National Learning Institute

The skinny on time management

Jim Randel

Reviewed by bselden Wed 14 Dec 11

Bob's Rating:

This is a great little book on managing time effectively – “little” being the operative word (215 pages). Author Jim Randel and his team have done a great job of researching the literature on the topic. As the author suggests, the information in over 100 books and articles repeats itself. They’ve been able to glean the top 50 principles from this research (included in the book), then reduced these to the ten most important points to remember.

As someone who used to run workshops on time management, I’ve found that they’ve included all the techniques, tips and tools that I’m aware of into a readable, and most importantly, eminently usable book. “Book” is probably a misnomer, as the text is designed as a very good learning tool.

“The skinny on time management” is well structured, well written and with useful illustrations. There are only two points to every page (sometimes one) and these are displayed similar to a slide format. The idea is that the author is taking you through a workshop on the topic. It’s written in the first person in a conversational tone, with the odd dash of the author’s humour.

This is one of the rare occasions for me where I have very little criticism of a book. If I had to make one, it is that it was page 197 before I found out about the point on “teach yourself to speed read” (would have saved me some time!). OK, I do admit – it was mentioned earlier, but I took little notice.

If you have a problem with managing time, this book is definitely for you. It would also be very useful for those who need to run workshops on the topic. 5/5