18 minutes. How to increase concentration, stop being distracted and do really important things (P. Bregman)

Abstract

18 Minutes is an incredibly smart and endlessly practical guide that explains how to make informed and thoughtful decisions, what to do and what not to do, how to deal with distractions—sometimes using them, sometimes avoiding them—how to structure time so that to achieve maximum efficiency, how to understand who you are, and how to best use your abilities to achieve happiness, productivity and success. With it, you will learn how to make a plan for each day, ensuring that from now on all your most important things will be done.

Introduction

Molly got a new job as head of training and development at a medium-sized investment bank. On the first day, she turned on her computer, entered her password, opened her email program, and gasped.

She worked less than a minute — and already received 385 messages. It will take more than one day to sort them out. And by that time there will be hundreds of new ones.

In the morning we start work, knowing that we will not have time to do everything we have planned. And we look back at the past years, asking ourselves: where did they go and why dreams did not come true.

Time is the only thing that cannot be returned. Lost money? Earn more. Lost a friend? You can reconcile. Lost your job? Find another. Over time, this number will not pass.

My friend, Rabbi Chaim Engel, always takes something to read when he goes to a meeting. Why? “Because,” he told me, “according to the Talmud (Jewish law), being late for an appointment commits the sin of stealing—stealing the other person’s time. And this is the most serious theft, because time cannot be returned. I do not want anyone to sin because of me, so in case I have to wait, I take care that the other person does not become a thief.

And yet we constantly steal time from ourselves. Here are three stories on the subject.