How to Save an Hour Every Day [Paperback]

I have been a massive fan of Michaels previous books, How to be Brilliant, 5 star Service and Flip it. Save an hour is something most of us need and this new book really does work. It is full of so many tips...... my garden shed, wardrobe and office desk are already less cluttered! The book also tells you to reward yourself and give yourself permission to take time out for yourself. The book is an easy read and you feel your toes curl as he hits on so many things I often do that waste so much of my time. The book has inspired me to ensure I continue to save an hour each day.

I'm not familiar with the author's other books, and they didn't really appeal to me, but this one did. I pick up a fair few personal development type books and quite often I find (as you may) that there's only ever really one or maybe two decent ideas that really ring true or that you get close to actually using or applying - I assume with a lot of these the author probably had one good idea, maybe 30 pages worth, but to sell a book had to go make up 120 pages more. (I'm a big Tim Ferris fan, but there was a lot of hype about the 4 Hour Work Week, but what did it really do for most of us except get us to check e-mail less?)

Not so with this one, there's loads in it, credit to the author, more than happy to acknowledge where he's pinched ideas from too.

Normally I'd list pros & cons. Not really any cons that jump out at me - the stuff about work or being organised personally was more useful to me than some of the pieces around organising your home/family life as I'm single professional and in my 20s.

Pros
- There are a number of genuinely useful ideas here - either practical "do this" type stuff, or good models that you can apply or that frame your thinking thinking - not just one really good one with 100 pages of additional fluff. Two pieces I've put into practice - I can't quantify the time, but the models and methods have given me more confidence around being organised and certainly amped up my productivity at work big time. (I will implement more, but don't like to make big sweeping changes so I can test each piece).

- Must stress that there are models in there to frame your thinking, not just "do this" type advice - I hate books and development "gurus" that peddle out twaddle that worked for them like it'll automatically work for you. There's models to frame your thinking, which is better because you engage with it.

- Very easily readable. His style is simple and to the point, not loads of real world examples, but enough to give it credibility, and his enthusiasm is obvious. The layout is great, everything is quick to get through, nothing is complicated and it is very easy to revisit bits.

- It speaks to the modern day - i.e. time poor people (or people who believe they're time poor), increasing complexity at work, increasing complexity in the formats for communication.

- I'm a big believer in the whole "what gets measured gets managed" (much like Tim Ferris - wasn't just bashing 4HWW above!) and Heppell encourages you to do that in key areas too.

- Heppell gives what I think most people want from these types of books: practical advice and structures. He's not trying to start a "revolution" or attack the status quo, or get you to quit your current job and go for your "dream job" or anything like that, he's not trying to sell his own brand of whatever, normally identifiable where they give anything silly names like the Heppel Technique, Heppel's Law of Time Management etc. He's trying to give you practical, workable structures to be better at what you're doing now with more confidence and have more time for the things that you want to do (even if that's waste it!) and he hits the nail on the head.

The work stuff is very good, the personal organisation is too. Hard to think of who wouldn't benefit from this book, but if you're in your 20s or 30s, you work in management or the knowledge / service economy where you don't get "trained" on stuff like this and you're responsible for your own time, even if you're very good with that time, there'll definitely be plenty in here for you.

We all feel that there aren't enough hours in the day, and I have to admit that I thought that saving an hour every day would be too high a challenge to put out. This book is very clever however. Each page has a little timer on it, where you can write in how many minutes each day any of the ideas on that page are likely to save you. After reading it, I have to admit, I think it probably is possible! Even with a very busy and long working day, there are some great suggestions to organising your life and work, and it is simply a case of finding the ones that work for you.
While some of the ideas may not be new, I'm sure there are enough suggestions and improvements to routines to help everyone on their way to saving at least an hour a day. In the 24 hours since I have read the book, I have already cleared my desk, finding a forgotten receipt claim for £50 at the bottom of a pile, and tackled a work query that had been 'hovering' in the back of my mind with ease.
Task completed, desk tidied and already £50 up - that's pretty good going!