Margin

  

PIC No. 107: Pails in Comparison (August 29, 2025)
Book #4 of 12 in the Time Management Series

• Title: Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives
• Author: Richard A. Swenson, MD
• Publisher: NavPress (Oct. 25, 2004, 240 pages)
• Management Bucket #9 of 20: The Team Bucket

Welcome to Issue No. 107 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system. 

The Cure for Overload

LOL! Dr. Richard Swenson’s book is very, very practical. The “margin doctor” suggests you deactivate your voicemail, or record this message, “Please wait for the beep and hang up.”

You must read this! This is Book #4 of 12 in our time management monthly series.

Margin features the cure for overloaded lives. If you don’t have time to read this book…nuff said!

Would it be a tad smug to mention that I wrote this issue a week in advance? Truth be told, that’s rarely the case—it’s often down to the wire. But back in 2008 in the new wireless, marginless age, I noticed that I was often the only relic on the rental car bus without his nose buried in his Blackberry or iPhone. (You remember "Blackberries," right?) Not that I have this subject mastered—far from it. It’s a daily discipline to build margin into my life.

So, tell me. How do you relate to Dr. Dick Swenson’s eloquent description below of the difference between living a marginless life versus the real thing? He writes:

Marginless is fatigue. Margin is energy.
Marginless is red ink; margin is black ink.
Marginless is hurry; margin is calm.
Marginless is anxiety; margin is security.
Marginless is culture; margin is counterculture.
Marginless is the disease of the new millennium; margin is the cure.

It’s likely that you—or several team members—live on the precipice of a marginless life, without adequate emotional energy, physical energy, time, or finances. A life WITH margin honors God—the opposite does not. If you’ve never read this classic, or it’s been a while since you’ve done a margin self-assessment, you’ll deeply appreciate Swenson’s practical and biblical look at a healthy life that is characterized by contentment, simplicity, balance, rest and authentic relationships.

Who are the mentors, role models and bosses or supervisors in your life? Do they live lives with margin—or are they are marginless? How does that affect you? This book is a keeper and it deserves a place of honor in your organization’s resource library.

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

[  ] Hot-off-the-press, here's a time management book for your entire organization—but it’s so much more. Might be my book-of-the-year in 2025. Read There's Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work, by Nelson P. Repenning and Donald C. Kieffer. (Read my review.)

[  ] Read this very helpful blog from Time Boss, “When Helping Stunts Your Team's Growth (And Burns You Out).”

[  ] Visit the Time Boss website. “Time Boss helps high-performing leaders master their time, scale with focus, and lead without overwhelm.”

[  ] See above for the list of books in our once-a-month time management series.

To order from Amazon,  For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, by Richard A Swenson, MD. Listen on Libro (7 hours, 26 minutes). For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews.

MORE RESOURCES:

   • John Pearson’s Buckets Blog
   • Subscribe: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
   • John Pearson’s book reviews on Amazon
   • Management Buckets website
   • Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Blog

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. 

© 2025 John W. Pearson. All rights reserved. New blogs for Pails in Comparison are posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. 

Crazy Busy

 

PIC No. 105: Pails in Comparison (July 29, 2025)
Book #3 of 12 in the Time Management Series

• Title: Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem
• Author: Kevin DeYoung
• Publisher: Crossway (Sept. 23, 2013, 128 pages)
• Management Bucket #9 of 20: The Team Bucket 

 

Welcome to Issue No. 105 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system. 

Frazzled? “A one-point plan with no guaranteed results!”

Just when you think you can teach the course on time management and life management, along comes a quick-reading 128-page book by a pastor who wrote the book because—wait for it—he was yes… “crazy busy.” I will read this book again. I may even review it a second time. It won the 2014 ECPA Book of the Year Award (and my book of the month honors!). This is Book #3 of 12 in our monthly time management series.

WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN (and workaholics) to this month’s Book Award Show. Our Book-of-the-Month Award goes to Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem, by Kevin DeYoung. This book won ALL the awards this month!

BEST SUB-TITLE!
“A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem”

BEST FINAL CHAPTER: “The One Thing You Must Do”
Gratefully, the author doesn’t promise a “a great five-point plan to simplify your life; a brilliant ten-point manifesto on restoring sanity to your world; a simple twelve-step program to becoming a less hectic you in forty days.”

But Kevin DeYoung does recommend one thing: “… I don't have a self-help makeover to offer. I can't fix your broken, busy life. I'm having enough trouble dealing with my own. But what I can give you is one thing you absolutely must do. Think of it as a one-point plan with no guaranteed results. Except that it will bring you closer to Jesus. Which, come to think of it, is positively the best way to handle your busyness.”

In Chapter 1, “Hello, My Name Is Busy,” Kevin DeYoung begins, “I’ve yet to meet anyone in America who responds to the question, ‘How are you?’ with the reply, ‘Well for starters, I’m not very busy.’” LOL!

