortunately doesn’t anecdote you to death.
If you’re a knowledge worker, this book can certainly help you think about your work in a different way, focus on the work that matters most, and improve your output not by doing more, but by doing less.
Rating: really liked it
I thought I was done with productivity books. However, I am a fan of Michael Hyatt so I decided to purchase his latest book, Free to Focus. The book lives up to its subtitle: A total productivity system to achieve more by doing less. Free to Focus, if you read it and take time to complete all of the activities, is truly transformational.
The book starts by identifying the problem: we live a distracted life. We are bombarded by information, so nothing gets our full attention. A quote from Oliver Burkeman sets the tone for the book: “What will your life be, in the end, but the sum total of everything you spent it focusing on?”
Hyatt breaks the book and productivity system into three steps, each with three sub-parts.
Step one- Stop. In this case, stop does not refer to dropping an activity (that comes later), but rather to taking a pause to reflect. Hyatt takes you through exercises that allow you to decide what you want out of life (formulate), determine what activities you should focus on (evaluate), and use rest to help you improve results (rejuvenate). The exercise associated with “evaluate” force you identify areas of work that you need to eliminate because you are not the best person to do them. I loved the “rejuvenate” information because it emphasizes the importance of caring for ourselves physically, mentally, and relationally.
Step two- Cut. Yes, this is where you go through the process of activity-decluttering. The “eliminate” exercises emphasize the importance of getting rid of activities that eat up time and energy. Time is finite! The “eliminate” information includes strategies for saying no to new requests and for dealing with unwanted existing commitments. I like the fact that Hyatt emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and honoring commitments. If you said “yes,” you can’t dump and run. The “automate” activities are fantastic! Hyatt includes examples of how to use routines, templates, and automation to make your life more efficient. And the last part of step two is….delegate. We know we should delegate, but “it takes too much time to explain, so I will do it myself.” There are other excuses. The delegation information is this book is the best I have seen. It clearly explains the rationale, provides a clear process, and describes five levels of delegation based on the experience of the other person and the stakes of the task.
Step three- Act. It’s time to put it to work and get the important things done! The first exercise is to “consolidate” by planning your ideal week. Hyatt emphasizes the impossibility of multitasking. It is inefficient and does not work. The ideal week exercise involves batching activities, to the extent possible, to avoid toggling and wasting energy. This is a difficult exercise, but it does not have to be perfect the first time. I am looking forward to drafting and revising my ideal week. The second exercise involves prioritizing tasks on a weekly and daily basis. It is easy to write a to-do list and go through the day completing whatever tasks seem most attractive. However, that practice often leads to end of the day regret- “I was busy all day, but did not touch my most important work.” It may sound daunting to take time to reflect each day, but the focus and clarity are worth the effort. The last exercise is “activate,” which involves eliminating distractions so you can focus on the priorities identified in the earlier steps.
The book comes with resources to use throughout the steps and exercises. I suggest you read through the entire book so you understand the process and then go back through a second time and complete the exercises. Some of the exercises will become daily or weekly practices.
This book can help anyone focus on priorities and be more productive- teachers, community volunteers, parents who home school, executives, business owners, students, etc.
Rating: really liked it
This book, which I listened to on Audible, might be useful to someone just starting out in their career or who have no idea how to organize their time or manage their work.
For anyone who has been in a professional environment for any length of time, most of this is merely hearing what worked for someone else. There are some good reminders and two or three useful tips offered, but I would not recommend reading (listening to) this book to find them.
I likely would've given this another star if it weren't for the constant pitches for the author's organizer product.
I'd recommend reading and implementing Covey's SEVEN HABITS for an effective self-management system.
Rating: really liked it
I read this book on a recommendation, but it wasn't really for me so I'll leave the rating out.
Free to Focus may be great for overstressed and overworked corporate managers who need to hear obvious truths from an authority figure before giving them any serious consideration. I found Hyatt's platitudes on how to delegate and prioritize nothing but a repeat of what every other book on management tells you. Which may be exactly what some people need to hear again and again. Who knows, maybe this time they will put it into practice.
The one thing that stood out, however, was the Focus Compass (Copyright, TM, All Rights Reserved, etc.), which gives you a neat tool to look at all the things you're busy doing and find those that distract you from doing meaningful work.
I might recommend this book to those who feel overwhelmed by their daily torrent of tasks and are looking to find some balance.
Rating: really liked it
If you've never read or listened to Michael Hyatt before, you need to. He's excellent when it comes to goal setting and productivity. This book is no doubt helpful for productivity. If you follow Hyatt, a lot of the ideas in this book are not necessarily new. He has refined some of his ideas. Still, it was helpful to read it. I've found I need to keep reminding myself of what I need to do to become more productive.
