Inspire Your Team to Read a "Book-a-Month" on Time Management!

     

PIC No. 99: Pails in Comparison (April 26, 2025)

Welcome to Pails in Comparison, the sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—short reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system. 

Time Management Book-a-Month!

Call me crazy—but for the next 12 months or so, I’m going to read (or reread) a “time management” book every month. Join me!

The craziness started when my wife, Joanne, discovered a little gem on her favorite bookshelf of Really Old Books (many found in antiquarian bookshops in our travels). 

She asked (with that doubting tone), “John, have you ever read this?”

As I paged through the 1910 clothbound edition of How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day, I discovered a Christmas note from a coworker, Emily. She had given me this book when we worked together in the 1980s at what is now known as CCCA. And yikes—I don’t recall ever reading it—even though I’ve always appreciated time management books. (My bad!)

THERE’S MORE. Two weeks ago at the Tuesday morning weekly prayer gathering of our church, Scott Anderson shared a brief story he had written, “My Day at the Play.” (Read it here.) Oh, my. You will never forget this story.

The young boy in the story asked the usher if he could get advance tickets for all the plays yet to come. The usher responded, “It just doesn’t work that way ….one ticket for one day…. that’s the deal.“

So…I’m reading the book, How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day, and Scott shares his story about “one ticket for one day…” Plus, Joanne asked me another one of her probing questions:

JOANNE: “John, that stack of books on the floor in your office—what’s that about?”

ME: “Oh, I’ve been thinking about books on time management. And…before you respond, I know. I’m not good at it! That stack has stared at me for two months now.”

THUS…this issue of Pails in Comparison. The following books are now OFF the floor and ONTO my reading schedule. Join me and/or delegate your reading and inspire one team member each month to share a snippet in your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

Note: This is the NEW location for John Pearson's Pails in Comparison Blog. Slowly (!), the previous 100+ blogs posted (between 2022 and 2025) will gradually populate this blogsite, along with new book reviews each month. Visit John Pearson's Buckets Blog for more book reviews. Subscribe here to receive every issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews.

[   ] #1. How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett (2017 edition, 60 pages). Order from Amazon and watch for my review.
   • Favorite quote (so far): “Most people sleep themselves stupid.”

 

 

[   ] #2. Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind, by Jocelyn K. Glei, Editor (253 pages). (Order from Amazon.)
   • “Should you answer that email, or answer your calling?”

 

[   ] #3. Tyranny of the Urgent (Revised & Expanded), by Charles E. Hummel (31 pages). Order from Amazon and watch for my review.
   • “Have you ever wished for a thirty-hour day?” Hummel answers his own question: “But wouldn’t we soon be just as frustrated as we are now with our twenty-four-hour allotment?”

 

[   ] #4. Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem, by Kevin DeYoung (128 pages). Order from Amazon and watch for my review.
   • Chapter 4: “The Terror of Total Obligation—Diagnosis #2: You Are Trying to Do What God Does Not Expect You to Do.” 

 

[   ] #5. Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, by Richard A Swenson, M.D. (240 pages). Watch for my review. Order from Amazon.
   • Dr. Swenson is very, very practical. The margin doctor suggests you deactivate your voicemail, or record this message, “Please wait for the beep and hang up.” 

 

[   ] #6. Practicing the Present: The Neglected Art of Living in the Now, by John Koessler (224 pages). Order from Amazon. (Read my first review.)
   • Oh, my. I needed this. By page 11, I grabbed my pen. I didn’t release that holy tool until I had underlined almost the entire book. This. Book. Changed. My. Thinking (and my heart). Oh, my.

 

[   ] #7. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen (352 pages). Watch for my review. Order from Amazon.
   • “The real issue is how we manage action.”  Example: Will a task take less than two minutes? Do it. If more than two minutes: delegate it or defer it. (Allen has a helpful yes/no flowchart for handling “stuff.”)  He uses “buckets” terminology (I like this guy) and says you must master the five functions of collection, processing, organizing, reviewing and doing.

 

[   ] #8. Your 168: Finding Purpose and Satisfaction in a Values-Based Life (Make Every Hour of Your Week Count), by Harry M. Jansen Kraemer Jr. (224 pages). Order from Amazon and watch for my review.
   • “No matter who you are, what you do for a living, where you live, or how productive you are, you only get 168 hours a week. The only difference is how you spend that time.”

 

 

[   ] #9. The 10-Second Rule: Following Jesus Made Simple, by Clare De Graaf (240 pages). Order from Amazon and read my first review.
   • “Just do the next thing you’re reasonably certain Jesus wants you to do—and do it within the next ten seconds.”

 

 

[   ] #10.The Power of a Half Hour: Take Back Your Life Thirty Minutes at a Time, by Tommy Barnett (224 pages). Order from Amazon and watch for my review.
   • “Read this book in half-hour spaces in your schedule. Each of the 30 chapters is short enough to read easily in a half hour.” Barnett adds, “You have heard that it takes about a month to establish a new habit? I urge you to use this thirty-day plan to make the power of a half hour a habit you will never break.”

 

[   ] #11. 42 Seconds: The Jesus Model for Everyday Interactions, by Carl Medearis (176 pages).  Order from Amazon and watch for my review.
   •   “Forty-two seconds: That’s the average length of Jesus’ conversations as recorded in the Bible.” The author suggests you read this book for inspiration or as a “four-week devotional that teaches you how to be like Jesus in your everyday interactions with those God has placed in your life.” 

 

 

#12. No! A Guide for Busy People: Banish Busyness and Focus on What Matters Most, by Doug Fields (105 pages). Read my first review. Order from Amazon.
   • “What I didn’t realize was that every ‘yes’ I was saying turned into an unspoken ‘no’ as well, often to the people most important to me.”

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Recalling these books reminded me of several other must-read books in the Team Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. 

[   ] Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work, by Nick Sonnenberg. (Order from Amazon.)

[   ] Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day, by Bob Phillips. (Read my review. Order from Amazon.)

[   ] 7 Seconds to Success: How to Effectively Relate to People in an Instant, by Gary Coffey and Bob Phillips. (Read my review. Order from Amazon.)

[   ] Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life, by Andrew V. Abela. (Read my review.)

[   ] The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, by Senator Joe Lieberman. (Read my review. Order from Amazon.)

[   ] “How CEOs Manage Time,” by Harvard Business School prof Michael E. Porter and Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria (11 pages) - Visit HBR.

TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the links above for one or all of the books. For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting.

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