18 minutes a day that will change your life for the better

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It takes a few minutes a day to prioritize, control current events, and resist distractions. But it will make your life more harmonious and happier. Konstantin Smygin, Founder of the Business Briefs Service, shares useful insights from Peter Bregman's book with Lifehacker readers.

The book “18 minutes. Concentrate, stay focused and do what really matters.”Was ranked in the Top 10 Business Books of the Year by The New York Post and Publishers Weekly. She talks about how to deal with the daily routine and focus on the key moments in our lives. The whole strategy fits into the daily 18 minutes.

What is this book about?

Peter Bregman's book "18 Minutes" is about how to live "so that later it would not be excruciatingly painful for the years spent aimlessly." Specifically, about how to learn how to prioritize, managing time, which is always in short supply. How to set goals for yourself and focus on them without being distracted by secondary things. The bottom line is that with the help of a simple 18-minute plan for each day, we do really important things, which, for various valid (and not so) reasons, we constantly put off until later.

How is this book different from other time management books?

Most time management books are about rational planning: how to organize your day so that you can do as much as possible. Bregman set out on a broader challenge: not just planning the day, but planning life in general. Although it really starts from one day. Then one year. And then you learn not only to keep up with everything, but also manage to understand why you are doing it.

Time, as the author notes, is the only thing that cannot be returned. Our life is finite, and it depends only on us how to fill it. But many people, doing seemingly very important matters, working without raising their heads and experiencing a constant lack of time, nevertheless waste it.

The book teaches concentration, but not only on everyday tasks. First of all, a person must understand what he really needs to do in order to live a meaningful and harmonious life.

What does the book offer to harmonize life?

Peter Bregman divided the book into four parts. In the first, he talks about how to create the basis for further action. There are hidden possibilities in everything, one must be able to discern them. Then come up with a daily plan and follow it. And fight against what distracts from this plan.

The second part tells the reader how to organize life around what makes a person happy. There is no point in doing what causes rejection, no matter how profitable in career and material terms it may be.

The third part teaches you how to structure time using an 18-minute plan for each day. And the fourth is to deal with distractions and not give up halfway.

The first is to create the ground for action. What does it mean?

Peter Bregman notes that a person is not limited only to his work. He talks about the epidemic of suicide in large companies during their reorganization, when even those employees who were not fired from the mere expectation of this event settled their scores with their lives. For them, work was life, they did not see themselves outside of it. Yes, it is scary to be left without a livelihood, but do not forget about your other hypostases - a family member, a person who has hobbies. Maybe it's just time to re-evaluate your potential and do something completely different.

Bregman talks about young people, yesterday's college graduates, who change several professions in a couple of years in search of themselves. The main thing here is not to get carried away too much, since too wide a choice makes it difficult to draw up a clear life plan.

Bregman in such cases advises to forget at least for a minute where to go and focus on who you are and what you really need. Perhaps after that you will not want to part with your next job at all, you can create a basis for action there and organize your life correctly.

Second, how to organize your life around what makes you happy. How to do it?

The author offers to "see the world from a bird's eye view", that is, to evaluate the complete picture. People spend a lot of time simply by inertia - on unnecessary arguments, unhappy marriages, unprofitable investments.

Instead of stopping in time, they go too far when it's too late to retreat. To stop moving by inertia, you can choose two strategies: slow down or start over. By the way, most books on time management do not consider pause or slowing down the pace of life as a way to manage time at all.

But isn't pause or slowdown a waste of time?

Sometimes both are necessary. Performance is inherent in human nature, we tend to react immediately, especially to aggression. In this case, a pause is necessary in order to have time to take control of emotions. Before reacting violently - responding with a shout to a cry, for example - Bregman advises taking a breath and relaxing for about 5 seconds. Then your next move will be smarter and less impulsive.

There is a chain "event - reaction - result". The result should not be a side effect of the reaction. You must first focus on the result ("what I want to get"), pause and only then consciously react.

