Work Simply by Carson Tate
January 19, 2015
Carson Tate's Work Simply will teach you how to be more productive at what you by being true to yourself.
Ryan used some of his minutes last week to cover Carson Tate's wonderful new productivity book, Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style, for our Jack Covert Selects review series, and he covered it well. If you are looking for a more comprehensive look at what's in the book, you should head on over to our Jack Covert Selects channel and read his review. If you choose not to, the takeaway line is: "If you want help being more productive via some soul-searching and self-examination, this is the book for you."
No matter how well we're doing, we can all use some soul-searching and self-examination. But some of us, ironically, don't think that we have time to for it. We simply have too many other things to do. It's a Catch 22. If you feel that it's a little too self-indulgent to take some time for yourself (as I know I often do), then know that taking the time is not just something to do for yourself and your own interests, but to benefit those around you—those you work with every day and those you go home to after work.
When you take the time to put your "stuff"—mental and physical, even spiritual clutter—in order, you will be more productive and better at what you do, and less stressed out when you do it. In short, you will feel better about your work because you know you're doing it as well as you possibly can, and that changes everything. You will be a hero to your boss, your co-workers and colleagues at work, and maybe even—maybe especially—your friends and family after work. Maybe even to yourself.
But Carson Tate has seen too many people go wrong with one-size-fits-all time management strategies, so her work has become to find a way to help people tailor time management strategies to fit their personality and productivity style so they can do their work more effectively. She believes that most time management methods prescribed top-down upon people tend to create more work and add stress, so she counsels us to:
[E]mbrace your Productivity Style! Remember, one size does not fit all. When you begin organizing your life and work according to the natural preferences of your style, you are likely to find yourself relaxing and enjoying the sensation of truly being in the driver's seat of your life, rather than struggling with the tension that arises from fighting against your preferred thinking style. The feeling of having entered your comfort zone is a sign that you've latched on to the right style for you—and it doesn't matter whether anyone else you know understands it or shares it.
But this book is not just about managing your attention, setting your priorities, investing your time wisely, and getting more done—though there are chapters devoted to each of those topics. This is more than a book about being more productive yourself and harnessing the productive power of those around you—though there are chapters in the book devoted to that. This is a book about understanding yourself and other people, and using that knowledge not just to work efficiently, but to enjoy work more. And, as Americans, we spend more time at work than any other "developed" country in the world, so it stands to reason that if we enjoy our time at work more, we'll enjoy our entire lives more. And who doesn't want that?