BEST COMMENTARY ON LUKE 10:
“At the end of Luke 10 we find the closest thing Jesus gave to a sermon on busyness.” It’s the Mary and Martha story and DeYoung confesses, “No matter how many times I read this story I always sympathize with Martha.” He labels this section, “A Martha Work Ethic in a Lazy Mary World!” LOL!

DeYoung pushes back on what Jesus said to Martha and notes, “Besides, Martha was doing important things. It’s not like she was glued to her phone, watching kittens breakdance.” Then he twists the busyness knife: “Someone has to set the table and preheat the oven so that the Marys of the world can have their spiritual epiphanies.”

BEST DRUCKER QUOTE:
How did I miss this? Quoting from The Effective Executive, the classic book by Peter Drucker, DeYoung urges readers and leaders to establish “posteriorities” and adds, “This is Drucker’s word for the things that should be at the end (posterior) of our to-do list. These are the things we decide not to do for the sake of doing the things we ought to do.” (See also Worksheet #16.4, “My Don’t Do List” in the Delegation Bucket.)

BEST PASTORAL COUNSEL FROM ELDERS:
DeYoung writes, “Making goals is not enough. We must establish what tasks and troubles we will not tackle at all.” At his church, the “elders made a rule that I couldn’t do any more premarital counseling.” (That’s not prescriptive for every pastor—but it’s a good question to ask: Are your bosses, boards, and/or elders discerning what you should not do?)

BEST THERAPY:
Addressing “apostolic anxiety,” the author writes, “Second Corinthians 11:28 always seemed like a strange verse to me. Until I became a pastor. This is a must-read chapter (well…actually every chapter is must-read). See Chapter 9, “Embracing the Burdens of Busyness.” DeYoung writes:

“Paul was busy, in all the right ways. If you love God and serve others, you will be busy too. Sometimes we will get frazzled. We will feel pressure. We will be tired. We will get discouraged. We will feel exhausted.” (He goes on and on…!)

But DeYoung also urges us to read 2 Cor. 12:9 and then adds, “Paul had pressure. You have pressure too. But God can handle the pressure. Do not be surprised when you face crazy weeks of all kinds. And do not be surprised when God sustains you in the midst of them.”

BEST SEVEN-POINT OUTLINE!
I would be remiss if I failed to mention Kevin DeYoung’s diagnoses for busyness (he lists seven!)—and you would be remiss in not reading these seven chapters:

• Diagnosis #1: You Are Beset With Many Manifestations of Pride
• Diagnosis #2: You Are Trying to Do What God Does Not Expect You to Do
• Diagnosis #3: You Can’t Serve Others without Setting Priorities
• Diagnosis #4: You Need to Stop Freaking Out about Your Kids*
• Diagnosis #5: You Are Letting the Screen Strangle Your Soul
• Diagnosis #6: You’d Best Rest Yourself before You Wreck Yourself
• Diagnosis #7: You Suffer More because You Don’t Expect to Suffer at All**
     *Note: Read more on raising your kids in this Wall Street Journal article (July 25, 2025), "Goodbye, Gentle Parenting."
     **Note: Speaking of suffering, watch for my review of Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund (written seven years after Crazy Busy was published.)

Oh…there is so much more. Even with just 128 pages, I’ve barely skimmed the surface. If you’re “crazy busy,” I urge you to read this important book. And…I hope DeYoung will write an update. Since 2013, our lives are even crazier today, right? The “screen strangling your soul” is now 10x the problem—thanks to artificial intelligence and all of our frazzled friends. (By the way, check out my AI-generated podcasts here. Oh wait…you’re too crazy busy!)

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

[  ] Read about my workaholism journey in Chapter 9, “The Team Bucket,” in Mastering the Management Buckets. (Order from Amazon.)
[  ] Read these two chapters in Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes and What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson:
   • Mistake #8: "Incessantly Whining About Being Too Busy: My default conversations were         about busyness, not results."
   • Mistake #20: "Trying to Fix Workaholism on My Own: I should have asked a counselor for        help much, much sooner."
      
NOTE: I quote from this book in Mistake #8: Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, by Dick Daniels 

NOTE: I quote from this book in Mistake #20: Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry (Expanded Edition, 2018), by Ruth Haley Barton (Note: I reviewed this book three times! Read the review here.)

[  ] Free Study Guide (13 pages) to Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem. (Download free e-book of the study guide here.)
[  ] Read the short chapter, “Delegation,” in Leadership Prayers, by Richard Kriegbaum. (Read more.)
[  ] Read this very helpful blog from Time Boss, “Are You a Time Prisoner?”
[  ] Visit the Time Boss website. “Time Boss helps high-performing leaders master their time, scale with focus, and lead without overwhelm.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem, by Kevin DeYoung. Listen free to the first five minutes of Chapter 1 on Libro (the audiobook is 2 hours, 56 minutes). For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews.

