The Transformative Power of Real Productivity - Smarter Faster Better

I bought this book in the last year of a 3 year unemployment stretch, I was lost. I wanted to change something. Guess what, I didn't read it. I recently got a great job, but in an industry unrelated to everything I've ever done. I love the job, but found myself lost, yet happy and learning as I go along. I finally read this on my way back from company meetings and it's elevated my level on the playing field to a way of thinking that not many people seem to utilize... lets just say "my eyes are open wide" now. I find myself coming up with ideas those around me aren't, and ones that I wouldn't have before...just my thinking differently. Amazing read, I think I've bought this for 4 people already and they seem to feel the same way I do after reading it...There were times at the start of a chapter, I felt like I either didn't understand, or felt like it didn't apply, only to have an "a-ha" moment every time, it ties everything together. To Big Lebowski my review... If life is a room, this book is the rug that ties it all together

I really really wanted to like this book and I will admit I have not fully yet finished the entire thing but am more than 2/3 through. I guess I’m writing this because of my frustration with in and the lost hope that it will come through. If it does I’ll be sure to remove this post.
This book is overly anecdotal. Within the sludge of storytelling there were maybe two or three actually real world applications.
Worst of all there have been a couple of instances when I feel we’re about to get some applicable exercise and then it veers right back to the always overdrawn slew of boring stories.
I see the intention here and I applaud the author for putting all this together. However the book could have been shorter by at least 20% with much more useful applications instead.

This book is incredible, and has changed the way I think about my daily habits, my goals, my ideas, the way I think before planning or communicating with others. It gives examples of real situations from the military, hospitals, school systems, and businesses. Charles Duhigg studied and researched on various organizations preform better than others, and actual, tangible ways each of us can implement those same concepts into our own lives. Some examples of how I have changed by own habits because of this book: instead of using a digital calendar to plan my day, I now write each daily to-do list onto cards, staring with the absolute most important tasks to help me move forward in my goals, and ignoring distractions. I constantly think about "cognitive tunnels" and recognize instantly when I am being distracted from my goals. I use "SMART" and "Stretch" planning with my own business and with my wife and kids to help us focus on our big dreams, and implement real ways to achieve those goals. I also draw out plans and ideas on paper, in journals and posters thoroughout our home so everyone in the home can visualize things with me, instead of keeping things on the computer where they are less visible to everyone. There are just a few examples, but this book has helped me change how I achieve my goals with research done by numerous other groups around the world, and organized clearly in Duhigg's book. I am so grateful that this book was written.

This book was a real joy to read. You don't get a job at the NY Times if you're not a good writer, and even in that distinguished company I think Duhigg stands out. The sweep of this book is astounding, the stories told in a captivating manner. You'll be inside the cockpit of a fatal crash, and one barely averted by an amazing crew. You'll be at the table for championship poker. Inside Marine Corps boot camp. On the floor of an auto factory. Watching the FBI solve a puzzling kidnapping. Inside a failing big-city school as they turn it around. And many more.

That said, the problem I have with this book is that it is pseudo-science, perfectly exemplifying what I call the NY Times pop-science approach. Here are three of the ways the book fails to meet the standard of explaining real science. First, it confuses correlation with causation. Second, it over-generalizes. Third, it ignores what real science has found.

One story in the book talks about a recruiting firm and a study that found the star recruiters were constantly analyzing how their pitches went. Coupled with other stories in the chapter, the takeaway actually stated at the end of the chapter is to start telling yourself stories, about all you see and do. It's hard to fault paying attention (called mindfulness in other books), but the message is if you do this you'll rise to star performer level. How does Duhigg know this? Were there studies where average recruiters were given this advice and they leaped in performance? If they exist Duhigg doesn't say. Perhaps the behavior observed was part of something else such as a gift for social intelligence. If so, then mimicking one particular behavior is not going to make you a star. You can see this kind of sloppy reporting, "A is seen with B, so do A and you'll get/become B" every day in the NY Times Health section.

Another story talks about a study of the top teams at Google. Apparently two things mattered: everyone can speak up and team members don't belittle others. Duhigg goes on to claim this is the same from place to place, although how he knows that isn't clear. Maybe it is a general principle as he claims. Or maybe places like Google and others he cites (ICUs, investment banking) are staffed by people with characteristics you don't find in the team working the registers at the local Safeway or teaching at your local school.

Duhigg devotes a chapter to Absorbing Data. Learning, no doubt, is critical to improving your productivity. Duhigg has a couple of nice stories, but the advice he gives boils down to doing something with the info rather than paying minimal attention to it. Who can fault that? Paying attention no doubt helps. And yet real scientists have looked at how to improve learning and talk about concepts such as self-testing and distributed practice. Anyone can do these, and instead of a vague exhortation to "do something" with what you learn Duhigg could have used the same pages to explain what science has actually shown about improving learning.

I enjoyed reading this book and can recommend it without reservation to anyone wanting to read a great set of stories grouped under the heading of productivity. But if you think this book is going to give you the secrets of how to be productive in your own life, a series of lessons that can't miss, I think you will be disappointed.

3.5 stars

This book was not what I expected it to be. Don’t get me wrong, this book had a lot going for it. The author explored some truly mind boggling concepts, and shared some amazing case studies. But then none of those things tied to an overarching idea or even the theme of the book – Smarter Faster Better. And to be honest, that really bothered me.

I usually prefer non-fiction in which the author might explore several angles but it usually all connects to a single overarching idea or a theme at the very least. So these unrelated examples (as amazing as they may be) did not work for me after a certain point.

That being said, if you are new to the genre, and don’t share my quirks, you will possibly enjoy this book, because like I said, the concepts explored, and the examples chosen were pretty great. Also, there was a section at the very end that shared ideas for practical application of the concepts discussed, and that I truly enjoyed.

All in all, while the book seemed to go on many unrelated (but good) tangents, it’s still a great read if you are looking for a practical summary of some productivity concepts, and also some ideas on how to organize your life to manage your time, tasks and energy more efficiently.

- Shantala (Book Blogger at Shanaya Tales)

Smarter Faster Better is a book about productivity and making specific choices to leverage your time and energy. Using a variety of historical events and well known examples, along with his background as a New York Times reporter, Charles Duhigg describes eight tools for developing a higher productivity level ranging from Innovation to Goal Setting to Focus.

I have read several productivity books during my time as a business analyst but not since becoming a mother. It was an interesting journey to relay these concepts back to both areas of my life.

The analyst in me lived through the SMART goal cycle frenzy and was promoted due to the data driven decision movement. Overall, I think that I would have responded better to the changes these types of initiatives inspired in my own workplace if I had the background Duhigg offers up front on these programs. In my opinion, the examples of data rooms in Cincinnati and how they finally embraced the information to make meaningful reforms for students was the best example in the book of using productivity tools to achieve better outcomes.

The chapter relating to focus hit home as a parent and stressed the importance of encouraging your children to have an internal locus of control to keep them motivated in a world FULL of distractions. Rewarding them for working hard makes them feel in control of their environment in a way that just telling them they are smart will not. I pulled some good parenting tips out of this book which was unexpected.

This book reads slow but has a fast impact. The concepts aren’t necessarily “secrets” as implied in the title but are definitely useful. Using several examples to show each concept, the author tries to find something that will appeal to everyone and that was what slowed the pace of the book down at times. It is also what will make it appeal to readers from different generations.

If Smarter Faster Better is the book you turn to in order to learn the basics of productivity, you will not be disappointed. It, in itself, is a good use of your energy and a solid first step into making yourself more productive.

What you get in this book are some seriously practical and easily applicable ways to make both you and your team better right now. Despite some other negative reviewers who obviously don't understand the meaning of the word "anecdotal." This book is seriously well written and impeccably well researched. Each chapter is a new point to make your life better.

It draws on research done by tech giant Google, or how the military train new recruits to think outside of the box on the battle field. If you call those sorts of data points "anecdotal" then I'm not sure what you would consider data.

Will all the points in this book apply to your situation specifically? No. But I guarantee that many if not most of them absolutely will apply to some area of your life. Even the chapters that I found less useful helped me describe how I think and do things in a better way because they came with a story that gave me a new way of thinking about that truth.

If you are a non-fiction writer this is a great book to pattern you writing after. Use stories and hard data by other people to draw powerful and specific conclusions. I've read hundreds of books like this and this is one of the few that kept me riveted throughout because it was driven by stories backed by data. It's the stories that drive you through the book and the data that makes the truth last long after the book is over.

I've already recommended and given this book to several people in my life. Including people on my team (I am a marketing manager) and in my family.

This book will join the ranks of books such as "Made to Stick" and "Growth Mindset" as books that ANYONE can read and learn to grow from.

There are others who felt this same way. While the writing and the selection of "stories" (or anecdotes) are quite entertaining, somehow the lessons that should be instilled from them do not feel congruent. When we read these stories, we certainly will feel a sense of awe and search instinctively for practical applications in our own predicament. It is inspiring to read and think about these experiences and Mr. Duhigg himself comes across as an "innovation broker", yet it feels odd that the book needed an Appendix to try to distill the wisdom into applicable rules. It is almost that even the writer felt that the reader may stray or feel a little confused, so he had to herd the curious to his own conclusions. As many others have pointed out, the tragedy of Flight 447 does not naturally lend itself to an example of "cognitive tunneling". I imagine the horrifying experience of flying a state of the art airplane with its almost absolute technology control that suddenly lets me down and while I have no idea of the air speed, the alarms are screaming of impending doom in the middle of the night over the Atlantic Ocean. It had to be an unbearable shock to these pilots who simply could not gather their senses to figure out what was going on. Overall, every reader will get something to think about this book. It just feels a little off of its intended goal.

Technology is supposed to improve our lives and make us more productive, but since the birth and rise of the computer, no technology has really been able to improve human’s productivity. Duhigg argues that we often try to chase the newest technology at our own peril, whether due to cost or more stress, instead of focusing on lessons we can use to be more productive. There is a way to be more productive and efficient with our time and resources, but it comes down to the choices that we make instead of a gadget or app that will do it for us.

The research done for this book is expansive, but rarely goes deep into the subject matter. Rather, key insights are shared through anecdotes shared about people/corporations who have benefited from the insights. As if often the case with these type of books, examples are cherry picked to support the main points of the book and rarely is an opposing view presented that contradicts why these “key insights” should be focused on.

This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but it tends to read as a bunch of cool stories that highlight a point without really motivating the reader to action, unlike “The Power of Habit”, which I felt was a much stronger work. There are times when the book shines though and there are several calls to action in the book, but it’s a little lacking in depth.

What I did like about the book was the focus placed on people and empowering those people to do their jobs. Focus on the likely outcome or the desired outcome and think through the potential obstacles ahead of time. As shown in the book, this can be a lifesaving technique depending on your line of work. People will be more motivated if they feel that their work is recognized and appreciated by others.

I especially liked the chapters on innovation and absorbing data. Combining innovative ideas in old ways can allow things to work in a completely new and fresh way. The same goes for combing old ideas in innovative ways. Always allow assumptions to be challenged and if they are sound, they will continue to work. Also, do something with new information that you learn. Make it actionable and find something to do with it. Share it with others, write it down (writing things is much better for retention than typing) and ask questions.

The journalism done by Duhigg in this book is great and for expanded study the reader only needs to consult the extensive notes at the end of the book. By using insight from several people in diverse roles and professions, Duhigg illustrates the “key insights” for working, smarter, better and faster.

I read William Langewiesche’s The Human Factor, an article about Air France Flight 447 in Vanity’s Fairs October 2014 issue and was so impressed with its depth that when Duhigg wrote about that doomed flight in Smarter Faster Better, in order to illuminate his concept on focus and his research on cognitive tunneling, he drew from Langewiesche’s expertise on flight. These are but two of the reasons I loved this book, the culling from various experts and the sheer attention to detail.

Smarter Faster Better picks up where The Power of Habit leaves off and takes deeper into the complexities behind real productivity based upon eight core, heavily researched, concepts. These concepts show motivation, goal setting, focus, and decision making in action through a number of real life scenarios with extraordinary yet everyday people.

As in The Power of Habit also written by Duhigg, the final section of the book is a reader’s guide to using the ideas put forth in the book. Duhigg again draws from his own life and certain obstacles he has faced. The appendix is my favorite part of both The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better because without action, none of these concepts means much on its own. They have to be worked and Duhigg offers a nice framework into how to take a read notion and turn it into an actionable step. Making better decisions, making work teams more effective, managing others’ productivity, encouraging innovation, and absorbing data better are just some of the areas covered and getting to the end of the book elicited a feeling of excitement for putting these concepts to work.

