Alan Lakein
1 This book changed my life... seriously......
I seriously feel that this book changed my life. After reading this book the way I looked at the world changed. I now realize that I don't need to get everything on my "to do" list done. I only focus on the top priorities. I've purchased more than 10 copies of this book to share with friends and co-workers. Great book.
2 Live your Dream
Are you doing everything you can to live your dream? In this book Alan Lakein gives you the gift of a lifetime -- he shows you, step by step, how to use your time to live the way you've always wanted.
Before you can do what you want, you have to know what you want to do. If you work through this book faithfully, you will emerge with a clear focus of what you want from life.
With that knowledge, you can then refine your activity, year by year, month by month, day by day, to get what you want.
This book is a super life-changer, one of the few that I plan to reread annually, and one of the few that I will give to my children as a manual for living. Seize the day--and grab this book.
3 The book that changed my life the most...
Changed my life tremendously... I wish I have read it fifteen years ago. I will not be too far fetched if I recommend this book to be used as a "must read" in colleges. Very easy to understand and right to the point, gives you simple tools to increase your productivity ten-fold, focus on the right goals and kill procrastination.
4 Fascinating Book
I read this book couple of days back. Its a very interesting book on managing your time. But it reality no one can help us manage our time; the burden is on us !!. If you are looking for a book which can give you a magical stick for time management then I am afraid this is not a right book, on the other hand you will learn new time management techniques those are really helpful. This book talks about To-Do list and procastination problem and gives some wonderful suggestions ; keep reading and have patience you will eventually like it. However, I feel this book is not complete we live in internet world today, things are fast but its a good starting point
5 Great read, and down to the point.
This book was my first time management book. I've picked up "The Time Trap" by Alec Mackenzie after this reading, and in comparison, this book is much more thorough. The best part about this book I think is the simple idea of prioritizing your to do list. I have started to do this and found myself to be able to get more important things done. It also helps greatly with your concentration for the current task by stating to yourself that this is the most important task to do at the moment. Anyhow, great time management book for newbies.
6 The Foundation of Time Management
Mr. Lakein's book provides the foundational premise for anyone to locate their true purpose as well as the method in which to achieve what they desire. I've been reading books for many years on how to manage time and finally found the one all the others had taken concepts from and tried to improvise and improve upon, but they just managed to make it more difficult. This is the one to read if you desire to gain control of your life and define what you want to do with your time.
7 Still using these principles 22 years later!
I first read Alan Lakein's book in 1982. I picked it up 10 years later and was amazed to see how many of the principles had become so much a part of my life I. I was living the book and hadn't even realized it until I picked it up again.
One of my favorite principles is to start working on something that's important to you, even if it's 15 minutes at a time. I've done this. Scheduled something I didn't think I had time to do for 15 minutes a week. I certainly could do that. Well, when it's something that I really want, I find the momentum builds and I end up finding the time to do what I need and being really happy that I did.
This book has helped me get in touch with what's really important to me and has helped me live a life I truly value.
Thank you Alan Lakein!!
8 Plan & priortize.
This book heavily emphasizes planning and prioritizing and also offers tips on how to stave off procrastination. There are a few anecdotes about business managers and housewives that, for me, just fill pages, but overall, this is a clearly-written, useful book that offers effective techniques.
9 Thumbs up
Good because Lakein makes accommodation for human nature, and works with it and around it, vs. some such books that assume everyone has the self-discipline of a navy seal. He helps procrastinators and the lazy, as well as those who aren't these things but want to improve.
10 Make the Most of Your Time!
This little book is an easy read, but is invaluable for the person with many things to do and little time in which to do them. It is essential particularly for the busy executive who wants to work smarter rather than harder. Alan Lakein offers straightforward, no nonsense advice on how to manage time more efficiently.
There are many good points in this volume, and to mention all of them would require a lengthy review. A few of the most outstanding nuggets are as follows:
Set priorities.
Ask Lakein's question - "what is the best use of my time right now?"
Use the Swiss cheese method to reduce intimidating tasks
Employ "The Magic If."