MORE RESOURCES:

   • John Pearson’s Buckets Blog
   • Subscribe: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
   • John Pearson’s book reviews on Amazon
   • Management Buckets website
   • Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Blog

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. 

© 2025 John W. Pearson. All rights reserved. New blogs for Pails in Comparison are posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. 

Tyranny of the Urgent

      

PIC No. 101: Pails in Comparison (June 5, 2025)

• Title: Tyranny of the Urgent (Revised & Expanded)
• Author: Charles E. Hummel
• Publisher: IVP Books (April 19, 1994, 31 pages)
• Management Bucket #9 of 20: The Team Bucket

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. 

The Winds of Other People’s Demands!”

Oops! Back in April, I announced, “Call me crazy—but for the next 12 months, I’m going to read (or reread) a “time management” book every month. Join me! My theme was: “Inspire Your Team to Read a ‘Book-a-Month’ on Time Management!” (Read my blog.)

Oops! It’s already June and this is just #1 of 12 reviews. Where’d the time go? Ironic?

So please don’t blame me for starting with the shortest book on the list: a 31-page pamphlet! (Not a typo: just 31 pages. You do have time to read this!)

Charles E. Hummel wrote, “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?” (How about a 13-month year?)

By page 4, the author is almost poetic: “The winds of other people’s demands and our own inner compulsions, have driven us onto a reef of frustration.” Time is not the problem, Hummel preaches, it’s priorities. “We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important.”

To go deeper, read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey, and study the “Time Management Matrix.” This is also known as the “Eisenhower Matrix.” (For a fascinating book by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, read How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Ike’s Biggest Decisions. (Read my review.)

Hummel, who served as executive director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and president of Barrington College, died in 2004 at age 81. His popular pamphlet (just 31 pages!) packs a punch. He quotes Jesus’ prayer in John 17, at the conclusion of his 33-year ministry: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” 

The author pokes us: Are we crowding our schedules with “priorities” not assigned to us by our Father? Yikes! He documents how Jesus often left, or postponed, pressing priorities to focus on his Father’s work. What a life-giving reminder! Hummel points us to Mark 1:35 and asks, “What was the secret of Jesus’ ministry?”

The author blends theology with practicality and mentions a student who was proud of his “stewardship of time” and rejected Hummel’s counsel to track his time. But a month later, this engineering major conducted his own time inventory and found an extra six hours of time per week that could be better utilized. 

More Insights:
   • On budgeting your time—there’s no need to change everything overnight. “Our Lord is a gracious teacher who helps us to learn one lesson at a time.”
   • “I have come to realize that I am the indispensable person only until the moment I say no.”
   • Schedule one hour per week for a spiritual inventory assessment. “Ironically, the busier we get, the more we need these periods—and the less we seem able to schedule them. We become like the fanatic, who unsure of his direction, doubles his speed.”

“Over the years, I have found that one of the greatest struggles in the Christian life is the effort to make adequate time for:
   • daily waiting on God,
   • weekly inventory,
   • and monthly planning.
Yet this is the path to escaping the tyranny of the urgent.”

Hummel was the author of numerous books, including two full-length books on the “tyranny of the urgent” theme. (See below.)

See you next month for the next time-management refresher!

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.

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

[   ]  “12 Time Management Books (if you have time!)” – Our 12-month series with a book-a-month to read or reread. Click here.
[   ] Priorities: Tyranny of the Urgent (Christian Basics Bible Studies: Six Studies for Individuals or Groups), by Charles E. Hummel. (Order from Amazon.)
[   ] Freedom from Tyranny of the Urgent, by Charles E. Hummel. (Note: Winner of the 2004 ECPA Platinum Book Award) – (Order from Amazon.)
[   ] The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®, by Stephen R. Covey. (Order from Amazon.)
[   ] How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Ike’s Biggest Decisions, by Susan Eisenhower. (Read my review, "Let's Not Make Our Mistakes in a Hurry."

BONUS!
[   ] Read this very helpful blog from Time Boss, “When Helping Stunts Your Team's Growth (And Burns You Out).”
[   ] Visit the Time Boss website. “Time Boss helps high-performing leaders master their time, scale with focus, and lead without overwhelm.”

TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Tyranny of the Urgent (Revised & Expanded), by Charles E. Hummel (31-page pamphlet). Listen on Libro (33 minutes).For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting.

© 2025 John W. Pearson. All rights reserved.Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. 

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 read 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 read 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). Read 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.”

BONUS BOOK #13! Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, by Brian Tracy. (Read my review.) 




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.

© 2025 John W. Pearson. All rights reserved.Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.