If you struggle with focus and idea execution. If you have suffered with how best to manage and delegate. If you are looking to inspire others as well as your own creativity, this book is for you.

BRB Rating: Own It

Olympic reading
(faster, higher, stronger: Citius Altius Fortius)
Title: Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg
Publisher: Random House. 400 pp
Genre: non fiction, self help, team building
4+ stars
Author: Duhigg is an award winning reporter for the NYTimes (since 2013, previously he worked freelance). He studied history at Yale, MBA from Harvard. He is the author of the best selling and excellent Power of Habit (2010), about the science of habit formation. His books are well researched and informative. He has a clear writing style, if somewhat wordy.
Story line:
Subtitle is secrets of being productive in life and business.
There are 8 chapters including motivation, teams, focus (the best chapter), goals, managing others, decision making, innovation and absorbing data. The appendix has readers guide, with suggestions. Each chapter includes a variety of stories/ examples, e.g. the marines, Disney, Detroit to airlines that reinforce the 8 concepts. I found them too detailed and not necessarily the best examples. It is overall positive thinking with helpful advice, often with suggestions which will appeal to particular individuals. Hence people will get different messages from this book. Suggestions need greater prominence, or brevity within the text. This is still a good reference book for team building and project management.
Bottom line? Take time to smell the roses too. Life isn't all about being productive. I was probably the wrong audience for this book as I am already too efficient. Most of this seemed obvious, not secret. You need to set goals, focus on them, recognize choices, use discipline and better leadership to strengthen team efforts. And know you are never finished. In short ("cliff notes"):
1) frame decisions as opportunities, not problems
2) construct teams where positive interaction is crucial
3) engage with the vast data stream (recognize the difference between finding an answer, understanding what it means, and then incorporating it)
4) set goals that push you beyond the "to do lists", and toward something large (stretch goals/ objectives that can spark outsized leaps in productivity)
Read on
If you like Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Lewis, Matthew Syed
Quotes:
These are the things, that separate the merely busy from the genuinely productive.
There are some people who pretend at productivity, whose resumes appear impressive until you realize their greatest talent is self-marketing.
The need for control is a biological imperative. When people believe they are in control, they tend to work harder and push themselves more. They are, on average, more confident and overcome setbacks faster….One way to prove to ourselves that we are in control is by making decisions. Each choice, no matter how small, reinforces the perception of control and self-efficacy.
For psychological safety to emerge among a group, teammates don’t have to be friends. They do, however, need to be socially sensitive and ensure everyone feels heard.
Teams need to believe that their work is important, feel their work is personally meaningful, clear goals and defined roles. Team members need to know they can depend on one another. But most important, teams need psychological safety…..
It's important to manage how you think, rather than what you think.

Received as an ARC ebook from Netgalley.

Duhigg explores the science of productivity with engaging stories, and at the end he summarises the lessons in the book. The following are 8 lessons this book teaches:

1 How to generate motivation: We learn that it's important to feel in control, and to keep telling yourself why a chore will help you to get closer to a meaningful goal.

2 How to make teams more effective: We are told about teams at Google and what makes teams more effective. We learn the importance of showing sensitivity to each others' feelings.

3 How to use mental models: Here we are told of an airplane that crashed because of cognitive tunneling, and of an airplane that did not crash because the pilots made use of mental models.

4 How to set goals: We learn about stretch goals and SMART goals, and that the goal should be worth pursuing.

5 How to manage others productively: Here we are told a fascinating story of how the worst performing car manufacturing plant in the US became one of the best. We learn that decisions should be made by whoever is closest to the problem.

6 How to make better decisions: We are told of a female poker player and the importance of envisioning multiple futures and using Bayesian probability.

"We hardly notice the empty restaurants we pass on the way to our favourite, crowded pizza place. We become trained, in other words, to notice success and then, as a result, we predict successful outcomes too often because we're relying on experiences and assumptions that are biased toward all the successes we've seen--rather than the failures we've overlooked.

Many successful people, in contrast, spend an enormous amount of time seeking out information on failures. They read inside the newspaper's business pages for articles on companies that have gone broke. They schedule lunches with colleagues who haven't gotten promoted, and then ask them what went wrong. […] They pick over their daily missteps when they get home, rather than allowing themselves to forget all the small errors. They ask themselves why a particular call didn't go as well as they had hoped, or if they could have spoken more succinctly at a meeting. We all have a natural proclivity to be optimistic, to ignore our mistakes and forget others' tiny errors. But making good predictions relies on realistic assumptions, and those are based on our experiences. If we pay attention only to good news, we are handicapping ourselves." (Duhigg)

7 How to encourage innovation: We are told of the difficulties that the creators of Disney's Frozen faced and how they overcame their problems.

"Recognize that the stress that emerges amid the creative process isn't a sign everything is falling apart. Rather, creative desperation is often critical: Anxiety can be what often pushes us to see old ideas in new ways." (Duhigg)

8 How to absorb data better: We are told of how students' grades improved at a poorly performing public school.

"When we encounter new information, we should force ourselves to do something with it. Write yourself a note explaining what you just learned, or figure out a small way to test an idea, or graph a series of data points onto a piece of paper, or force yourself to explain an idea to a friend." (Duhigg)

Overall: Duhigg teaches useful lessons through compelling stories and summarises the lessons in the appendix. Like all books, its important to make use of the lessons you learn. My plans now are to write down or tell others what I've learnt in order to better absorb the information, learn about Bayesian probability, try to predict futures, create stretch and SMART goals for goals that matter, and find out how to make use of mental models.

Charles Duhigg displays his writing acumen in “Smarter, Faster, Better” and that, perhaps, explains my ambivalence toward the book. The book’s title, “Better, Faster, Smarter” sets expectations of being focused on productivity, which it does, but it takes some work to get to the productivity discussions. Duhigg uses two or three antidotes and stories per chapter, tying them together to frame productivity help, which overshadow productivity insights. I found myself wanting to skim the stories to get to the point of the chapter, and the book, which was productivity.

Duhigg used great stories that were written quite well, but I was expecting to learn the “how” of productivity, rather than how pilots prepare for disasters, Saturday Night Live staff created great shows, or how the movie Frozen ended up being a hit. The stories were engaging nonetheless. If you are looking to discover how productivity works (Duhigg’s goal), and like to read interesting antidotes displaying how productivity works in specific contexts, you will probably be happy with the book.

However, if you are wanting to learn more of how productivity works, but don’t have the time, energy, or desire, to read a 400 page book that is, in my opinion, summed up in the appendix, then there are many “summary” books on the store that, I assume, provide more focus on productivity. I took four pages of notes in a Moleskine notebook, so I did find quite a bit of value. While I ended up skimming the first part of several chapters, I found, at times, the strong writing pulling me back into the Duhigg’s accounts of productivity at work.

The chapter titles describe the productivity area addressed in the chapter; Motivation, Teams, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing Others, Decision Making, Innovation, and Absorbing Data. The appendix was especially helpful as Duhigg outlined how he used these productivity methods as he was writing the book.

Despite my ambivalence there was insightful productivity advice amid all the stories. While some of the advice has been outlined elsewhere, I found the connections and combination of productivity methods helpful, such as connecting SMART and stretch goals, team norms, decision making, and the chapter outlining innovation. In retrospect, there was quite a bit of insight throughout, it is unfortunate that those insights get dwarfed by lengthy background accounts. I recommend this book if you want insightful productivity advice and don’t mind the background accounts, or, don’t mind skimming. If you have grown weary of business and productivity books that are mostly stories, you might want to check out one of the many summary options.

I received the electronic version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the beginning of this book. However, as the chapters wore on I found that the sheer numbers of stories used to illustrate the few points became overwhelming. While they were interesting stories, I felt that the stories began to overwhelm the main points, making it difficult to wade through it all. There were just too many words and not enough main point. Although I usually really enjoy this type of book, I found myself just wishing it would wind up! There are some very helpful tips in here, which are summarized at the very end. I think the author just took a really long time to make a few points. I enjoyed his previous book much more than this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK/Cornerstone for providing me with an ARC copy of this book that I voluntarily choose to review.
I don’t read many self-help or how-to books although recently I’ve been reading some that intrigued me and this was one of them. After all, who doesn’t want to be smarter, go faster and do things better? We all want to be productive, so the title was a big hook for me, and I imagine I’m not alone.
Charles Duhigg is the author of a very popular, well-liked and positively reviewed book, the bestseller The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change. Although I noticed that many of the reviewers mentioned his previous book and drew comparisons, I haven’t read it and I won’t be able to add to that debate. (In short, a few of the reviewers felt that this book wasn’t as good or as useful, from a practical point of view, as the previous one). After reading the comments, now I’m curious about his previous book.
But, as for Smarter Faster Better, it is a book where the author explains how he started wondering about the different levels of productivity people obtain. We all know individuals whose days seem to last more than 24 hours if we’re to judge by the amount of activities and achievements they manage to pack in. In an attempt at trying to find out how they do it, Duhigg collected studies, reviewed theories, interviewed people, checked stories… The book, which is divided into a series of chapters (Motivation, Team, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing Others, Decision Making, Innovation, Absorbing Data, Appendix and Notes), consists of the discussions of some cases that Duhigg then uses to illustrate a point or theory about the particular item and its importance. On talking about motivation, Duhigg uses the case of a young man who didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life and eventually decided to join the Marines. He explains how their training focuses on making them attach a meaning to their chores, ask questions that remind each other of what their goal is and what they are trying to achieve, and also the importance of feeling one has a choice. In the chapter about goal setting, he asserts the importance of having two types of goals, SMART goals (we’ve all read about those) but also stretch goals, overarching goals that look at something bigger, as, otherwise, we might end up with a list of tiny little achievable goals that don’t build up to anything. I enjoyed the examples used (that include, among other: the Toyota way of running a factory, focused on making people feel free to report mistakes and also share their ideas for innovations, teachers’ creative use of data about their students to transform a failing school into a successful one, and also include the use of mental images by airline pilots that help them make the right decisions when things go wrong), and the hypotheses and advice make sense to me. The book is well written, and although some examples and cases will feel more relevant to some people than others, there is a big variety and I personally thought they all made interesting points and some were fascinating, to say the least.
Some of the reviewers complained about the fact that the book is not very practical. The author includes, in the appendix ‘A Reader’s Guide to Using These Ideas’ (I wonder if this is in response to comments or it had always been there) that summarises the concepts in the book, and applies them to the author’s difficulties finishing this book. This summary sets up some of the points as more relevant to individuals, and some to companies or teams. I’ve noticed that there’s a summary of the book available for sale separately (Summary of Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business: in less than 30 minutes), and I wonder if it might consist mostly of this part of the book (as it says: ‘in less than 30 minutes’). Although I guess the advice can be found there, what makes the book memorable, at least for me, are the stories and that ties in with one of the points in the book about absorbing data. The absorption and understanding of data can be increased by creating disfluency, by having to work with it and making it less accessible. That obliges us to engage with the data and to make it ours, to make it matter to us and to find ways of using it that might not be evident or interesting to others. Therefore, if you have to read the book and go through the case studies, you might appreciate other points of the stories and remember the cases as they are relevant to you, rather than trying to remember a point as a headline with no context. So yes, if you can and are interested in the topic, I would advise reading the whole book (and it isn’t quite as long as it looks like, as there are detailed notes about the studies at the end that take up the last 33% of the book). If you have doubts, you can always check a sample of the book. But if you just want a taster, I share a quote:
Productivity is about recognizing choices that other people often overlook. It’s about making certain decisions in certain ways. The way we choose to see our own lives; the stories we tell ourselves, and the goals we push ourselves to spell out in detail; the culture we establish among teammates; the ways we frame our choices and manage the information in our lives. Productive people and companies force themselves to make choices most other people are content to ignore. Productivity emerges when people push themselves to think differently.
I’m not sure if this book will make a massive difference to my productivity, but it has made me reflect on a number of things and I’m sure I’ll keep thinking about it for a long time. If I had to choose a point in particular, I’d say it has made me think about team and group dynamics, and I particularly liked the concept of ‘psychological safety’ (a “shared belief, held by members of a team, that the group is a safe place for taking risks”). If only…
In summary, an inspiring book, full of cases and stories that deserve to be read in their own right and concepts and suggestions that will mean different things to different people. It’s not a quick read or a ‘follow these few steps and you’ll be more productive’ kind of book, but it’s a well-written, researched and thought-out book that might help us understand better what makes us tick.

