This is a very short text, more of a booklet than a book (at least on my Kindle.)

This text is perhaps designed for those who are looking for moving away from a bullet-list style of management, towards a broad planner - and it is written from the perspective of an American academic, so it is suited to those who have competing demands, and the necessity of deadlines for their creativity. I can’t imagine that much in this text will be new to the sort of people who will read it – but I appreciated that it seeks to deliver the reader from being endlessly reactive to emails and instant messages. Instead, we are to block out only two portions of the day for communication, and those two blocks only. The time-blocking method is designed to cover the entirety of the day, and it asks how you will spend each moment of it, a “shift from managing tasks to managing time.” Instead of being overwhelmed with a list of things to do, you are presented with your day, and week already planned out, thereby - hopefully - reducing anxiety.

The planner divides each day into two pages, one for planning the day, and one for noting the various obligations and ideas that arise throughout the day that need attention. It is designed to be responsive, and so be easily amended as the demands of each day change. (I’ll admit that responsive part of the scheme wasn’t clear to me from the electronic version I read on Kindle.)

I was encouraged that the scheme is intended to create focus, and so anything that arises throughout the day should be placed on the second page of tasks and ideas. The scheme also suggests ‘metric tracking’ which over days and weeks allows you to plot and manage your behaviour and activity. You also have another two pages to plan out each week - not for detail, but for broad pointers and longer-term goals.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this system is the ‘shut down ritual’, summarising what has been done each day, what has been unfinished, and what needs to be done later in the week - “the goal here is to convince yourself that there’s nothing being forgotten, or missed, or being kept track of only in your brain” - allowing you to put work away at the end of the day properly, and to dismiss anxiety. As someone who works predominantly from home, this was the most intriguing part of the entire text.

This book was interesting, but I’m afraid I wasn’t convinced enough to adopt it after just one read - I think it would have been more convincing in hard copy form instead of Kindle.

Nothing novel about this. The introduction is basic but includes some good tips people can use even without using this planner. A nice minimalist planner and instructions how to use it. I found I tend to use time blocking, or try to on my most productive and brain co-operating days.

I found this rather disappointing - I was expecting more depth to the ‘guide’. The bulk of the book is pages to do your own time blocking which would be great in paper format - on ebook this lacked substance for me.

Interesting concept

I really enjoy Cal Newport ‘s books on time management. Thus, I had to check out this planner. This review is on the ebook, which obviously is less than ideal for a planner of this sort. It goes without saying that I have no means to review the quality of the actual planner like the cover and the paper.

This planner basically explains how Cal Newport structures his days and weeks. I quite enjoyed learning about the concept. Unfortunately, I work a job where this way of planning my day is simply not possible or realistic. This depressed me because I lose so much time by not implementing Newport’s method. There are still tips which I will use in my day-to-day work life, and I will implement this method for other types of work like writing papers or things of the sort. I think this planner (or better, the method) has the potential to help save a lot of time during the day and get more things done. Thus I’d say, try it and see! And then please report back 😊.

I love this! The perfect planner for helping me to focus, especially as I'm now working from home due to COVID, meaning I'm surrounded by chores that easily distract me but can be veiled as productivity. I've already pre-ordered a physical copy for myself and another for a friend. I also like that the weeks aren't dated - 2020 has been such a trash fire that I'm glad I can start using this immediately to get kickstarted with good habits before the new year starts.

I’m always looking for ways to be more productive in my work; I really like the concept of time blocking and look forward to giving this approach a go!

The explanation of how to use the planner was extremely straightforward and includes some examples and good tips to help get started.