University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Not Today
Book

Not Today

The 9 Habits of Extreme Productivity

Erica Schultz and Mike Schultz
Matt Holt Books, 2021
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • Engaging

Recommendation

During Ari Schultz’s five short years in this world, he spent 430 days in the hospital and underwent countless surgeries, including an unsuccessful heart transplant. Throughout the harrowing ordeal, his parents, Erica and Mike Schultz, had to keep their business going and care for two younger children. They became time management gurus through necessity. The Schultzes developed a nine-step productivity system by studying extremely productive individuals. Their system can help you achieve your goals and find your purpose, despite life’s slings and arrows.

Summary

Loss taught a young couple that time is a scarce commodity; that lesson led them to develop their “Productivity Code.”

Erica and Mike Schultz were a young couple with a new house and a budding business when life got tough. They struggled to conceive, and Erica’s first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. When she got pregnant again, an ultrasound revealed that their baby boy had a congenital heart defect. Baby Ari underwent two complex surgeries in utero to correct the defect, and he was born on February 16, 2012. In his five short years, Ari spent 430 days in the hospital, undergoing several surgeries before passing away on July 21, 2017.

During this time, Erica and Mike had to keep their business running in order to maintain their health insurance. Due to a mold problem, they had to demolish and rebuild their home. And they had to continue to be good parents for Lexi and Eli, Ari’s siblings. Erica and Mike had to produce and achieve, no matter how exhausted or emotionally drained they felt. When Ari died, and their “brightest light went dark,” they needed to rediscover their purpose and rebuild their lives.

Classify your time into four categories...

About the Authors

Husband-and-wife team Mike and Erica Schultz are parents and co-founders of RAIN Group, an international sales training company.

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