A very knowledgeable book on productivity on individual and team, for sure. Yet, it would be even better if the author had employed a better editor to make it more readable and the key ideas more memorable by slimming the background stories and highlighting the suggestions. In that regard, his previous work "Power of Habit" is better. Nevertheless, still a highly readable and useful book. Recommended!

p.s. Below please find some favorite passages of mine for your reference.

There are some people who pretend at productivity, whose resumes appear impressive until you realize their greatest talent is self-marketing. Pg4
The need for control is a biological imperative. When people believe they are in control, they tend to work harder and push themselves more. They are, on average, more confident and overcome setbacks faster. People who believe they have authority over themselves often live longer than their peers….One way to prove to ourselves that we are in control is by making decisions. Each choice, no matter how small, reinforces the perception of control and self-efficacy. Pg19
If you give people an opportunity to feel a sense of control and let them practice making choices, they can learn to exert willpower. Once people know how to make self-directed choices into a habit, motivation becomes more automatic……we need to learn to see our choices not just as expressions of control but also as affirmations of our values and goals. That’s the reason marine recruits ask each other “why” – because it shows them how to link small tasks to larger aspirations. Pg31
For psychological safety to emerge among a group, teammates don’t have to be friends. They do, however, need to be socially sensitive and ensure everyone feels heard. Pg64
The best tactic for establishing psychological safety is demonstration by a team leader. It seems like fairly minor stuff, but when the leader goes out of their way to make someone feel listened to, or starts a meeting by saying “I might miss something, so I need all of you to watch for my mistakes, or says, “Jim, you haven’t spoken in a while, what do you think?” that makes a huge difference. – Amy Edmondson, Harvard Professor pg64
Teams need to believe that their work is important. feel their work is personally meaningful, clear goals and defined roles. Team members need to know they can depend on one another. But most important, teams need psychological safety…..Team leaders should not interrupt teammates during conversation….They should demonstrate they are listening by summarizing what people say after they said it. They should admit what they don’t know. They shouldn’t end a meeting until all team members have spoken at least once. They should encourage people who are upset to express their frustration, and encourage teammates to respond in nonjudgmental ways…… pg66
To become genuinely productive, we must take control of our attention; we must build mental models that put us firmly in charge….force yourself to envision your day…Get in a pattern of forcing yourself to anticipate what’s next…..Then you’ll notice what goes unmentioned or if there’s a stray comment that you should see as a warning sign…..You cant delegate thinking. Computers fail, checklists fail, everything can fail. But people cant. We have to make decisions, and that includes deciding what deserves our attention. The key is forcing yourself to think. As long as you are thinking, you’re halfway home. Pg102
Toyota Production System, known as Lean Manufacturing in US, relied on pushing decision making to the lowest possible level. Workers on the assembly line were the ones who saw problems first. They were closest to the glitches that were inevitable in any manufacturing process. So it only made sense to give them the greatest authority in finding solutions. Every person in an organization has the right to be the company’s top expert at something. … It’s incredibly wasteful if a company cant take advantage of that knowledge. Toyota hates waste. The system was built to exploit everyone’s expertise…..It’s the culture that makes Toyota successful, not hanging cords or prototyping tools. If we couldn’t export a culture of trust, we had no other ideas. Pg144
To be elite (in Texas Poker), you have to start thinking about bets as ways of asking other players questions. Are you willing to fold right now? Do you want to raise? How far can I push before you start acting impulsively? And when you get an answer, that allows you to predict the future a little bit more accurately than the other guy. Poker is about using your chips to gather information faster than everyone else. Pg173
Learning to think probabilistically requires us to question our assumptions and live with uncertainty. To become better at predicting the future – at making good decisions – we need to know the difference between what we hope will happen and what is more and less likely to occur. …. Even though you know with 100 percent certainty that you love her right now, thinking probabilistically about the future can force you to think throught things that might be fuzzy today, but are really important over time. It forces you to be honest with yourself, even if part of that honesty is admitting there are things you aren’t sure about. Pg180
The best entrepreneurs are acutely conscious of the risks that come from only talking to people who have succeeded. They are obsessed with spending time around people who complain about their failures, the kinds of people the rest of us usually try to avoid. – Don Moore, UC Berkeley pg196

This is a terrific guide that can help individuals and organizations improve their performance. Duhigg lays out the reasons for and methods to accomplish more and to do so more efficiently. Among the major areas he covers are motivation, goal setting,focus, decision making and innovation. A lot of this material is covered in other places but Duhigg brings them together in a coherent, easy-to-use package. For example, many have written about innovation being the bringing together of old ideas and recombining them. Duhigg explains how we can all be innovation brokers by bringing our past experiences and the things that irk us into improving products an services. Duhigg also discusses, for example, how motivation improves when a person has a sense of control over what they do. As a practical skill, this translates into introducing something over which you have control when you are working on a task, even if it is as seemingly minor as selecting the meeting place. The book concludes with a very useful index that used Duhigg's own experience in writing the book as a case study in how to apply a number of the theories and techniques he introduced previously. I did have objections to a couple of his examples. In the decision making chapter his source discusses the probability of sating in love when considering marriage. I don't think that applies in this case. In the innovation chapter he gives the example of derivatives as an investment born of combination of old ideas. If he is speaking about the derivatives that were at the center of the financial crash of 2008, that is a horrible example.

I didn't know what to expect from the title of the book. I wasn't sure what kind of tips it would offer.

The book is broken down into 8 areas: Motivation, Teams, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing Others, Decision Making, Innovation, and Absorbing Data.

I was looking for something to use in my personal life and business, so some of the chapters, while interesting, were not relevant. I definitely believe that I can take away a lot from the book on making sure that I can find a way to motivate myself, set good goals, avoid too narrow a focus, find new ways from looking at old ways differently, and utilizing data more effectively.

This book is good for people who are looking to make changes to how they do things and to be more productive and innovative

I read and reviewed The Power of Habit last year. I thoroughly enjoyed that book. It made me want to read anything and everything by Charles Duhigg.

Smarter Faster Better is similar to The Power of Habit in that it is also jam-packed with fascinating stories and information. Both are books you could probably read over and over again and get something out of them every time. Smarter Faster Better, though, is different in that it's not centered around one thing (i.e. "habits"). Instead it's about a LOT of different things -- the names of the eight chapter give you an idea of the overview: Motivation, Teams, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing Others, Decision Making, Innovation and Absorbing Data. All of these topics are related to being "smarter, faster and better" in the workplace.

Some of the more powerful messages for me were:

* The importance of psychological safety discussed in chapter 2: "Teams succeed when everyone feels like they can speak up and when members show they are sensitive to how one another feels."

* The five different types of corporate culture described in the chapter 5: "Hands down, a commitment culture outperformed every other type of management style in almost every meaningful way."

* The paralyzing effect of information blindness which is "our mind's tendency to stop absorbing data when there's too much to take in." Our brains get overloaded when faced with too much data (or too many choices) and it functions best when we break things down to two or three options.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in a position of management or leadership.

Oh the eternal quest, being more effective and productive at what we do. How can we achieve this nirvana (asks this reviewer, who is being distracted by email and other online things at the time of writing)?

Well, this book claims to have some ideas and takes a science-led approach to the problem. It certainly appears convincing and well thought out. Applying it might be the harder part, demanding great discipline and drive. We may know we want to change, but effecting it…?

In many cases a lot of our attitudes can be shaped by who we are working with, how we interact with them and our collective outlook to matters. We receive reflections from others and, in turn, we reflect our own values back to them. A vicious circle, perhaps, that needs to be broken, in the cases when a sub-optimal signal is being sent. The author says that central to his idea of “Smarter Faster Better” working are eight concepts, build around findings in neuroscience, psychology and behavioural economics and supplemented with real-world experience and interviews of many people from top CEOs to even Broadway songwriters.

The key takeaway point is that the most productive people, companies and organizations don’t just act differently but they view the world and their choices, in profoundly different ways. This is a book to read and enjoy. It conveys a certain credibility and authority that is often lacking in many productivity improving-type books. Of course, the easy part is reading it – the more difficult part may be putting the ideas into practice. The author cannot help you here, other than giving a lot of inspiration and practical help.

Even if you don’t manage (or want to implement) the change, the sheer mass of information will at least make you a better-informed person. The science, history and real-world experiences are fascinating reading in their own right. It is a book definitely worth further scrutiny!

This is a disappointing sequel the Power of Habit. Duhigg is heavily reliant on anecdotes, which is not a crime, but the book is so sprawling that it is genuinely hard to grasp the key points that he is trying to share. He does do this magical 'tie everything together' summary at the end of the book, which I found really effective and method driven like the Power of Habit, but overall this reads like something from Malcolm Gladwell—at times fascinating, but distinctly lacking in theoretical structure. You're unlikely to find that this book changes your life. -Ryan Mease

My favorite book of 2016. I listened to this on Audible, so that helped me power through some of the long stories and anecdotes some reviewers have agonized over. So many books take the principles and extrude them out in boorish bullet point lists. Other books will go too deep into the narrative and its difficult or too much work to find the true point. Duhigg, with his background in journalism, does a great job of weaving the stories and anecdotes into the novel ideas and conclusions then unpacking them in an straightforward and applicable way. There is enough novelty and insight in the ideas he proposes, while also being grounded in tried-and-true theories about human behavior and performance, that has made me really think hard about why and how I do things in my daily work and life.

I don’t think Duhigg has revealed *the* secrets to productivity, but to be fair, that would be hard.

What he has done is tell a set of entertaining stories demonstrating a technique or mindset that happened to help a particular individual or group.

For example: how a poker player uses probabilistic thinking to decide whether to call or fold. How an auto plant dramatically improved productivity by implementing lean management. How Disney's "Frozen" team overcame a creative hurdle. Engineering Design Process. SMART objectives.

I found myself at times skeptical of Duhigg’s explanations (e.g. a nurse who identified an infant at risk because she was constantly comparing the baby to her mental model of how a healthy baby should look — how do we know that?). I noticed a few questionable logical leaps that made me wonder which ones I *hadn’t* noticed (e.g. ‘the candidate was predicted to receive 67% of the vote, therefore had a 67% chance of winning the election’).

Overall the book is heavy on storytelling and light on data/supporting evidence, but perhaps worth reading if only for exposure to techniques you may want to investigate further or experiment with. The story-based approach does make it all quite memorable.

One of the things I love about this book is the personal stories--Nothing is as good as anything that you know are real--that real people experienced--and better yet when the outcome was positive, which some of them are. This book is full of excellent references--Charles did indeed spend a whole lot of time researching and doing interviews so that we all could benefit from them...Thank you Charles, you did an awesome job on this book.

Now--the hard thing to do--Which is to apply what we are learning from these notes. Good thing I have the book--now--to re-read and take notes, and who knows, we may be able to change some of those old habits of ours. Out with the old and in with the new!

Recommend this book to all ages--As it is never too late or too early to learn, if we want to change....and change for the better. Kudos for the nice idea about a final summary with his personal notes, nice touch!

How Quickly He Forgot – A Review of Smarter Faster Better

This is generally a good book with some interesting ideas. But it also has some glaring flaws. His most egregious miscues occur in Chapter 6. While reading Chapter 6, on decision making. One wonders why Charles Duhigg couldn’t remember some of the procedures he had described in Chapter 5, on managing others. In 5 he cites a Toyota policy of using the knowledge that can be gained from the people who actually do the work. Receptionists and janitors know more about reception and office cleaning than executives. In Chapter 6, he spends a lot of time describing poker situations. It becomes almost instantly clear that Duhigg knows nothing about poker, and can’t even manage to use the most elementary poker terms (bet, call and raise) correctly. Any of the poker greats he mentions in the text, Phil Helmuth, Annie Duke or Howard Lederer, could have saved him, as could many less talented players, poker writers and commentators. Presumably Random House has some editors and/or fact checkers who possess at least a rudimentary understanding of the game and should have raised an alarm.
He also misses the boat on page 281, where he compares four futures . One requires hard work and has a 5% chance of success, while the other requires less work and also has a 5% chance of success. Clearly less work is a dominant strategy. He would have had a problem if his choice was more work-10% chance of success or less work-5% chance.