Cut off your escape route.
Since I am a person who savors managing time as wisely as possible, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The small time investment made in reading it will pay dividends many times over in time saved. Get it and see for yourself!
11 Excellent and Great Value
I think that virtually any book that you read on time mangement has drawn from the ideas found in this book. It contains straight talking practical advice that if followed will lead you to personal happiness and fulfilment.
He also provides a fast track through the book (go to pages 158, 30, 11) on the back that gets you thinking about and doing the most benificial things quickly. Handy for those that feel they do not have the time to read a whole book.
12 The best book on time management ever written
I can think of no other book on time management that brings together everything you need to know about managing your time in such a short text. If you read just one book on time management - this is the one! I continue to review this book every couple years to refine my approach.
13 One of my top 5 all-time most helpful books.
I bought this when I was struggling to hold 18 credit hours, a part-time job and a life together and I credit it with helping me turn things around and graduate from college. One of the most clear-headed, sensible books I've ever read, and possibly the one easiest to apply directly to life activities. Buy it, read it, practice it and you will find more value in the time you spend.
14 Extremely helpful !!
More than just a 'how-to' book;A.Lakein is a real pro.Offers many insights and approaches for maximizing the value of one's time.Highly recommended!
15 a joke?
i found this book accidentally and immediately lost it on purpose. heres my take: if you want to get control of your time and your life, begin by making it a personal goal to refrain from reading literature like this. alan lakein cares neither about time management nor about your personal well being. alan lakein got a business degree and wrote books in order to make money: hes no philosopher people. forgetting about what you should be doing or making goals is in itself a waste of time. just live, people! do not buy this. in my beginning is my end...and where do you see yourself in one hundred years?
16 An excellent short book chock full of helpful tips
What do you really want from life? How do you prioritize and mesh your goals? How do you schedule your time each day to reach your long-range goals, to get the necessary routine tasks out of the way and to have some time for leisure activities? How do you say •À?no•À? to demands on your time. How do you avoid procrastination? Want to know? This very short book covers the essentials of time management.
17 One of the three or four most helpful books I've ever read.
It helped me go from being mediocre as a junior in college to being accomplished as a senior in college, while giving me a sense of control and of hope about accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish in life. And many of its tips and recommendations still help me organize myself on a daily basis, 17 years later. I cannot recommed this book highly enough. Read it, give it to people you love.
18 Time Mmt. Alan Lakein
This book changed my life completely especially on time management and setting priorities including annual goals and objectives.
It is easy to read, practical and lists easily and clearly on how to work on improving yourself. You will be amazed at the resuts proven ideas. Till today, I still believe in the adage, "Ask Lakein's Question" whenever you are not sure on what would be the next best course of action and priority.
19 Don't purchase any other time management book!
I have been reading this book for many years. I used to be a business consultant for a large stock broker firm and I alway purchased a copy of this book for any salesperson who needed to tighten up their lost time. You can open this book at any page and learn something even after you have read it for years. I just ordered another copy after giving away my present copy. I suggest you buy more than one because you will want to share the wealth with your friends. It doesn't make any sense to say anything about time management other than what Alan Lakein has already said.
20 This book Can Change Your Life
To say that this book can change your life might seem like hyperbole. Yet this book teaches you to make decisions in a way that certainly can change your life. It is so much more than time management, it is a practical approach to psychology, philosophy and business. It is a well written book, to the point and interesting. There is so much in this little book that it is difficult to summarize. The Contents pages shown on this site give you a good idea of what Lakein covers so very well. This book isn't just for professional people or business people, but for everyone who wants to live a rewarding life. I highly recommend it to all my friends and employees.
21 Small cost, rich reward
How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life is, perhaps, the best book on time management ever written. It does not waste your time but gets right to the point. You must establish SMART (specific, measurable, achieveable, related/relevant, and time framed) goals for yourself and then prioritize them using Lakein's A/C system. "A" goals are the most important to you and you must plan on spending 80% of your time to achieve them. "C" goals (TV, lawn care, shopping, etc.) are the place where most people "waste" their lives and spend 80% of their time. This ratio must be reversed, according to Lakein.