Rating: really liked it
Good read if you haven’t read anything in this spaceIf you haven’t read any productivity books already I’m sure this would be quite insightful.
However, as I have read quite a few I found I skimmed the majority of this book.
There was also a lot of fluff in it and could have been more concise, or had more detail.
A lot of these strategies also seem to be geared towards people in higher management.
Rating: really liked it
Worth reading, but primarily for someone early in their career, or even who is still a student and who want's to accomplish more meaningful goals. For anyone who has read worthwhile material in this space (such as Covey's
First Things First), Hyatt's ideas and recommendations will not be new. Nonetheless, there he recommends some useful tools and techniques, and for that purpose, it's worth a skim to find what is new and useful to you.
Hyatt is a fan of Allen's
Getting Things Done, where I am not. I found it too complicated and time consuming - when I tried the method, I spent more time planning and organizing my time than actually getting things done. However, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful for other with different needs. Hyatt puts forth other ideas that seem useful to me, many of which I have been doing for years.
Free to Focus did give me a few ideas for tweaking my own priority management practices that I have found helpful. Other will undoubtedly get benefit from it as well.
Rating: really liked it
Filled with practical advice. Picked up good principles and pointers to guard, accomplish goals, and overcome distractions.
Rating: really liked it
This is a very good reminder of the fundamentals of productivity and focus to help craft an increased, razor-sharp impact in day-to-day work. There is nothing groundbreaking in the book, but definitely one of the best short reads that summarizes all you need to get back in shape.
Rating: really liked it
This book is how one would hope productivity would be taught at work. Free to Focus takes you from defensive to offense with your tasks and commitments at the office. Further, it makes a strong case why unplugging from work is important and should be intentional. The system is comprised from Michael Hyatt’s years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience.
The book covers the Free to Focus system in depth and the steps are easy to follow, which is especially important if you’ve never heard of the author before. There’s resources online and at the back of the book, so you can get started right away. You’ll also notice the forgiving tone —“don’t worry about getting it perfect”— throughout the book.
I received my free, advanced copy and began to dive in. For long-time readers of the author, I still recommend the book because it’s Hyatt’s knowledge of productivity all rolled into one neat package.
Before learning about this system, I would spend my days trying to catch up thinking, “there has to be a better way ‘the people at the top’ know about.”
Rating: really liked it
I'd say this is book + workbook for your focus improvement. Did it bring some new science to the table? Not a lot. However it was quite well structured, with few anecdotes here and there to liven it up. The author provides quite a lot of practical materials to work with and the book describes the general principles and thought process behind them. Remember - Time is fixed. Our energy level is fixed. So work with that. Priorities, learning to say no, understanding routines, setting goals, minimizing the unnecessary. Those are few of the lessons. I did enjoy the practical tasks (with all the forms) that went together with this and after filling most of them, I do have some key improvements or new ideas that I implemented. The book cuts straight to the chase, and that is a big plus for a book about productivity.
(view spoiler)
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Few notes:
- Project vision caster for making your ideas clear.
- Delegate and do that by saying what level of delegation do you prefer in each project
- Optimize workflows, mark project/task owners
- Morning and evening rituals
- Workday end ritual
- Not-to-do lists to understand what you want to change
- Freedom compass (what are your tasks / responsibilities and which zones do they inhabit) - Desire zone, Distraction zone, Disinterest zone, Drudgery zone, Development zone
- Productivity vision - define why you want to be productive
- Do daily and weekly planning
(hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
Point: Productivity is not the ability to accomplish more, but to be able to accomplish what is best.
Path: Hyatt shows how to Stop, Cut, and Act. The process of stopping and reorientation myself will allow me to eliminate what is not my priority and will free time to act on what I ought to be focusing on.
Sources: Productivity gurus, technology studies, and current workplace information.
Agreement: I appreciated his focus on the most important things. I think the concept of the Big Three was worth the entire book for me.
Personal App: Am I trying to accomplish more or am I attempting to complete what is best?
Favorite Quote: “True productivity starts with being clear on what we truly want.”
Stars: 4 out of 5
It would be worth another read and I would recommend it to someone who:
Is struggling with overwork
Has no idea what they are doing with all their time
Self employed or freelancer
Other books along this theme would be:
Challies, T. Do More Better
McKeown. Essentialism
Allen. Getting Things Done
Glee and 99U. Manage your Day-toDay
Perman, M. What’s Best Next
Rating: really liked it
Do you feel that no matter how hard you work, you are not making any progress? There are certain periods in my life where I felt that way. It is one of the reasons that I am so interested in productivity books and podcasts. I want to learn how to hack the system. However, I may be looking at it all wrong. According to Michael Hyatt in his new book,
Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less , I should be working on productivity in order to get more of my life back not just to fill it with more to do. Read more