I read a lot of management/efficiency books out of a desire to understand the psychology and mindset of the methods. This book is one of the most well written I've read in awhile, while still providing great insights into ways to *think* differently about the way you work. It reads like a story because it's filled with anecdotal stories, but it is a nice change of pace to some that are just humble brag books: "I did this and my life is so much better now" type. I also thought it ventured outside of the standard "check your email less, do more high-priced work, etc." tips, again, I appreciate.

Duhigg is a good writer, but this book is far more fluff than substance. And his stories go on and on and on and on and on.... I understand stories are important to hold reader attention and illustrate points, but I grew bored of the length and really the stories didn't add much, if anything, to the narrative and point. I wrote a somewhat critical review of his Habit book, but at least I learned something from it. This one was a waste of time. And believe me, as long-winded as he was here, it was a lot of time.

This book is full of pretty much nothing but stories to illustrate the author's points. It's at least twice as long as it needs to be.
I didn't absolutely hate it, but it's the worst professional book I've read and I read about one per week. To me, it was a huge waste of time.

Smarter Faster Better seems like a somewhat odd title for a book, and there's a reason: this is actually eight totally separate case studies strung together so the author had enough material to fit the standard "book" publishing model. Each case study is entertaining, well researched, relevant, and practical, from a study of teams based on Google and Saturday Night Live to motivation, focus, goal setting, managing others, decision making, innovation, and absorbing data. The only drawback is that the book has no cohesive structure--- it truly is simply eight case studies, but they all remain well worth your read.

Read it cover to cover as the end notes had gems in them too. Though some of the subject matter covered was familiar to me (SMART goals, Lean thinking, team dynamics), Duhigg offers history on the genesis of these standard productivity tools as well as a host of new insights. His skill in weaving them together through the stories of people and organizations that have been improved through their implementation is on full display and highly enjoyable. Not to be missed is the Appendix where the author shares his own application of this productivity tool box to the writing process. If you liked The Power of Habit, you will not be disappointed by this book.

I had looked forward to reading this book since getting my hands on it, but my expectations were quickly dashed, and then tanked- it became a pain to finish, something which I accomplished hoping it would get better or at least just to say I had finished. If you are a manager or tend to live in group-think then this book would likely be very helpful, as practically the entirety of the text focuses on groups and teams (the poker section on probability being the only true exception). However if you are an individual whose life and responsibilities tend to be mostly independent, this book offers practically nothing... an unfortunate characteristic based on the expectations created by the title, which gave no hint as to its content being team-driven.

For an already strong and successful individual, however- this book doesn't really have anything, except a way to waste several hours of your time.

A self help/ pop science book rolled into one. The author uses stories and science to make eight suggestions on how to become better people at work and in our lives. It has a Malcolm Gladwell feel to it with each chapter beginning with a story and how the technique they used is backed by research.

Several reviewers were critical of the fluff and filler of this book but I would argue that you need it. Otherwise you would have a book of eight small paragraphs on the ideas he is putting forward. The stories are there to reinforce the idea and hopefully have you remember it better.

Recommend if you like pop science books or Malcolm Gladwell's books. Very similar.

Books abound that offer advice on how to increase productivity, instill motivation, and inspire creativity. Charles Duhigg, in “Smarter, Faster, Better,” discusses ways of “getting things done without sacrificing everything we care about along the way.” The author cites examples from such diverse areas as law enforcement, the arts, medicine, aviation, manufacturing, the military, psychology, and education.

This rich, lucid, and entertaining work encourages us to think about tackling routine tasks in new ways. Duhigg addresses such questions as: What fosters successful collaboration among team members? How can top-down management adversely affect a company’s bottom line? In what ways does the smart use of data help us make sound decisions? What policies give employees the feeling that their opinions are valued?

Although at times, Duhigg lapses into jargon (“Bayesian cognition” “scaffolding,” “leveraging technology”), his specialized terminology does not overwhelm the narrative. Instead, like Malcolm Gladwell, Duhigg intrigues us with great stories that provide fresh perspectives on the choices that we make daily. We read about a kidnapping that has the FBI stumped and pilots whose plane will crash if they do take corrective action. In addition, we find out why a country renowned for its military preparedness was caught off guard by an attack that could have been anticipated.

On a lighter note, Duhigg goes behind the scenes of the Disney animated blockbuster, “Frozen.” How did the film’s creative team come up with the right blend of appealing characters, plot, and setting? We also get a glimpse of how a professional poker player applies the laws of probability to earn a big payoff. “Smarter, Better, Faster” gives us valuable tools to help us “figure out the best uses of our energy, intellect, and time.” It is a potential game-changer for those who can profit from its lessons and strategies.

I found the book to be an insightful discussion of new insights and methods to boost productivity, innovation and achievement. Duhigg brings several gifts to bear on the project including the ability to select great examples, interview a variety of subjects, and summarize research papers. In some respects, this book reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell’s work (“Outliers” is my favorite Gladwell book). Duhigg does well to include “A Reader’s Guide to Using These Ideas” at the end of the book to help readers with next steps.

Duhigg’s approach to the book weaves together first hand interviews, academic research and other sources. I’m impressed by the sheer variety of interviews that Duhigg completed including Google’s People Analytics group, Israeli generals and airline pilots. Duhigg also does excellent work in summarizing academic research articles from various fields and pulling out the relevant insights.

I usually get irritated on the rare occasions when I pick up some form of self-help book. I was surprised, then, by how much I enjoyed reading Charles Duhigg’s book titled, Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business. Duhigg’s main point is that productivity is about making the right choices. Through interesting writing and telling lots of detailed stories, Duhigg offers eight insights that he picked up as he delved into this topic. He offers a deliberate process through which readers may want to think differently. Any reader who struggles with getting the right things done in an effective way should consider reading this engaging book.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

You will learn a great deal on this book as you turn every page for its stories and the lessons you will pick up along the way.

For me every chapter is a gem anyone can use to improve not just his productivity but his life. It is a remarkable presentation of ideas about motivation, focus, absorbing information, etc.

The stories are great. The way those are written was superb. They can either make you cry, amaze, laugh, or inspire.

The success of this book as a New York Times Bestseller lies on every aspect: the author's skills in writing, the timely lessons, and the stories.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking to become smarter, faster, and better.

Rating: 4

Duhigg likes to look at a larger picture. He takes something that most people will look at the end result of and peel back the layers to see how they got to the end result. He takes a look at the early years of Saturday Night Live and discovered how they became a great team. He takes a look at the auto industry and sees how the transformation of a plant that had the worst rating changed to one of the best. He takes a look at a school in Cincinnati and how it went from the lowest performing school to one of the top schools in Ohio. Duhigg points out one factor that seems to hold true in all of these cases. A commitment to the group and the trust to learn together.

I listened to the audio version of this book, mainly on a car trip to and from visiting my brother. I really liked it and the various stories in it, and learned a lot. I like this author and have read one other of his books. If you're into Personal Development, then this is a must read. I read some negative reviews from people that couldn't figure out what he was trying to say, but I got a lot out of it and ideas to use in making me a better person myself. I recommend it.

This book is too much a "jack of all trades" to be genuinely helpful. It has some interesting information, but nothing that can be put to practical use. It's definitely meant more for business then personal use. The one exception is the "SMART" to-do list, but that's covered much better in Darren Hardy's materials. Unless you are a people manager, I'd skip this book, and if you are a people manager, treat it as an introductory course to see what you'd actually like to know more about.

SMARTER,FASTER, BETTER examines productivity through ideas that have been around even for decades and applying them in new ways. ”The power of combining old ideas in new ways” resumes the concept behind this book.

The author uses a compelling writing style that works pretty well for all the stories shared in these eight chapters.

Chapter 1.- MOTIVATION: Reimagining boot camp, nursing home rebellions, and the locus of control. How the brain function.

Chapter 2.- TEAMS: Psychological safety at Google and Saturday Night Live.

Chapter 3.- FOCUS: Cognitive tunneling, Air France Flight 447, and the power of mental models.

Chapter 4.- GOAL SETTING: Smart goals, stretch goals,and the Yom Kippur War.

Chapter 5.- MANAGING OTHERS: Solving a kidnapping with lean and agile thinking and a culture of trust.

Chapter 6.- DECISION MAKING: Forecasting the future (and winning at poker) with Bayesian Psychology.

Chapter 7.- INNOVATION: How idea brokers and creative desperation saved Disney’s Frozen.

Chapter 8.- ABSORBING DATA: Turning information into knowledge in Cincinnati’s public schools.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, plenty of engaging stories to explain every concept, for example, part of the brain called the striatum. On the other hand, I disagree with chapter six about applying Bayesian Psychology to predict a future event based upon past experiences as humans own plenty of resources to succeed against all odds, for instance, Dr. James Doty.

ARC REVIEW

Very disappointed with this book as I had found The Power of Habit by the same author very useful and well written. The book is ten times longer than it needs to be and it's like the author didn't have time to edit it. It's far too wordy to be in any way helpful, possible productivity boosters are hidden within reams and reams of stories all highlighting the same point which usually wasn't clear until the end of the chapter. There is a summary piece at the back to help figure out what action can be taken on the basis of all the previous information provided but by that stage you've lost the will to keep reading, and it too is longer than it needs to be. Not a book for a busy person, it made me wonder if authors are still paid by the number of pages they write like in Dickensian times!

I liked how the author gives the example before giving the suggestions and my favorite part is the summing up at the end of the books. Some things I already knew, some other were new or partially new, anyway an interesting reading.

Mi piace il modo in cui l'autore ha strutturato il libro: prima l'esempio poi il suggerimento, e anche la parte finale che riassume il tutto é molto utile. Alcune cose le conoscevo giá, altre meno, comunque una lettura interessante.

I very much enjoyed The Power of Habits from this author but Smarter Faster Better disappointed me. It tells nice stories in lots of details and with great suspense and emotions. But I can't imagine that the sum of 10 or 20 anecdotes can lead to the definition of a theory on Motivation, Teams, Focus and Setting Goals. I can accept it as good entertainment but I find it damaging for novice audiences who are trying to learn something from this book.

Great book with one very frustrating aspect. I loved this book because it addresses lots of great concepts such as improving productivity, working on teams, successful corporate cultures, using mental models to improve effectiveness, etc. The book uses great example to illustrate these concepts, and the author has a style that is easy to read and light while still explaining some heavy stuff.

There are 2 things that kept this book from getting 5 stars:
1) The introduction is about the author's attempts to answer the question how a successful, accomplished, prolific, well-liked, and easy-going doctor accomplishes everything he does while maintaining a Zen-like personality. The author never answers this question. I felt like it was a bit of a bait and switch component to the introduction.
2) The good stuff is in the beginning. As I approached the latter parts of the book, the concepts, stories, and lessons were not as effective or entertaining.

Overall, this is a great book that I highly recommend.

This is a good book if you like Charles Duhigg's news reporter style. One should not read this book just to get to the main points, learn, and apply. Or , you should not expect a "how to...".

This is a book with very solid 8 ideas on productivity such as motivation, decision making, innovation, and team work. These ideas are told through 20-30 different layered stories.

I prefer his style over a text book style. So, I will give it 4 stars.

If there is an updated version of this book, I would like to see a more how to than the final 10-20 pages.

Charles will use 5 examples when one will do and weave all of those examples into one almost incoherent chapter. Instead of being 10 hours of reading, it could have probably been two. I got nothing out of it. If you want a good book, Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is light years ahead of this one.

I was originally inspired by Charles from his work with "the power of habit" which led me directly into this book! Page after page I found myself getting more wrapped up in the narrative and excited about the frameworks I could pull from stories to apply in my own life. This will be the first time I read this book as it is propped up meeting with about 10 other best sellers on my bookcase for me to whole wisdom from on monthly basis. The way to Charles rights it's as if you're looking directly into his soul, and articulation of concepts could not be more well-received. Thank you for your incredible work Charles!!

Having recently read the Power of Habit, I have been hooked on Duhigg's insightful research and approachable writing style. With Smart Faster Better, I was hoping for more of the same, and it definitely delivered.

This book covers a broader set of topics than his first, which means that there is something in here that will resonate with more or less anybody. I teach an undergraduate business class, and this book (or at least excerpts) is likely to make it into my curriculum for next semester. Definitely would recommend.