He would agree with e.e. cummings that "To be nobody but yourself in a world that is night and day trying to make you just like everybody else means to fight the hardest fight any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." Once we have set goals that utilize our unique talents and abilities, we will have the will power and determination to do the work necessary to achieve them.
To accomplish our goals Lakein recommends that we make a daily "to do" list and always start with "A's," not "C's." Most of our time is spent working harder on things that don't matter. We may be efficient, but Lakein suggests that our goal is to do what matters most and become effective. "Work smarter, not harder" is the mantra he wants us to repeat and couple that saying with his last piece of advice --"Do it now."
Stick your finger into this small book and any page you hit will have wise words to put into action. Learning comes from daily practice and developing habits that "put first things first," taken from Stephen Covey's best seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People -- also recommended is Covey's fine book on effective living appropriately titled First Things First.
Rarely has a book that costs so little paid such rich dividends. You won't be disappointed.
22 No other time management book will do
There's a lot of dated stuff in the book--the author assumes you're either a housewife or a white-collar worker with a secretary who types your correspondence for you--but just ignore that and profit by the timeless techniques. The hardest and best part was setting your priorities--turns out you have to know what's most important to _you_ before you can figure out how best to spend your time. This book will help you even if the main thing you want to do with your life is build your bottlecap collection. Time management is _not_ just for corporate freakazoids in this book--unlike most of what's available now.
23 Short, smart, super. Top of its kind.
How hard is it to write short? And to think smart? Lakein manages both in this brilliant, slim volume which goes beyond productivity tips (though great ones abound) by first guiding you to the right path for you - so your new-found efficiency will propel you down the road of most satisfaction. One of my top favorite books of all time, all subjects. I revisit it frequently, after twenty years- and it never disappoints.
24 God Created the Garden of Eden - and then everything else...
This is THE time management book. I have tried to buy better books. Afterall, the book is ancient. 27 years old. But, you see, they invented the wheel. It's hard to do again. Don't go down that alley! You know what I'm talking about. Other time management books. I did buy an unusual one. Published originally in German. It was so cool! Until I figured out that all your activities were supposed to be coordinated with your, ahem, biorythms. Those charts that were a fad about two million years ago. Not the medical ones now. I was not terribly delighted. I'm not sure that Edison was the first to discover electricity. It might have been the Arabs. But Lakein got time management into book form. I've read this book four times! And I underlined it in blue. If you want to be an Amazon.com reviewer, buy this book. A-1. You will find out what this means. Good luck.
25 The best time management book.
When I got the book, I was somewhat sceptical that a book could teach me what I already knew. (Make lists of to-do items etc) But this book is really amazing. It will tell you how you end up wasting time and what to do about it in a positive way. I would like to mention a couple of ideas that I found in this book: a) No matter how silly, do something related to work with a high pay-off. b) Effectiveness (doing the important things) should be preferred over efficiency (Doing something of not much importance very well)
I read this book every week and have got an additional copy to carry in my bag always to get these excellent ideas entrenched in my head.
26 Wonderful!
This book was sitting around the house for quite some time until I fortunately picked it up to look through it! This book SPOKE TO ME! There are 2 types of perfectionists: those who do everything, and those who do nothing.. I'm the latter. Through the straight-forward, tell-it-how-it-is approach, I felt like somebody else related to me! I've read time management books before, but it's no wonder this is a national best-seller. Honestly, I haven't read it all the way through, since it motivates me to get going, but I enjoy reading it! Also, it doesn't get old like most things do for me! That's because "I" get to decide what my priorities are. These last few weeks since I've found this book have been so sweet. It's not the kind of book that makes you feel you're not doing what's the most important thing (and what you WANT to do! ). Also, the swiss cheese idea really stuck to me. It says to just spend 5 min. on your A-1. There were goals I had, but never recognized them as such or gave them the attention they deserved. Just last week, I was so thrilled and felt so alive to not just worry about a particualar goal I had, but instead, to take action. Um, the BEST part (or one of the best parts! ) about this book is coming up with your A-1, A-2, A-3... goals! I had my mom do it, as I read off from the book how to, and she was so thankful. It was just amazing! This book has changed my life from the moment I picked it up. I used to feel like doing Homework and Projects and such at the very last minute, since I knew it would get done, and I'd be forced to turn it in as is. Now, I see that I've changed in such simple, but helpful ways! I actually started on a project a week before it was due! Simply amazing. My life was a constant running from one crisis to the next (all-nighters common). I'm almost dumbfounded at how NORMALIZED it is. I never knew this bliss..
