While driving to work this summer I heard Laura Vanderkam be interviewed on Fox and Friends on XM Radio about a new book she was writing called 168 Hours.
At this same time I had a goal in 2010 of starting a Brown Bag Book Club at work during lunch for people that like to read books ( High Theoreticals for you Values folks) and this sounded right to begin it since everyone struggles with managing their time. Well, at least that is one thing I am always coming across my whole organization and outside it too.
So I thought the easy way to contact Laura was see if she was on Twitter. Once I found her on Twitter, I asked her the question that I wanted to make this book club very neat to our associates...."Laura, got your book off of Amazon." When she replied to tell her what I thought, I asked her. "Laura, would you be willing to discuss your book over the phone when we finish it?"
She replied that she would love to and we set timelines.
I first sent out a promo about the "Brown Bag BookClub," nothing new here. Several companies do this already but it was a first for us. We had good response. 23 associates in our office signed up. Being in training and men's ministry I know that number would decrease as it normally does to commit to anything.
Buy the book details here: http://www.my168hours.com/buy-the-book.html
We started with 21 associates and I showed a training video on Time Management that I had in my library to begin the discussion process and so everyone could take this books home. It worked well and I asked each person to set 1 (one) goal they wanted to accomplish to improve by reading this book. Amazon was how we obtained them.
I then mapped out the chapters and scheduled a meeting place for the main places in the book to give every one time to read and then have discussion questions as we began to get everyone talking about what they have read and how it is impacting their lives. Leading small groups in church has always helped here. In fact, many leading training organizations are using small group lingo now and talking about building "community" in the work place. We met Five times total over 2 months.
Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers has been a great source of growth for me in planning thru his Weekly Review and Quarterly Plans. The next two sessions, I gave these out a the end of lunch to help those also needing more application. They really liked the additions to apply even more to what they were reading and trying to get traction on their "One" goal they had set at the beginning of the club.
Here is a link to several of his great productivity posts:
http://michaelhyatt.com/getting-things-done-an-update.html
As you know when you teach something you can't but help have it teach you something. I found Laura's book full of practical time/life choices and great data, sometimes too much data, but she was showing you ----look we all have 168 Hours----get real!
For me, that was organization of my desk and things that come across it. I put her ideas into practice and have seen several months of solid work now. To the point that several associates point out how clean my desk stays!
Others as we went thru the book had major AHA moments about how much time they were wasting, how they could be better organized too and even in how they went about their jobs!?
That was one of the best....
The group shrunk to 15 toward the end {this is irony of not having time to get better at time management and shows you alot of commitment} but these folks stayed with the content and were amazed at the people that Laura interviewed and met along the way. We work in a manufacturing environment and we shared with Laura in our teleconference in our last meeting that some stories we just couldn't relate to about hiring certain people for certain tasks.
She understood and pointed out how she had to cover all areas to appeal to a vast audience and our group understood.
I think the best thing we enjoyed were meeting the people that Laura interviewed and how they managed their lives, how they dealt with issues and how Laura presented suggestions to us and was very frank in her own life at her struggles with all the things that have to get done each day.
I recommend this to any training leaders as a good book to study. It written more for females than males. At least the 3 guys that read it all felt that way but as with anything, you get what you put into it. I can personally say that I profited from reading and applying key points from the book into my life and at the end of 2010 and am better for it.
Laura told us she is working on a book on money management for publication in 2012 and I look forward to that and reading her columns in publications like The Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY.
Here is a link to her website:
http://www.my168hours.com/
Last but not least I want to thank Laura for being "social" on Twitter. Many writers don't acknowledge you even when you tell them you have purchased their writing and one author whom I had a study on his book two years ago (with 20 men) didn't have time to even teleconference with him to ask him questions and follow up over six weeks. Laura was very open, easy to schedule and very nice to take the time with our group and solidified a great learning experience for us all and I am grateful to her. Thank you Laura!
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