University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Streetwise Time Management
Book

Streetwise Time Management

Get More Done with Less Stress by Efficiently Managing Your Time!

Marshall Cook
Adams Media, 1999
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

If you feel that your life is spinning out of control, this time – or should one say, life – management book will surely calm your racing heart. Marshall Cook doesn’t draw a line between time management techniques and life skills because, he argues, time is life. Therefore, this book covers topics ranging from how to reduce stress, sleep well and exercise to how to identify your core values and live in harmony with your biorhythms. This ambitious scope makes the book quite long for an easy self-help read and some of the more practical time management advice gets buried along the way. However, the summaries at the beginning of each section and the time management tips at the end of each chapter will help the reader use the book wisely. Although Cook echoes familiar time management advice, his conversational style and shoot-from-the-hip attitude make this book stand out in an overcrowded genre. getAbstract recommends this guide to anyone who has ever uttered the phrase, “I’m so stressed!”

Summary

“Reality Check”

Have you totally lost control of how you spend your time and tried to no avail to regain control of it with traditional time management techniques, such as starting your day earlier or multitasking? The “Streetwise Time Management” method allows you to take control of your time and tailor your time-management system to your lifestyle, helping you make every day choices so you can live your life the way you wish.

Most people suffer from “speed sickness,” aware of every passing moment of the day, and jumping from one activity to the next with few or no breaks. This relentless activity may provide an adrenaline rush, and the heady experience of surviving or even excelling under pressure, but eventually you pay the price in health and happiness. Society teaches that being busy equals productivity, which equals worthiness. Rather than buy into this view, redefine how you spend your time. Ask yourself four questions: 1) “What has to be done?”; 2) “How much of it has to be done?”; 3) “How fast does it have to be done?”; and 4) “How much does it cost to do it?”

Become aware of how you spend your time. Estimate the time you spend on such activities as ...

About the Author

Marshall Cook is a communications professor at the University of Wisconsin, and author of several books, including Slow Down and Get More Done.

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