Duhigg's second book, much like Habit, is intelligent, readable, and applicable to your daily life. I feel like Duhigg captures interesting stories about psychology without necessarily reaching for a grand theory of everything as much as Malcolm Gladwell does--and that makes the writing come across as a bit more measured. But Duhigg is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-fiction storytellers, along with Gladwell and Michael Lewis.

Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg is a fascinating look at productivity. So much packed into one book. Yet the 8 principals are likely harder to implement than the author imagined. Good to know, good to reorient on. Certainly another way to look at productivity. The examples really make the book. Wish there was a workbook to help reorient my thinking.
Received the book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This review is for an advance review copy of the book.

Who among us *doesn't* want to be more productive? I always say my Life would be perfect if I could just clone myself two or six times - which is just another way of wishing to be more productive to squeeze more tasks in the 24 we're each allotted.

So...this book has a great premise, and good ideas....its big flaw is that it isn't very concise. It meanders. A lot. On reflection, maybe that isn't a flaw but a bonus to the procrastinators.

Had a lot of long, drawn out examples and I don’t know why the author had to state that a student was Black when telling about the way an impoverished student made decisions. Her race was irrelevant.

Becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Duhigg and his books, and his collection of meaningful anecdotes here makes for a great read. I will advise, if you digest this book over a period of weeks like I did, pay special attention to his personal application of the books principles. I found it easy to lose sight of these, even though the book is organized by chapter to stress his takeaways on motivation.

Not a book but an article. And a bad one.

Basically few key ideas and some random stories the author might have picked up glued together. Repetitive, dull, worthless. Complete and utter waste of time. It's like those "10 Productivity Hacks" articles you might find online on a random blog BUT, expanded just until the thing can't hold itself together. SKIP IT.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business is one of my "essential books". One I give my daughters when they turn 18. It pairs perfectly with The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It. Power of Habit is life changing in concept alone. Just the ideas alone, and especially along with Willpower Instinct.

Smarter Faster Better has a great collection of "pro tips" that perhaps work well synergistically together. However, it is not a book you can read, and suddenly see the world in a different light. It is a good read.

Well written... I like Duhigg's writing style, and he gets his points across. It does feel a bit padded, but I would recommend this book.

I don't often write 5-star reviews, but when I do they are for Charles Duhigg's books. The Power of Habit was a life changer for me in how it enabled me to gain control over the bad (and good) habits that greatly affected my life. I've recommended the book to many and it was universally loved. I was greatly anticipating this one and I was not let down. It was a terrific page turner, I had a hard time putting it down and it's given me a lot to think about regarding how I should work to become the best me I can be. Thanks Mr, Duhigg for this terrific life guide!

I'm a big fan of The Power of Habit, so I was really excited to get this book. This was still a great read - Charles Duhigg tells fascinating and inspiring stories in every chapter. But this book was more geared towards business productivity than personal change. There's an appendix in the back that talks about how to apply these principles, but in The Power of Habit, the 'how to change' part was woven in more seamlessly.

And some of the 'secrets of being more productive' seem to contradict each other. He tells great stories of Marines and students who are more motivated and make better decisions when they have more control. Then he goes on to tell OTHER, equally great stories, of creative teams and pilots who make better decisions when they have LESS control. No explanation is given or explored for this apparent difference. So what lesson should I take from that to improve my life?

If you are just looking for a collection of inspiring tidbits, this is great. But The Power of Habit actually helped me make serious and lasting changes in my life. This book won't help you make big changes, sadly. It's just fun to read.

Amazing - He has done it again !!! Duhigg writes yet another classic in a way that is both page-turning, inspiring and entertaining. I love the way the author leverages the power of storytelling to teach the reader the universal and timeless principals of productivity. You will not be able to put this book down. A must read for all those hungry to get to the next level and beyond.

This book is about Duhigg's observations on how people from different backgrounds found ways to improve their efficiency, productivity and the way they operate. The book gives examples from poker tables and how probabilistic thinking is essential to prepare for various outcomes, from pilots and airlines to emphasize how mental models can help at the time of urgency and other ideas about how to set smart goals and divide task to smaller pieces etc

Despite that these ideas are not super original, I thought the author did a great job explaining the way he thinks. The reason I gave a 4 star but not 5 is that I found the book slightly disconnected and more of a combination of case studies on productivity rather than a full book. Although each case reads well, it's hard to connect one to the other.

I was desperate to read this book since I had read The power of habit earlier. To be honest I had very high expectations & usually it's difficult to meet such premeditated expectations. But this book exceeded my expectation.
As I expected Charles Duhigg has done lots of research and presented every point with supporting stories and experiments. i just finished the book so I am not sure if it will change my life or not. However it has definitely inspired me & gave a new perspective to productivity.

Having recently read the Power of Habit, I have been hooked on Duhigg's insightful research and approachable writing style. With Smart Faster Better, I was hoping for more of the same, and it definitely delivered.

This book covers a broader set of topics than his first, which means that there is something in here that will resonate with more or less anybody. I teach an undergraduate business class, and this book (or at least excerpts) is likely to make it into my curriculum for next semester. Definitely would recommend.

Duhigg's second book, much like Habit, is intelligent, readable, and applicable to your daily life. I feel like Duhigg captures interesting stories about psychology without necessarily reaching for a grand theory of everything as much as Malcolm Gladwell does--and that makes the writing come across as a bit more measured. But Duhigg is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-fiction storytellers, along with Gladwell and Michael Lewis.

Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg is a fascinating look at productivity. So much packed into one book. Yet the 8 principals are likely harder to implement than the author imagined. Good to know, good to reorient on. Certainly another way to look at productivity. The examples really make the book. Wish there was a workbook to help reorient my thinking.
Received the book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This review is for an advance review copy of the book.

Who among us *doesn't* want to be more productive? I always say my Life would be perfect if I could just clone myself two or six times - which is just another way of wishing to be more productive to squeeze more tasks in the 24 we're each allotted.

So...this book has a great premise, and good ideas....its big flaw is that it isn't very concise. It meanders. A lot. On reflection, maybe that isn't a flaw but a bonus to the procrastinators.

Had a lot of long, drawn out examples and I don’t know why the author had to state that a student was Black when telling about the way an impoverished student made decisions. Her race was irrelevant.

Becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Duhigg and his books, and his collection of meaningful anecdotes here makes for a great read. I will advise, if you digest this book over a period of weeks like I did, pay special attention to his personal application of the books principles. I found it easy to lose sight of these, even though the book is organized by chapter to stress his takeaways on motivation.

Not a book but an article. And a bad one.

Basically few key ideas and some random stories the author might have picked up glued together. Repetitive, dull, worthless. Complete and utter waste of time. It's like those "10 Productivity Hacks" articles you might find online on a random blog BUT, expanded just until the thing can't hold itself together. SKIP IT.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business is one of my "essential books". One I give my daughters when they turn 18. It pairs perfectly with The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It. Power of Habit is life changing in concept alone. Just the ideas alone, and especially along with Willpower Instinct.

Smarter Faster Better has a great collection of "pro tips" that perhaps work well synergistically together. However, it is not a book you can read, and suddenly see the world in a different light. It is a good read.

Well written... I like Duhigg's writing style, and he gets his points across. It does feel a bit padded, but I would recommend this book.

I don't often write 5-star reviews, but when I do they are for Charles Duhigg's books. The Power of Habit was a life changer for me in how it enabled me to gain control over the bad (and good) habits that greatly affected my life. I've recommended the book to many and it was universally loved. I was greatly anticipating this one and I was not let down. It was a terrific page turner, I had a hard time putting it down and it's given me a lot to think about regarding how I should work to become the best me I can be. Thanks Mr, Duhigg for this terrific life guide!

I'm a big fan of The Power of Habit, so I was really excited to get this book. This was still a great read - Charles Duhigg tells fascinating and inspiring stories in every chapter. But this book was more geared towards business productivity than personal change. There's an appendix in the back that talks about how to apply these principles, but in The Power of Habit, the 'how to change' part was woven in more seamlessly.

And some of the 'secrets of being more productive' seem to contradict each other. He tells great stories of Marines and students who are more motivated and make better decisions when they have more control. Then he goes on to tell OTHER, equally great stories, of creative teams and pilots who make better decisions when they have LESS control. No explanation is given or explored for this apparent difference. So what lesson should I take from that to improve my life?

If you are just looking for a collection of inspiring tidbits, this is great. But The Power of Habit actually helped me make serious and lasting changes in my life. This book won't help you make big changes, sadly. It's just fun to read.

Amazing - He has done it again !!! Duhigg writes yet another classic in a way that is both page-turning, inspiring and entertaining. I love the way the author leverages the power of storytelling to teach the reader the universal and timeless principals of productivity. You will not be able to put this book down. A must read for all those hungry to get to the next level and beyond.

This book is about Duhigg's observations on how people from different backgrounds found ways to improve their efficiency, productivity and the way they operate. The book gives examples from poker tables and how probabilistic thinking is essential to prepare for various outcomes, from pilots and airlines to emphasize how mental models can help at the time of urgency and other ideas about how to set smart goals and divide task to smaller pieces etc

Despite that these ideas are not super original, I thought the author did a great job explaining the way he thinks. The reason I gave a 4 star but not 5 is that I found the book slightly disconnected and more of a combination of case studies on productivity rather than a full book. Although each case reads well, it's hard to connect one to the other.

I was desperate to read this book since I had read The power of habit earlier. To be honest I had very high expectations & usually it's difficult to meet such premeditated expectations. But this book exceeded my expectation.
As I expected Charles Duhigg has done lots of research and presented every point with supporting stories and experiments. i just finished the book so I am not sure if it will change my life or not. However it has definitely inspired me & gave a new perspective to productivity.

I'm an engineer with almost 7 years of experience in project management, in this area you really work under a lot of pressure and lot of overtime. Typically, I don’t like at all motivational books as I find then empty of actual useful and practical advice, but this book not only describes in an interesting way its point but all of them are applicable and very useful. Most of them I recognize as true just because with my experience I intuitively knew them, but here they are explained in a way I can use this knowledge in the future in any project or real-life situation.

Audio book is fantastic. Mike Chamberlain is a delight to listen to. The science is well researched and if applied will work for you. The issue for some may be the difficulty in being able to understand the complexities of the human brain and creating the habit loops necessary to create change. I have researched these neural pathways for over a decade and found that it takes a fine tuned approach to diet, exercise and sleep to achieve optimal results. The approach the author uses to convey his message is indirect but highly effective. In a world plagued by dysfunction of the striatum and meso limbic pathways this book is a great way to understand how all of us think and make decisions. I was already smarter, faster and better prior to reading this book. Now I have just taken it to a whole new level. I mostly likely will listen to it again after I am finished.

This book provides ideas for better productivity, focusing on eight areas: motivation, teams, focus, goal setting, managing others, decision making, innovation, and absorbing data. It is apparent that the author spent a lot of time gathering information through research, interviews and case studies. Many of the ideas in the book are based on research in psychology, sociology and how our brains work. The author used stories to demonstrate how people used the various concepts to increase productivity.

If you read this book, I suggest starting with the appendix, which is a reader's guide to using the ideas in the book. It provides a good summary of the key takeaways from the book and that’s really all you need to read. If you want more detailed information, read the chapters. I really liked the discussion on better focus through mental models and making better decisions through probabilistic thinking.

I think everyone who reads this book can probably find a least a few concepts that will help them be more productive.

Charles Duhigg has done it again--published another astonishing, impactful book. This is a self help book that is will make any other self help book you read more impactful. He begins by explaining why the Marines change peoples lives, and how their training came to evolve. General Krulak's started with a quest to turn wussy and ineffective recruits into decisive, energetic and solution-oriented young women and men.. The basic Boot Camp program is the result. Part of the answer: Remind yourself again and again why are you doing this?

You may have read Chapter 2, "Teams" in the "New York Times Magazine," which was about Google's quest to build effective teams: 1) give everyone equivalent air time, and 2) every member of the team should feel safe to suggest anything, no matter how far-fetched."

There are eight chapters which go through insight by insight in an incredibly storytelling mode: "How to spur team innovation", "How to create a process whereby people absorb data", "how decision making spurs action" and so on.

Duhigg goes through many of the new understandings in human behavioral, brain science and yes, economics, and explains how our minds, each step along the way.

Thank goodness Duhigg decided not to pursue the DBA (doctorate of business administration) in organizational, and instead joined the New York Times' Business news team, and started writing books. He has had a far greater impact that most of his Harvard Business School fellow alumni.

