Make Time by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky (Book Summary & Review)
Page Contents
Hey guys, this will be my first book review. My goal is to create a summarized key points of the book so you don’t have to read it and hopefully, you will be able to take away 75% of the book. I will also discuss notable tactics that I found in the book that resonate with me. Note that while these tactics may resonate with me, they may or may not resonate with you.
I have also include a Table of Content to this post so you can skip around to the part that you want.
Why I Like this Book
First, I like the book because there is no pressure for me to finish the book. Different from other books where you have to read from beginning to the end to keep up with the concept given, Make Time work like an encyclopedia of productivity tricks. You can simply skip the part that you don’t relate to. In fact, the authors urge this.
Second, the book is an easy read with a down to earth writing tone. There are no big words (even when there is, they define it in layman’s terms).
A little background…
Make Time: How to Focus on what Matters Every Day is written by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky and it is a book about time management.
What Make Time sought out to do is to provide us tips & tricks to avoid these busy bandwagon and infinity pool and in the process gives us back time for us to focus on what really matters for us.
I started on this book based on Ali Abdaal’s Book Recommendation (If you follow this link, it will lead you to his YouTube Channel and there are even clips of him interviewing John Zeratsky). At first, I was skeptical, because a lot of books give you formula on how to be the most productive superman in the world, but most of the time these formulas do not fit my situation. But after picking up the book (or my kindle to be exact), I have been recommending this book to whoever told me that they are too busy.
Make Time provides you a “cookbook of tricks” that you can pick and try to assimilate into your daily life. Some of these tricks may not work for you, but others will. This is not a book that you read once and be done with, but a book that you read and leave on the table or the toilet to flip through because some of the tricks will resonate with you at different points in your life.
Types of Distractions in our Life
In this book, Jake & John is saying that there are 2 types of distractions in our life that take away our time from pursuing what we want to do. Those distractions are
- Busy Bandwagon. Things that keeps us busy and makes us feel like we are doing work
- Infinity Pool. Anything that will continuously provide new content or entertainment
Both distractions come in different form but ultimately takes us away from pursuing or working on what really matters for us. An example of busy bandwagon will be To-Do List full of menial stuffs, while an example of Infinity Pool will be Netflix, YouTube & Online Multiplayer games.
The Action Plan
Now that you know what are the type of distractions, the guideline that the authors propose is:
- Highlight. Pick a focal point for each day (This can range from finishing a report for work to reading a book to your kid at bedtime)
- Laser. Focus on how to achieve the highlight by beating the distractions above.
- Energize. Maintain your energy level throughout the day so that you can achieve the highlight
- Reflect. What works for you and what doesn’t
The book then splits into 4 sections above and each sections will provide you tricks .
Highlight
A highlight of your day is exactly how it sounds, a single focal point in your day that you would like to achieve. This section of the book will tell you how to pick your highlight (based on urgency, satisfaction & joy) and how to make time for it.
Notable Tactics
For me, the notable tactics in this section are
- #1 Write it Down. I write down the highlight of my choosing on top of my to-do list (in OneNote) so that everytime I look at my phone for what I have to do, I remember that whatever I do throughout the day is toward my highlight.
- #4 Batch the Little Stuff. I have been batching my tasks for years and it makes a difference. For example, I will read and reply to my emails at night after dinner, and if I have to call people, I do it after lunch. I will even batch my weekly tasks like Friday will be my paperwork and filing day at work.
- #15 Nighttime is Highlight Time. When you do not have time in the morning or evening, try to do your highlight at night. For years, I try to be a morning person, which means waking up and try to be as productive as possible. But after reading the book, I realize I should embrace my inner night person. I have been trying to get into a habit of jogging in the morning and it couldn’t stick. Now I jog at night (between 9 – 10 pm) after my kid is asleep and I have been jogging everyday. Jogging at night also gives me a chance to unwind and reflect on the day.
