Cool Time

A Hands-on Plan for Managing Work and Balancing Time

by Steve Prentice

from the back... Cool Time doesn't focus on prioritizing and agenda setting. In the real world of interruptions, e-mail, and distractions, few people are able to organize their work in isolation from everything else. In fact, effective time management is more about human relationships and expectations than it is about making lists.

Amanda's note: While I did pick up some tips and insights from this book, for some reason I didn't have any flags. I think it's because I learned so much between the Covey workshops and Working Smart With Outlook, that my new nuggets weren't the loud 'ahas' that I typically experience when I read.

However, here is just a list of the stuff I remember picking up:

- schedule 55 min meetings
- check email at set times a day (I'm doing 9, 11:30 and 4pm and it's working great)
- the I-beam review
- keystone time
- opportunity time
- right not to answer if you don't recognize the number on call display
- out of office message on your phone - make it a good one
- a great deal of email is sent before it's really ready to be sent
- use effective subject lines
- alternate meeting strategies: stealth and pouncing and coffee shops
- May and October/November are peak times for energy levels, staff availability and work focus
- use a word document for your knowledge base (can assign bookmarks and hyperlinks within document)

http://www.cool-time.com/