What makes Duhigg’s books work – both this and the earlier “Power of Habit” – is not that he is doing any unique and new research. What makes his books work is a strange alchemy that makes the familiar new again while he spins the unfamiliar in with it.

For example, in this book one of the stories he talks about is the redevelopment of the factory in California that was a failing GM plant but became NUMMI through a team-up with Toyota. Now, I’ve been to business school, so you can bet that I have heard about the Toyota way and have the book on my shelf. But Duhigg takes that story and personalizes it so that the reader learns along with the person in the book and the familiar becomes new.

And that’s just one example. The author looks at eight different frames on how we can become better at what we do in a more productive manner through the power of storytelling. It’s as if the book wants to be a social science book and a novel and a self-help book all at once while at the same time never being any one of those on a stand-alone basis. It was a fun read and I hope that I absorbed some of it so that I too can become smarter and faster and better.

NB: I was provided with a review copy of this text in exchange for the possibility of a review

The title is ironic considering this book is incredibly dull and boring, full of excruciating details about things that do not directly relate to the purpose of the book. He goes on and on about a brain injury that completely removed motivation and then poof! On to another topic without even relating the long story to motivation. This book could easily be half or a 1/3 of the size. There simply isn't much there other than stories. I like stories when they're told in an interesting way (Malcom Gladwell for example) but the author goes into very boring details and I lost interest.

I gave up on it about 1/10 the way through it. I cut my losses and moved on. If you love boring stories, maybe you're suffering from insomia, then this book could be a treasure. If not, skip it.

This guy literally just talks about stories the entire book. I couldn't get passed chapter 2. I am upset I bought this book. At one point you will ask yourself what are you reading an autobiography of some random guy or a productivity book. Would not recommend.

This book is crammed with good, solid reporting on how to accomplish more in both social and business settings. I particularly enjoyed the anecdote about the Toyota model of how production line supervisors should insist on giving more responsibility to workers. Great stuff!

"Smarter Faster Better" is a lifestyle book by Charles Duhigg. The author begins with a short introduction describing his personal journey toward discovering how various highly productive people he knows are able to do so much in the same 24 hours we're all given. Following are 8 chapters, each explaining one core principle which he has distilled from his research: 1. Motivation, 2. Teams, 3. Focus, 4. Goal Setting, 5. Managing Others, 6. Decision Making, 7. Innovation and 8. Absorbing Data. Last, there is an appendix, A Reader's Guide to Using These Ideas.

A central idea of this book is the distinction between activity and productive work. The writing is reminiscent of science magazine articles: Fairly easy to read and assertions being supported by numerous examples and research. To be honest, I've wondered whether books which present interesting insights couldn't have been much shorter by getting to the point quicker. In this case, I think the extra verbage helps clarify and support the most important ideas.

Other reviewers spoke eloquently about this new book by Charles Duhigg. The book is well-researched and the writing grabs you! I couldn't stop reading, the anecdotes were very interesting and so well-told. The quantity of notes at the end of the book give us a glimpse of his painstaking effort. My (slight) qualm with the book is with the bigger picture. Do efficiency and speed really make us smarter? Are we better off if we are always more efficient, work better in a team, if our productivity is constantly at its peak? Perhaps. And yet perhaps there is another story in the human soul that leads to being "smarter" and happy, a story that this book doesn't touch. Even if the book's purpose is not an all-encompassing treatise on human happiness, such questions of human behaviour and human purpose are too intertwined to be treated in isolation. The book is both very good and very interesting, this reviewer just thought it may have ended too abruptly--and that a final chapter on how not all human well-being comes from being the most productive one possibly can, may have served it well.

I loved Duhigg's previous book (The Power of Habit), and was delighted to find that this follow-up offering lived up to the precedent. This is a deceptively easy read - very user friendly and easy to get into, but packed with the kind of information that both makes you think and makes you itch to go find a highlighter or pen to mark up the pages. The author pulls from a wide array of source material, and brings it all together in a happily coherent and cohesive way. He moves smoothly between examples, and makes all of his points clearly.

I was very happy with this and will definitely be recommending it to others!

This book smacks of a marketing-driven rush, rather than an author with something important to say. Hot on the heels of 'Habits', anything will sell well, I suppose. While some anecdotes are interesting, they don't tie together well to support the author's point.

Charles Duhigg is well on his way to becoming the most important business writer in the industry. His ability to combine a narrative with business acumen make him a must read for any business leader. He has a unique ability to draw from a broad range of subjects to lay out a clear framework and structure for businesses, teams, and individuals become more effective. In doing so, his novel is applicable to virtually anyone who is seeking to identify a path to become more productive. I found this book to be even better than his exceptional first book 'The Power of Habit'. I can't wait until his next publication.

A fascinating read, but I must agree with many of the reviews, in the sense that the title is a bit misleading. I initially sought out the book thinking it was a self-help book, when really it reads more like a business case study Outliers page turner. Nonetheless, there is a lot of great material here and a lot of interesting business principles and practices that are perhaps rarely discussed in everyday life are brought to the forefront for discussion.

A great read on how to be more productive, both as an individual and in a team. Specifically the chapter on psychological safety has proved to be particularly valuable and is one of the biggest additions to the work that I now do with clients.

Charles Duhigg hits it out of the park, again. Here is an author that is taking his advice! How refreshing. After the blockbuster Habits, his new book, Smarter Faster Better discusses the elements of people and teams that wage success. Always told in story format, Duhigg packs tons of research, facts and science for each example. The stories he tells stick with you. I still remember the cookie break story from his HABITS book! Told over 8 chapters there is advice in each one that you can begin using today. Chapters include Motivation; Teams; Focus; Goal Setting; Managing Others; Decision Making; Innovation and Absorbing Data.

Each chapter provides you with two to three gripping, interesting and teaching stories about how the topic of the chapter, i.e., MOTIVATION or TEAMS work best. Also included in the tales are the failures for the topics and why.

In the appendix of the book, you buy will be the most important part of the book, "A Reader's Guide to Using these Ideas." I am hoping beyond hope that they post that chapter on the book's website, as I did not receive that chunk of the book with my review copy.

After reading Duhigg's books, you will gain a lot of insight into how and why his writing is so important. I think the only other author that explains things in this way may be Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, et al.).

Smarter Faster Better is a book to keep on your desk and refer to weekly

A well written, enjoyable read. There were plenty of real life anecdotes to get across the key points. However, I didn't find anything ground breaking or come across any ideas that I hadn't heard of in another format. Worth reading, particularly if you haven't read anything else similar.

Listening to and Reading this book stimulated me to feel like I could accomplish anything that I set my mind to! From utilizing mental models to considering stretch goals to improve the ways in which I care for my patients, I was able to organize insight using existing tools to accomplish my treatment plans . Duhigg's reference to nurse Darlene who able to save the life of a newborn by using all of her senses and intuition to create a mental model of a healthy vs sick patient really spoke to me. It is important for all of us to recognize elements like illness, depression, withdrawal and even deceit in our work with others . Then, we can recognize and appreciate positive attributes of those we encounter at home and in our professions.

Helpful book, unique in its approach and full of great ideas. I also thought the author did a great job of explaining the various ideas and processes. I read a lot of these books and thought his take on it was quite unique. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their overall productivity and focus on what matters.

I learned a lot from this book. And, I’d have to say that the author achieved his goal of demonstrating how cognitive theory and organizational psychology can be applied to becoming more effective at getting things done. I’d give it a two thumbs-up.

~an honest review in exchange for an ARC
6/6/16

Thoroughly enjoyed it and found the vignettes Duhigg used to illustrate his points were captivating. And the concepts are applicable to our lives as well, not just some fancy story telling that has no application for us mere mortals.

Damn Duhigg, back at it again with the amazing insights. Charle's has surpassed his previous masterpiece The Power of Habit with this excellent read. The narrative and stories themselves are interesting enough to keep you engaged if the self-help genre is not your cup of tea.

I honestly think this book is the most significant read since Jim Collins' Good to Great. The concepts that he discuss aren't all new, but when combined with the real life examples of success, they illustrate how someone can make things happen for themselves. I'm even considering buying the kindle version so I can highlight some notes. Thank you Charles for such an excellent piece of work.

Being a recent college graduate with a Business Management degree, I was looking forward to reading and applying the wisdom from this book. Unfortunately, the information and advice gets lost in the long-winded “stories.” Many times I just scratched my head trying to link the stories to the strategy being presented. Since I had difficulty relating to the examples, I was not able to apply the concepts as written by Charles Duhigg.

Wow, I love this book. I love the examples, I love the lessons. Charles is a masterful storyteller - every example was engaging; to back that up with interesting science that is applicable in everyone's life, I am so impressed. I thought this was a 'I have to read this' but good golly, it's a must read.

If you are a smart person, reading this book will hurt your brain. I listened to a few chapters of the Audible version, and it was so so slow, and repetitive, that I wanted to poke my eardrums out. Sure, there are a couple of interesting points made, but, even those I question in terms of relevance. If you are above average IQ, you dont need this book.

I found this book both helpful and enjoyable to read. My only criticism is that the best content, in which the author applies the lessons to his own life, was buried in the back. I would have preferred to have seen those individual insights woven throughout the book instead. A minor critique in an otherwise great book.

If you've done any reading on personal performance or productivity during the last 20 years, this material is highly redundant. I took nothing new from this material at all. The footnotes and references draw from material that I've already read. I found very little new here.

Being productive - in a Smarter, Faster, and Better way - is now a prerequisite on how one uses their time, such that, being productive (in many ways) has become an end goal in itself. This book describes the eight ways; one can improve in professional lives and one's personal lives. Each of the eight aspects is set out with details, examples, key takeaways, and its core wisdom. Written in a beautiful prose, which is simple and easy to grasp, the book compels us to think - as we read - on how a particular aspect ought to be applied or if one knows about it, to apply it more logically and scientifically. Last chapter, which summarizes the eight ways of being productive, is pleasantly surprising. As it describes the way the author used these concepts while writing this book - and by doing so, the author shows that the practical application of the key takeaways is a continuous learning process.

I'm giving this book the benefit of the doubt but it really should be rated 3.5 stars. There is a LOT of research here but I didn't really get a feel for what the author felt. What conclusions did he mean to draw? Where does he want the reader to go with all this information? There were nearly 100 pages of notes and references. I would have preferred a little more digesting on Mr. Duhigg's part. That being said, I did enjoy some parts of the book. My particular favorite was the chapter on Innovation, which could have been called Creative Thinking. Many of the other chapters - Motivation, Goal Setting, Teams, etc., where subjects that have been covered extensively elsewhere. Not much new thinking or information here unless you really don't have any experience in these subjects at all. Since I read the Advanced Reader's Edition, there was no appendix - A Reader's Guide for Using these Ideas. That might have made a difference.

Overall, I will say I am a big fan of Duhigg's previous book The Power of Habit. This one felt more as if I were reading a group of articles written for a scientific magazine, not a cohesive book of ideas. Just so the reader knows what s/he is getting into.

The book opens with him telling about a genius surgeon, author, renaissance man, who still has time to do fun things with his kids. duhigg says he wanted to interview him, and learn his secrets. he then dropped the issue. he did a horrible narrative about the yom kipper war, and other unrelated topics.
how to be smarter faster better he concludes? make to do lists, and be flexible.

In the book Smarter Faster Better, author Charles Duhigg examines the secrets of being productive in business. Duhigg draws on the science of leadership and gives examples from individuals and businesses about leadership.
I would recommend this book. It has some great stories and insights. The author does not connect the ideas until he gives personal examples in the appendix. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There has to be a Smarter, Faster, Better way to make his points. Painfully drawn out dramatics. He keeps the reader in a crashing cockpit way too long and it feels like its to drag out the book rather than share his point. I've never written a negative review on a book, but sorry, I had to on this one. I felt that I was punishing myself every time I forced myself to listen to it, in hopes that he would finally teach me some I could use to get things done, smarter, faster, better. Instead, I'm just left annoyed with him for taking up so much time.

I loved Duhigg's previous book (The Power of Habit), and was delighted to find that this follow-up offering lived up to the precedent. This is a deceptively easy read - very user friendly and easy to get into, but packed with the kind of information that both makes you think and makes you itch to go find a highlighter or pen to mark up the pages. The author pulls from a wide array of source material, and brings it all together in a happily coherent and cohesive way. He moves smoothly between examples, and makes all of his points clearly.

I was very happy with this and will definitely be recommending it to others!