It is also necessary to spend time on rest: stop, think about priorities, and not do everything at once. The multitasking, so beloved by time management, Bregman does not welcome.

What's wrong with multitasking?

Bregman compares it to a buffet with so many dishes that everyone's taste is forgotten anyway. You have to take fewer meals and do fewer things, but do it well. Pick and focus on the five things that affect your life the most.

You should not waste time and energy - you need to set goals and have talent in order to achieve them.

To do this, the author proposes to master the four elements of success. The first is to make the most of your strengths. The second is to accept weaknesses and be able to exploit them too. The third element is to state your individual identity. And the fourth is to understand what you really want to do, to find your favorite thing.

The strengths are clear. But how can you turn your weaknesses into strength?

Bregman cites David and Goliath as examples. David did not fight the giant Goliath in hand-to-hand combat, where he would certainly have lost. He used a sling - according to Bregman, "chose and imposed another war and won it." Many famous and successful people became so because of a huge lack of self-confidence: they constantly needed confirmation of their abilities.

Why claim individuality?

Peter Bregman teaches you to be yourself and not adjust to others. As an example, he cites Susan Boyle, an unemployed and nondescript Scottish villager whose voice conquered the world. If a standard beauty were in her place, perhaps this would not have happened.

The fourth element of success is finding what you love to do. And if it does not coincide with the profession?

The author assures that anything can be achieved.

For this you need:

• want to achieve;
• believe that it is possible;
• treat failed attempts as rewarding experiences.

A person suffers one defeat after another before he succeeds. The main thing is not to give up trying. Favorite business, according to Bregman, is one to which you can devote a year and not quit.

What exactly are 18 minutes filled with that help increase concentration?

Everything is simple here. Set aside five minutes in the morning to plan your day. Refocus on tasks one minute every hour. You can program a beep on your smartphone to remind you to evaluate whether an hour has passed productively. In the evening, spend another 5 minutes and evaluate how the day went. What did you manage to achieve, what did you overcome? What do you plan to do tomorrow? Who do you need to interact with? In a nutshell, you need to consciously choose what to focus on during the day, and regularly remind yourself of this.

The three-day rule also helps to save time. If one of them is on the urgent to-do list for more than three days, you need to:

• do it immediately;
• plan when exactly it will be done;
• let go (don't do now);
• put on the list "someday", "maybe".

How does the author suggest dealing with distractions?

Everyone has their own distractions. Bregman cites the example of a man who believed that his colleagues were constantly intriguing against him, and his superiors underestimated. This fantasy has become a distraction that gets in the way of working properly. As a result, when he was called to his boss to praise her good work, he began to accuse her of fictitious sins and was fired as a result. Therefore, Bregman advises you to come up with a fantasy that works for you, not against you.

Another distraction is uninvited visitors in the midst of work. It is inconvenient to get rid of them, as a result time is wasted. But the only way not to be distracted by unnecessary conversations is to learn to say a firm "no" to anyone who bothers you.

Another factor is excessive perfectionism, which makes it difficult to finish the job on time. Bregman believes that "the reward is not excellence, but productivity." Therefore, one should not get bogged down in trifles, but look ahead.

What is the practical use of this book? Are the author's recommendations applicable to our realities?

The book teaches in an accessible and understandable way to plan time and do it with pleasure, without getting bogged down in complicated calculations and trifles. These recommendations apply to any conditions and realities, even the most extreme, since everyone has time.

The main thing is to be able to dispose of them correctly, which is what Peter Bregman talks about.

The book contains many examples and stories from the life of the author, historical parallels, funny stories and parables.

However, people who are familiar with the time management literature and who have already chosen a different model for themselves may not see anything special in this book.

The author is a little verbose, in places superficial, but on the whole the book is easy and pleasant to read and is quite worth reading. Whether to consider it as a guide to action is up to the reader.