The Afterword is primarily an exhortation to connect with the author. One quote for getting work done stood out, “The answer is monotasking— delivering the vital few by skipping the useful many.” The concept of linking starting and finishing and controlling WIP is so intrinsically obvious that it borders on being a truism, BUT almost every person, team, and organization throws this basic knowledge out the window thinking they are special. Until about five’ish years ago I was no different. My work approach was altered by Staffan’s first book, Pomodoro Technique Illustrated, so I expected a great deal from this book. It delivered but it delivered mostly because the second time I read it I put it to use. Just reading this book is intellectually interesting; putting it to use is valuable. The approach of finding one important item from each chapter and then trying to put it into action drove points home for me immediately. I hope my learning by trial and error was useful to the readers of the blog. To date, the short list concept has been the most important takeaway from the approach. The ironic part is that I messed my initial implementation up and almost abandoned the idea. It really works. One learning from the approach is that if an experiment doesn’t work learn and try again.
Bottom line: Monotasking by Staffan Nöteberg gets my highest recommendation: it is very useful. (I have to say that I really hate the limit on exporting notes set by the publisher on the Kindle.)
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