I had high hopes for Smarter Faster Better because I thought Duhigg’s first book, The Power of Habit, was excellent. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in this effort. Reading this book is like watching a science-light show on television: each chapter takes about as long as a half-hour show, it’s entertaining and has engaging stories, and at the end you realize you didn’t get that much out of it. If you want to be entertained, read the whole book. Or you can save time and just read the Appendix.

A good book to make you understand how to just be better at what you do. Chapters are designed as Teams, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing Others, Decision Making, Innovation and Absorbing Data. All are good to great, but the Focus chapter is just short of brilliant. If you need to recharge your ideas for making things work well.....this will help you. If you are just wanting to feel good about the things you have planned in a good manner......this is for you. If you want to figure out how to get your stuff together, this will help. Solid read I hope this helps someone.

Get to the point already. While the lessons are solid, the stories used to illustrate the author's points are unnecessarily long and redundant. I tried to listen to it via Audible book and returned it after 3 chapters. Cut the book in half and it you might have something worth listening to/reading.

I was so excited when I got the option to preorder this book because I loved his first one. I love the stories he tells and how easy he makes it for me to think about how I can apply it to myself and how to be better than yesterday

Here are "The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business:" Motivation, Teams, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing Others, Decision Making, Innovation, and Absorbing Data." If you read that list and think "well, great -- what does that have to do with me and how am I supposed to implement those qualities in my less than optimally productive life?" -- you may very well feel that way after reading the book. The author is, I suspect, coasting on the success of his NYT bestseller The Power of Habit. This book is filled with engaging examples of each Secret, although, as a previous reviewer noted, sometimes they do seem to go on and on. There is some discussion of how those Secrets are viewed in recent findings in neuroscience, psychology and behavioral economics, but the author fails to connect the dots and demonstrate how an ordinary person can implement these things in their lives. Yes, I realize that an intelligent person may be able to glean nuggets of truth from the text and apply them, but what makes a truly useful book is a little bit of help from the author, who has spent far more time with the subject than I. This is more like an interesting compendium that you might turn to for help in writing a paper on the subject yourself. Perhaps it never promised to be more, but when the blurb on the back of the book says that it is "a groundbreaking exploration of the science of productivity, one that can help anymore get more done without sacrificing what we care about most" -- I expected it. I think "ground-breaking" is overstating it, and I personally feel like the book is not truly finished.

I found this book extraordinarily useful in measuring business and personal life decisions up until now and the reasons for them. It has helped me make sense of my strengths and weaknesses to improve my life going forward. I read the 1 star reviews and, simply put, I believe these people do not know how to read a book.

Fascinating look at productivity across a variety of organizations. Terrific storytelling results in a real page turner, a rarity for business books. A compelling combination of storytelling, anecdotes, and research leave the reader with fascinating insights into culture and productivity in the workplace.

I must say, that I doubt that the people who gave this book a 5 or 4 stars actually read it. This is the worst book I have ever read. Actually got the audio. What a waste of time. I did not learn one thing. All I heard was story telling that gave you nothing to take with you. The reader by the way was excellent and he was actually why I kept up to the 2 chapter. It was very bad from other self help books I have read. It literally taught me nothing. Absolutely NOTHING. and it was painful to keep going withoutpicking up any new skill or great insight. A big waste of time! I will try returning it to get my money back.DO NOT BUY AT LEAST A NEW COPY FOR LESS THAN 5 BUCKS IF YOU HAVE $5 BUCK TO WASTE!

Yawn. Very intuitive findings... Give everyone in the group a voice, have social sensitivity, use constructive criticism. Basic, uninteresting findings. Probably best for an out of touch leader or HR person but man this just wasn't that eye-opening.

I'm sorry I enjoyed his first book but this feels like a 6 page PDF turned into a painful tomb. I am trying to finish the audio version but I fear I am about to ask for a refund. It's just not worth one's time.

At first the anecdotes were entertaining, but they went on and on and on. The "secrets" seemed more like common sense, I didn't read anything new. In most cases, I'm not quite sure exactly how one might implement these secrets.

In a book like this, I like to see the secrets listed clearly and concisely, followed by straight forward steps on implementation and then anecdotes if necessary. This book it's mostly vague anecdotes that may or may not relate to the secret.

One of the best summaries that I read about of what we need to pay attention to improve our lives and some very good tips on how to do it. Everything using real histories, impacting our business and our personal life.

I'm recommending this book at our next staff meeting, as it's filled with fabulous information about making your work life easier and more productive. Learning how teams can work together more efficiently and with less stress is important information.

The book arrived it a timely manner and was an excellent read! I couldn't put it down until I had read cover to cover! I am really hoping to implement some of the authors strategies and tips into my life!! Must read!

As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a collection of stories; different examples that are anecdotal in nature to demonstrate how to be more productive. If you're looking for step by step instructions on how to be more productive, this isn't it, nor is it the book that will package up a series of stories and tie them together at the end with a common lesson or theme.

Probably my favorite review of this book was this one - http://amzn.to/1oHsBdI - because I agree with the author's overall assessment of the structure and content of the text, and because I also prefer biographies rather than anecdotes when I want to learn in depth about a person's character, success and failures, personality, and experiences.

However, there are times when I find a book like this to be just what I'm looking to read. Especially when I'm traveling, I like something exactly like this - short, digestible stories from which I learn something new. Not that the info inside the book is new - many readers will be familiar with many of the stories already. I don't see this as a how-to book or a list of tips and tricks, nor do I see it as a business focused book or a self-help text. I see it, perhaps oddly, as a feel good book that helped me think about some of the skills, habits, and character traits I have and how perhaps I'm not appreciating them or underutilizing them - or how they are a detriment to me. That was my takeaway - the author focuses on 8 aspects of productivity, provides a scenario/story with research from various fields such as psychology, neurocience, business - and personalizes it.

This is a storyteller's guide to productivity. I had a hard time engaging with it and got lost in the stories without any immediate takeaways.
A couple years ago I read Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours and found it much more helpful. I was hoping that I would get more out of Smarter Faster Better, but think Extreme Productivity had more that I could implement right away.

Great read, very fast and informative. This book summarizes eight categories that will help you be more productive, highlighting two or three stories in each section. The storytelling in the book was really the best part of it - each illustration was well thought out and interesting, making the book easy to get through and remember.

That said, I'm not sure if the book live up to its tagline of 'the secrets of being productive in life and business.' While it does highlight and provide strong arguments for best practices for each section, it doesn't feel as connected to overall productivity as I expected.

Though each section is 30-40 pages, the main points can easily be summarized in sentence or two, making for simple takeaways that you can actually apply. The sections focus on:

* Motivation
* Teams
* Focus
* Goal Setting
* Managing Others
* Decision Making
* Innovation
* Absorbing Data

Because I received an early copy of the book, there are a few things missing that I am assuming will be strong additions, especially the implementation guide at the end of the book and online resources. While each section is a great read, practical takeaways would be much easier with a few additional tools made available at the end of the book and online.

Bottom line: While this book may not live up to its tagline of the secrets of being productive, it does highlight the most effective ways to build teams, motivate, absorb data quickly, and much more. If you are looking for a fascinating read that will give you some real takeaways in one of these areas, buy this book. Highly recommended.

If you haven't read any of the hundred books in the last year or two that tell you how to become more effective via applying "science", you might find this book useful. For me, absolutely nothing new and is simply the author cashing in on the success of his last book. He is a good writer, but not a "expert" in the area he writes. I prefer a high level of expertise. Lots of stories which are the special effects of the book, but nothing new. The fact that he is a NY Times writer ensures the good gets noticed but the endorsement by Susan Cain--I doubt she read the book--notches down its credibility as these days, her name is on every new book. She's no introvert. In essence, if you want to be smarter, faster, and better, spend your time elsewhere.

Duhigg takes his passion for personal and professional improvement to another level in Smarter, Faster, Better. He covers a lot of ground including Leadership, Team Dynamics, Motivation and Decision Making, and manages to bring new ideas and energy to often dry topics.

At his core Duhigg is a writer who is a lot like us, he wants to do his best. His books are an exploration on improving himself through exploration and distilling great concepts. From the Power of Habit to Smarter, Faster, Better, we get great books and a writer who is sharing ideas we all can use.

I enjoyed reading Charles Duhigg's previous book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, and so I was excited to get started on his new book. This one is more like a business casebook, with each chapter focusing on eight motivational concepts. Duhigg writes great narrative non-fiction and each concept is explained using actual business situations, for example, how the team concept is used by writers at Saturday Night Live or using "forecasting the future" with Bayesian psychology and applying it to win at championship poker. Many of the tips outlined in these chapters can be used to help you frame your daily decisions resulting in more efficient productivity. One warning, however, I read the chapter on mental models which describes how aviation experts use mental models to help pilots respond to emergencies, while I was traveling on a long flight to Los Angeles. While this was an engrossing chapter, learning about how pilots can fail to react while you are actually flying on a plane was not a pleasant experience.

Smarter Faster Better has such a gripping start! It begins will Charles Duhigg, the author, emailing hyper-productive Atul Gawande, who happened to be a friend of a colleague of Duhigg. He wants Atul to share his secrets of being smarter, faster, and better than 99.99% of humanity.

But the book never reveals Atul's insights. Fail.

The book is divided into 8 chapters (you can see them in the table of contents with the Search Inside feature).

Each chapter is basically a case study. Like Malcolm Gladwell, Duhigg uses an interesting story to illustrate his point. If you find Gladwell's use of this technique convincing, then you'll love this book.

I was unconvinced.
Stories are just that: stories.
I eventually tired of them and started skimming to the end.

I prefer being buried with statistics. If 87% of the Atuls of the world get up before 6 a.m., then I will too.
Give me concrete how-to instructions or just shut up.

The only useful part of the book is the appendix. That's why it deserves a star. However, even the takeaways in the appendix are banal. Stretch goals? Heard all about them. Envision multiple futures using Bayesian instincts? Sounds like technobabble.

Skip.​

FIRST, CONSIDER THE SOURCE

Author Charles Duhigg is a reporter for the New York Times. His first book "The Power of Habit" was a bestseller. He was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for a series about Apple named "The iEconomy". He contributed to NYT series about the 2008 financial crisis and how companies took advantage of the elderly and national violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. He seems like the kind of ambitious and honorable reporter you would find straight out of the script pages of the recent movie "Spotlight".

It is clear that Charles Duhigg is thorough, investigative and passionate about any subject he tackles. He genuinely wants to motivate the reader... and he will (for some readers).

For me, books of this sort are always an indispensable and inexpensive form of motivational therapy. I've read Zigler, Carnegie, Covey, Maslow, Daniel Pink's book "Drive," Brian Tracy on "Goals"... All great books. In fact, there is no dearth of books, articles and theories when it comes to the subject of motivation and a productive life.

Author Duhigg delves deep into the subject within the eight chapters.

I personally enjoyed the chapters on Focus and Goal Setting and Decision Making and was familiar with the tragic flight 447 story and the subject of cognitive tunneling. I also know that his example of how successful people spend an enormous amount of time seeking out information on failures, is true and counterintuitive. I enjoyed the entertainment anecdotes and examples including SNL, Frozen and West Side Story.

When it comes to you the reader, you'll have to ask: what do you want to get out of the book? What is your motivation for buying it? "Smarter, Faster, Better" could be applicable to anyone ranging from the entrepreneur, project manager, student or employee.

DOES CORRELATION IMPLY CAUSATION?

You read this book and the various stories and try to apply them to your life or situation. The result? That will depend on you.

Are secrets or keys to a more productive life or business inclusive in Smarter, Faster, Better?

Again, that depends on you and your experience. Some readers may find the stories incongruent with their lifestyles. Duhigg points out the problems of "information blindness" in his chapter on "Absorbing Data" and believe me, his book is loaded with data. So my suggestion is: if there is a correlation in some of the stories or theories then you might find causation. If not, then correlation does not apply nor does it imply causation.

I received a kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and Random House (the publisher). It was with the understanding that I would write a review for Net Galley, the store, Goodreads and my review blog. I have also placed it on my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I had previously read and reviewed Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit". I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found it very useful for myself and personally recommended it to a number of people.

Smarter, Faster, Better falls into the same category as "The Power of Habit". Duhigg's ability to make the subject engaging through the use of numerous examples makes the book a quick read. It does not feel like you are reading a self development/business book. Each chapter focuses on a different subject, but they are all interrelated.

