“Every life has the potential to be lived deeply.” – William Powers
This book is all about productivity, and if anyone knows me they know I’m a big fan of productivity. I had to read it for onboarding at Revenue River, and I hadn’t heard of it before I saw it on my list. I’m now such a fan of the book and so happy that I got to read it and discuss my findings with some amazing people.
The book covers five choices:
- Act on the important, don’t react to the urgent
- Go for the extraordinary, don’t settle for ordinary
- Schedule the big rocks, don’t sort the gravel
- Rule your technology, don’t let it rule you
- Fuel your fire, don’t burn out
Although there are five different choices that are covered the overall theme is that you are in charge of your destiny. You can decide if you want to fill your schedule with the gravel instead of the rocks or have your technology rule you. It is a choice, a choice that’s up to you.
Some major revelations that I had throughout reading this book include:
- Being busy isn’t the same as being productive
- Know what your big rocks are and schedule time to accomplish them
- Give yourself permission to not respond right away
- Your energy is important and you cannot let yourself burn out
I don’t know about you but so often I feel like life is simply happening around me, like I’m a doll and a kid is making up my story on a playdate. But in reality that’s so far from the truth. We have the ability to make powerful life changing choices and that’s exciting but also terrifying. You can decide what you want to focus on, it’s your choice.