27 Alan Lakien comes straight to the point...
This book by Lakien is the best I have read on time management. I was expecting to see something I have seen a million times(the list+prioritize+do theme) but instead had a surprise. Alan talks straight to the reader asking him/her to confront his/her fears and make the best use of time. Actually, I am supposed to be working on my A1 task right now, so off I go!!
28 Very Practical Book
This book cuts through all the theoritical stuff and provides immediate steps for action. I especially found the sections that explains why we sometimes complete simple routine task instead of tackling the critical A items that really matter. I can't think of anyone in business who will not get dramatic results. Thank you Mr. Lakein!
29 This is the essential book on time management
I at minimum skim every book I see on time management. Virtually every author plagiarizes Lakein; they use his ideas verbatim or close to it without giving him credit. And in the end, he actually has a more balanced perspective to help you avoid being a time freak.
30 Absolute best book on time management
The only drawback of this wonderful book is that Lakein doesn't consider the special problems of the 2 career family. This book was definitely written in the time period where men didn't have to come home and do the dishes and women stayed at home and raised the kids. He gives great tips for overcoming procrastination (my personal problem), but he leaves out one very good technique which Barbara Sher gives a solution to in her book "Wishcraft" - to actually schedule your avoidance behaviours. If you are going to indulge in playing on the net, emailing jokes, watching TV, reading the paper, cleaning, instead of digging into the work you should be doing, you may as well make being allowed to engage in that behaviour your reward for finishing the job you set out to do.
31 Almost the bible of time and life management
I believe that it is very hard to find a book which is more important than this book. This book is a must for anyone in any field who wants to achieve much more than s/he did before reading it. It may be not but is very close to the bible of time and life management. Being too far away from ideas inside this book, you will be very hard to achieve anything in your life. The time you read it will be paid off several times. Its ideas are worth reviewing several times.
32 Excellent
One of the best. and I do mean BEST, books on how to manage your time and life. Has hundreds of PRACTICAL tips on how to run your life efficiently. Should be required reading for anyone who thinks that their life is running them instead of the other way around. No baloney, just straight from the hip useful advice. I have two copies.
33 This is the most important life planning book I ever read
When Alan Laiken wrote this book in 1973 he built a mechanism for building goals that I still use today. The method of asking Laikens questions has been a critical part of my personnel success. I have given away perhaps 50 copies of the book over the last 25 years. A timeless classic on career and time management.
34 oldie but goodie ! ! !
Everybody has a dream of some sort. This book is a road map to making it real. I first read it twenty years ago when I was an unfocused puppy and it absolutely changed my life FOREVER! High schools should make it compulsory and there'd be fewer divorces if newly-weds would read it together. I'm buying my drifty, somewhat fey son a copy and plan to keep after him until he DOES it! WARNING: this is a book you don't just read: you have to suspend your disbelief and do it... DO IT NOW!
35
Wish I had this book earlier.
I was seriously needing the kind of advice offered by this book. I'm usually a skeptic when it comes to self help and "a shoulder to cry on" kind of books but I was so down that I bought the book because it was so cheap. It builds your willpower from the way it's written. But the suggestions it offers can make a difference for those of us who are having major scheduling problems. A good read as well, and small/thin enough to fit in a jacket pocket. A good book. Buy a bunch and distribute to your friends if you care about them. Makes a great stocking stuffer! :)
Later!