I particularly liked the appendix where he boiled the book down into very focused actions that one can take to be smarter, faster and better.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in becoming more productive. I will definitely be personally recommending this book as well.

I'm not much for self help books, they're like romance novels, there are an abundance, endless supply, but really don't do much yet they keep coming out. But after reading the description for this book I was intrigued thinking maybe it was just labeled wrong. And I was right.

I don't know what category it should be in, maybe history or research, but it does have some great historical stories that provide some excellent ideas. As far as self help goes, however, there are no steps to accomplish the ideas presented.

For instance there are two great stories about pilots with plane trouble and the disaster or near disaster of each. While we are given the reason why one of the pilots was able to avoid disaster what we don't know is how he got there, how did he train himself to remain calm and come up with a decision on how to safely land the plane when he only had minutes to do so AND concentrate on what was going on. I know from personal experience no matter how trained you are or how well you know the situation some panic will set in that will disrupt your train of thought even slightly.

We also don't get the real outcome for all the research companies like Google did to create better team environments. Nothing is perfect so what have they done or changed since they developed these new procedures?

The ideas are great but we are left figuring out how to develop them in our own lives. Of course it will take at least another book but as I questioned before how did these people actually come to the solutions?

Overall, the stories were fun to read, the ideas are great, yet we are given the expectation it will change our lives but we aren't given anything to do so.

Smarter Faster Better is an amazing read! The information was presented anecdotally and was simply easy to read. This book was interesting from start to finish. Chapter 4 was especially powerful to me as it was written about focus. The psychology behind each chapter allowed me to learn something about myself and shift my thinking in other areas so that I may improve and grow.

Great read. Do recommend!

I received a galley copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my review. My opinion is honest and my own.

Truly fascinating! I am very impressed with Charles Duhigg's work. I really liked The Power of Habit and this one is as good if not better. Very engaging writing and wonderful new and interesting information. I can see many places where I will want to put these ideas to use at work and at home. I am grateful to NetGalley & Random House for providing an advance copy in exchange for my honest review. Mr. Duhigg please keep writing! I'll be waiting with baited breath!

I really enjoyed the author's first book "The Power of Habit" and looked forward to reading this book. Although it's written in the same engaging manner some of the stories/examples do go on a bit more than I felt was necessary. The length didn't add anything to the examples. After co-creating a successful sales business most of the material presented seemed obvious to me when you are dealing with people. What I found most interesting was the first story which covered how the marines changed their boot camp training. The military found that new recruits were lacking in decision making and ambition/purpose. By incorporating decision making into their training, forcing recruits to make a decision and praising them ( when called for) really helped the recruits. That would be a good carryover into business if you have a person who would improve their skills through making more decisions, leading them to be more confident and productive.
That being said I do feel this book would be a beneficial to someone starting out in businessor starting their professional career. Depending upon the education one has already received, this material may have already been taught. It reads quickly especially if you skim the redundant parts.

I was looking for Power Healing: EFT: The Healing Power of EFT (Healing Power : EFT Book 1) when I got to this book. It reminded me of an all theme I read on neurolinguistic programming combined with emotional freedom technique and wrapped together into self development. Habits are sometimes a saver and sometimes a nuisance. A habit can save lives. A habit can ruin lives. Emotional freedom techniques eliminates these habits. Neurolinguistic programming brings them forward and self development helps recognising where we stand in the middle of them. So, I would place this book as a must read between the NLP, the EFT and self development. Why 5 stars? Because the author serviced the need of knowledge in the direction that provides a platform to expand away from.

This is so full of helpful information that was presented in a way that kept me glued to the book. It was divided into 8 categories and although every one of them was helpful and fascinating, there were two that especially spoke to my author heart. I recommend it to everyone-- it was so inspiring!

I enjoyed this book when I was finally able to get it from the library, and look forward to giving the Kindle edition a higher rating when the publishers choose to issue it at a reasonable Kindle price.

Fantastic book for understanding what leads to productivity. Provides clear steps to stay motivated, set goals that are both stretch and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound), focus and improving decision making skills Highly recommend!

PRODUCTIVITY is an 8-SLICES PIZZA
1. Self Motivation. And he key to self motivation is KNOWING we are in control.
2. Team work is tremendously, successful when we feel safe, not subjects but the ability to have an Object.(voice). understand each other's by looking them in-the-eye will boost.
3. If you can't focus you can't fly, and the key to FOCUS , is to use the EYES.
4. Have a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Achivable, Raelisitc, Timley) and make sure your ego (smaller) than your goal. If you ego gets bigger, stretch your....goal.
5. Being committed to your employees, is the key to a successful resources management.
6. The key to excellent decision makings is collecting data, and collecting data has to be done, all the time, in an intelligent systematic approach.
7. Do you want to see miracles? Then reasonable creative ideas should elevate into something real, that is what is called innovation.
8. Use computer systems.

I really really wanted to like this book and I will admit I have not fully yet finished the entire thing but am more than 2/3 through. I guess I’m writing this because of my frustration with in and the lost hope that it will come through. If it does I’ll be sure to remove this post.
This book is overly anecdotal. Within the sludge of storytelling there were maybe two or three actually real world applications.
Worst of all there have been a couple of instances when I feel we’re about to get some applicable exercise and then it veers right back to the always overdrawn slew of boring stories.
I see the intention here and I applaud the author for putting all this together. However the book could have been shorter by at least 20% with much more useful applications instead.

Oh the eternal quest, being more effective and productive at what we do. How can we achieve this nirvana (asks this reviewer, who is being distracted by email and other online things at the time of writing)?

Well, this book claims to have some ideas and takes a science-led approach to the problem. It certainly appears convincing and well thought out. Applying it might be the harder part, demanding great discipline and drive. We may know we want to change, but effecting it…?

In many cases a lot of our attitudes can be shaped by who we are working with, how we interact with them and our collective outlook to matters. We receive reflections from others and, in turn, we reflect our own values back to them. A vicious circle, perhaps, that needs to be broken, in the cases when a sub-optimal signal is being sent. The author says that central to his idea of “Smarter Faster Better” working are eight concepts, build around findings in neuroscience, psychology and behavioural economics and supplemented with real-world experience and interviews of many people from top CEOs to even Broadway songwriters.

The key takeaway point is that the most productive people, companies and organizations don’t just act differently but they view the world and their choices, in profoundly different ways. This is a book to read and enjoy. It conveys a certain credibility and authority that is often lacking in many productivity improving-type books. Of course, the easy part is reading it – the more difficult part may be putting the ideas into practice. The author cannot help you here, other than giving a lot of inspiration and practical help.

Even if you don’t manage (or want to implement) the change, the sheer mass of information will at least make you a better-informed person. The science, history and real-world experiences are fascinating reading in their own right. It is a book definitely worth further scrutiny!

This is a terrific book. I learned so much the first time through - but plan to read it a few times, as there is so much in it. Duhigg is a super writer, and what could have been dry and tedious is engrossing in his hands. I thought I would dip into it, and ended up reading it as though it were a novel. I loved "The Power of Habit" - spectacular book - and this one is at least as good - maybe better? Hard to do a comparison, and not necessary - read both and you won't be sorry. I was almost turned off by the word "Faster." Smarter and better are good - faster? People are being urged to do things faster, and as you might notice, it isn't helping at all. Smarter and better do help. I suspect that either some marketer decided to insert "Faster" into the title to entice type A personalities to read it - as they should! - or Duhigg himself, who is obviously one smart cookie, did it for the same reason. However, no need to get turned off - this is all about smarter and better and in the end, those things might add up to faster. All in all, this is a marvelous book, and it is not just for "bidness" people or managers, it can help all of us in managing our lives. The chapter on decision making was an eye opener, and my husband and I used the techniques to revisit a big decision we have to make very soon. We realized that we were not asking the right questions, so what should have been an informed decisions was turning into a gamble. Now we will ask the right questions, and make, we hope, a better decision. The chapter on management is so excellent, that we are buying copies to distribute to some managers we know who make lots of mistakes, and might, just might, get on track a bit more if they can pay attention. Absolutely the best management atechniques anywhere, and in one chapter!

There are some Business or self-help books that stick with you forever. That are game-changers. Think of Tony Robbins Awaken the Giant Within or even Mastering the Complex Sale by Thull (I have no affiliation to either of these people or books). Those books changed my life and the way I do things. This particular book I read about a month ago and I honestly have forgotten most of its contents. I am an avid book reader of fiction and business and generally can keep great track of each book. At no point during reading this book did I think, "Wow, this is revelatory." What I will say, is that if this is the only business or self-help book you have picked up for the past several years, there are anecdotes here (Stories) that will help you and entertain you. I always say if you can take one great thing from a book and use it consistently, this makes everything worthwhile. I am not sure that happened here, but what I do think it did was reinforce some of the things I have learned over the years. Overall, if you read a lot of business books-I would look elsewhere. if you want somewhere to start, this would be worth your time. Overall a bit disappointing.

The concept of being more productive is intriguing and what drew me to this audio book. The stories were well-told and kept my attention.The appendix where the author applies the information to his own situation were insightful. The idea of creating stretch goals and smart goals for each key item you want to accomplish was enlightening and then the application to his own writing situations and practical goals. Also learning to focus on the why and understand why you are doing something and how it fits into the overall process was insightful for me as a listener.

To get the most mileage out of this book, it is not just listening to the stories but applying the information into my every day and work life. I found the book valuable and recommend it.

W. Terry Whalin is an editor and the author of more than 60 books including his latest: Billy Graham: A Biography of America's Greatest Evangelist

Please disregard the people that wrote bad reviews. They would be keeping you from reading a book that could change your life. This book CHANGED MY LIFE! A lot of interesting information and ways to implement. My personal favorite DONT TELL KIDS THEYRE SMART. Instead use phrases like I can tell you worked hard on that, it’s amazing. The book explains it better than I ever could but the affect is real and I’ve seen the difference first hand in my kids immediately after implementing that simple change! second favorite is NEVER CRITICIZE! The book informs us how to implement that very difficult idea. Even how to get your point across without doing so, also informs us of the consequences of doing so. What a book! Thank you Charles for your time and effort in sharing this priceless information!

Charles Duhigg hits it out of the park, again. Here is an author that is taking his advice! How refreshing. After the blockbuster Habits, his new book, Smarter Faster Better discusses the elements of people and teams that wage success. Always told in story format, Duhigg packs tons of research, facts and science for each example. The stories he tells stick with you. I still remember the cookie break story from his HABITS book! Told over 8 chapters there is advice in each one that you can begin using today. Chapters include Motivation; Teams; Focus; Goal Setting; Managing Others; Decision Making; Innovation and Absorbing Data.

Each chapter provides you with two to three gripping, interesting and teaching stories about how the topic of the chapter, i.e., MOTIVATION or TEAMS work best. Also included in the tales are the failures for the topics and why.

In the appendix of the book, you buy will be the most important part of the book, "A Reader's Guide to Using these Ideas." I am hoping beyond hope that they post that chapter on the book's website, as I did not receive that chunk of the book with my review copy.

After reading Duhigg's books, you will gain a lot of insight into how and why his writing is so important. I think the only other author that explains things in this way may be Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, et al.).

Smarter Faster Better is a book to keep on your desk and refer to weekly

Charles Duhigg throws in a productive punch. Like his previous work with Ther power of Habit, this book uses anecdotal evidence to back its claims. The stories are gripping and will make you forget what you have in your hand is a book on productivity. From focus to information overload to creativity, Charles talks about the 8 areas of productivity. Every story is gripping and it's fascinating how Charles ties productivity into each of these stories. The book is not intended to make you productive in a conventional sense. It is meant to help you make choices that make you more productive. It is meant to make you think better. We all have very different takes on productivity, but this book will show you none of it matters if you don't get the fundamentals right. I thought productivity belonged to one individual, but the book shows how small teams, movie crews and even entire organizations can become productive. There is no pomodoro, sleep hack and nutrition talk fluff. This is an all new perspective on productivity and every story will captivate you. Just when you think where Charles is going with this story, he will tie it in elegantly and throw in the powerful productivity punch. This is a must read-keep and revisit.

I loved his book The Power of Habit and this time his approach was to research the universal concepts that can help us improve our effectiveness, and in the process becoming smarter, faster and better and everything we do. Very cool read! Effectiveness in life allows us all to live more aligned with our purpose.

Listen and read the full review at The Hidden Why dot com. Leigh Martinuzzi - The Hidden Why Guy