Laser
In the book, laser means how to keep your focus on completing your highlight by beating the distractions. Both Jake & John worked for Google and have worked on services like YouTube and Gmail. They provide an insider insight on why it is so hard to resist the Busy Bandwagon (“Just 1 more email and I am done”) and the Infinity Pool (think YouTube’s recommendation algorithm based on videos that you have watched)
Notable Tactics
- #23 Skip the Morning Check-In. I used to be the guy who reaches for my phone first thing in the morning. For the past month, I have been charging my phone outside of my bedroom and I found that without it, I usually go straight to making my breakfast instead of looking at my phone on the bed.
- #25 Ignore the News. Growing up, my father always tell me to read more news so I can talk to people that I meet. While reading the news does not particularly stresses me out, newspaper has a lot of topics that do not necessarily interest me. I found that I can just read the headlines so I know what’s “current”, and if the topic is “breaking” enough, will be the talk of the town anyway. When I do have to hold a conversation with people regarding these “headlines”, I’ll just ask for their opinions and I found a lot of people like to give it rather than ask for opinions anyway.
- #30 Watch out for Time Craters. The concept of Time Craters is that some things seem to only take a little bit of your time, but the impact of doing these certain things causes ripples that take away a lot of your time. For example, if there are unfolded laundry while I am working, I will go and fold the laundry. While folding the laundry takes around 5 minutes, it usually takes more than 5 minutes after I sit down for my brain to “boot up” again and get in the zone of writing. So the initial 5 minutes of folding the laundry ultimately takes away more than than 5 minutes of my writing time.
- #51 Play a Laser Soundtrack. The concept of this tactic is to have a song or playlist as a cue for your body to get into “Laser” mode. I have been giving it a try for the past month by curating a jogging playlist and I will report back with update.
Energize
In the Energize section of the book, we will find tactics to maintain our energy level through our day.
Energize is then split into 6 sub-sections, which are:
- Keep it Moving. This sub-section talks mostly about exercise habit
- Eat Real Food. Talks mostly about eating habit
- Optimize Caffeine. Talks mostly about how to use caffeine effectively
- Go Off the Grid. Talks mostly about mental health and our smart devices
- Make it Personal. Talks mostly about mental health and relationships
- Sleep in a Cave. Talks mostly about sleeping habit
Do not get overwhelmed by this section and you can jump around depending on which area you think you have the most problem with.
Personally, I found this section to be what I need the most help with. I have been struggling for years with bad eating habits; skipping breakfast and lunch because of work, excessive caffeine intake to maintain my energy only to crash late at night and waking up cranky and the such
Notable Tactics
- #61 Exercise Every Day (but Don’t Be a Hero). Essentially, you should exercise everyday but don’t stress over it. Exercising even for 7 minutes is still better than if you were not exercising, as long as you do it every day.
- #63 Inconvenience Youself. Inconvenient yourself simply means just because you could, doesn’t mean you should. Park a little further away, take the stairs if you are only going up 1 level.
- #70 Wake Up Before You Caffeinate. This tactic is saying that we should have our first cup of coffee 1 hour after we wake up because when we wake up, our body releases “waking up” hormone and we should let caffeine boosts us after this hormone wears off.
- #76 Disconnect Sugar. I accidentally stopped sugar consumption the first few months after college when I lived by myself because I was too lazy to go to the store to buy sugar. I did notice a more stable energy level throughout my day and ever since, I just do not take sugar if I don’t have to.
- #84 Fake the Sunset. When we are on our devices, the blue light emitted from our devices make it harder for us to fall asleep. What the book proposes is to use a yellowish hue of light in your bedroom to trick your body into falling asleep faster.
Reflect
In the reflect section of the book, you are urged to try out different tactics provided in the book and note your energy level and your productivity. If a tactic works and is easily assimilated into your daily habits, stick with it. If it doesn’t stick, then you should move on and try the next one.
Make Time by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky has made my toilet list, as in I found I reach for this book more and more when I am in the toilet. Every time I flip through the book, I found more tactics that I can actually try out without having to plan too much on how to reshuffle my day.
If you have read or are reading this book, I will be very happy to discuss with you which tactic resonates with you and what do you think about it.
