Make Time Summary (Plus PDF)

Make time is all about how you can manage your time to do the important things during the day. The author gives you all possible guides to understanding time and how you can most out of the time you have on earth.

We all know we have limited time on earth yet we tend to spend our time on unnecessary stuff whether it’s scrolling on social media or watching Netflix.

The Make Time is written by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky who have worked for lots of tech companies including Google and Alphabet.

They also say that everyone is after your dopamine, so take control of it and do something good with the time you have.

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Contents

Make Time Summary

The fact is, there is no need to read every single productivity book because every single book will tell you these three things,

Important task: These could be those task which doesn’t need your attention but are important, again, you don’t have to do them right away.

For example,

You have to go to the supermarket because you have a list of items which you have to buy for your home, this is important because you need those items but it’s not very urgent, so you can do it after some time.

Urgent Task: These are those tasks that require your attention right away.

For example,

You need to finish the project which your boss has given, you have a meeting that is very important for your business, or something else that is needed to do right away.

Nor Urgent or Important Task: These are those tasks that are not important or urgent but you like doing them.

For example,

You want to watch movies, and TV shows, go to parties, spend time with your friends, use social media, and many more. You don’t have to do all these things but you like doing them because it makes you happy.

Back to the book,

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky authors of Make Time have shared the same things but they have explained it in different ways, for example, in the instant of Important tasks they have used the highlighted tasks.

The core idea of the MAKE TIME book is the same, do the important tasks first, and the rest can wait. Now authors have also shared some of the actions that you should take to manage your time, so let me share with you those actions.

Also, this is not a typical book because the book has lots of stories of each author about work they have done, their life experience, families, and much more.

Because of this, the book doesn’t feel like a HOW-TO guide on how to manage time.

I’m keeping my promise, this is the mini-ebook of Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. So download right now and read wherever you want for free. Happy Reading.

Download The Mini-ebook

Time to Sleep

We spend half of our life sleeping which means it’s an important part of our life and if you don’t get enough sleep then you will feel tired during the day.

So the question is, how you can get good sleep?

When we see a bright light, our brains think, “It’s morning. Time to wake up!”

This is an automatic system. For Urk, the system worked great: He fell asleep when it got dark and woke up when the sun rose. The natural cycle of the day helped regulate his sleep and energy.

In today’s world, this poses a problem.

Between our screens and our lightbulbs, we’re simulating daylight right up until we climb into bed. It’s as though we’re telling our brains,

“It’s the day, it’s the day, it’s the day, it’s the day—WHOA, IT’S NIGHT, GO TO BED.”

No wonder we have trouble sleeping.

This is a problem and you have to work on it. To make things easy, here are some ways you can trick your brain.

When you eat dinner or a few hours before your ideal bedtime, turn down the lights in your home. Switch off bright overhead lights. Instead, use a dim table or side lamps.
Turn on your phone, computer, or TV’s “night mode.” These features shift screen colors from blue to red and orange. Instead of looking at a bright sky, it’s like sitting around a campfire.
When you go to bed, kick all devices out of the room.
If sunlight or streetlight is still sneaking into your bedroom, try a simple sleep mask over your eyes. Yes, you will feel and look a little silly, but they work.

In simple words, don’t use your smartphone 2 hours before your bedtime. Now, this doesn’t mean, you will start using a tablet or laptop. No means, don’t use any gadget that throws light in your eyes.

Related: 15 Must-Read Books in Life

Also, use low-brightness bulbs in your bedroom. This will give a signal to your brain that, it’s night and you should think about sleep.

Just go to sleep.

Make Time Work For You

The first step is choosing a single task to prioritize in your day.
Next, you’ll employ specific tactics to stay laser-focused on that task
Throughout the day, you’ll build energy so you can stay in control of your time and attention.
Finally, you’ll reflect on the day with a few simple notes.

Let’s zoom in for a closer look at those four steps.

Focal Point

The first step in Make Time is deciding what you want to make time for. Every day, you’ll choose a single activity to prioritize and protect in your calendar. It might be an important goal at work,

For Example,

You might choose something at home, like cooking dinner or planting your garden.
Your Highlight might be something you don’t necessarily have to do but want to do, like playing with your kids or reading a book.
Your Highlight can contain multiple steps; for example, finishing that presentation might include writing the closing remarks, completing the slides, and doing a practice run-through.

Of course, your task isn’t the only thing you’ll do each day. But it will be your priority. So you will do that one task first in the morning no matter what happens.

Ask yourself “What’s going to be the highlight of my day?”

Ensures that you spend time on the things that matter to you and don’t lose the entire day reacting to other people’s priorities.

Choose something that is important…

For me, writing is more important than doing anything else. For you, it might be something else.

Beat Distraction

Distractions like email, social media, and breaking news are everywhere, and they’re not going away.

You can’t go live in a cave, throw away your gadgets, and swear off technology entirely. But you can redesign the way you use technology to stop the reaction cycle.

First,

Every time you watch Reals or Shorts, ask yourself, is this adding value or not? ask every single time you open YouTube, Instagram, or even Twitter.

When you do this every time for 30 days, you will realize that using social media for a time pass is not important, it’s wasting time.

I know, reading this and applying is kind of hard but one way or another, you will have to step up for yourself because no one will do for you.

So be aware of the things you do all day and see where you’re spending and wasting your time

Recharge the Brain

To achieve focus and make time for what matters, your brain needs energy, and that energy comes from taking care of your body.

You will have to exercise every day, eat healthy food, go for a walk, and spend time with your loved ones, that’s what your mind needs, it doesn’t get its energy from movies, TV shows, games, or even YouTube.

Give what your body and brain need, don’t give unnecessary clutter.

I know, these are simple things but if you do it for months then you will see different kinds of energy running around in your body.

You will think differently, you will spend more time on important things, and your sleep will get better.

So yes, take care of your health.

Improve Your System

The day is over, you did everything you had or didn’t, and now it’s time to analyze.

Finally, before going to bed, you’ll take a few notes.

It’s super simple: You’ll decide which tactics you want to continue and which ones you want to refine or drop.

And you’ll think back on your energy level, whether you made time for your task, and what brought you joy in the day.

Do this every day and you will see, where you need improvement and where you doing great.

It is like reporting but to yourself.

Make Time Tactics

You don’t necessarily have to try something new every day. If what you’re doing is working, keep it up!

But if it isn’t or if you think it could work better still, each day is a chance to experiment.

Your version of the Make Time system will be totally personalized, and because you built it yourself, you’ll trust it, and it will fit into your existing lifestyle.

Try different tactics and see what works and what doesn’t.

For example,

If you want to wake up at 5:00 then you will have to go to bed at least 10:00 PM otherwise, the next day, you will feel tired because you didn’t get enough sleep.

For some reason, if you don’t wake up the next day then see the reason behind it and analyze and try for a second time the next day with different tactics.

Again, you don’t have to wake up at 5 AM, you can also wake up at 1 PM. The key here is to have a routine.

Invent a Deadline

Nothing’s better for focus than a deadline. When someone else is waiting expectantly for results, it’s a lot easier to get into Laser mode.

The trouble is that deadlines are usually for things we dread (like doing taxes), not for things we want to do (like practicing the ukulele).

But this is an easy problem to solve. You can invent a deadline.

Let’s say, you want to read Make Time and you said, I will finish this book in 7 days. This means, you have a deadline and you have to finish the book in the next 7 days.

Because of the deadline your mind you reamind you again and again that, read this book because you only have 7 days.

Now, just imagine, you didn’t set a deadline and you said, I will read the book.

Now, you have unlimited time and when you realize that you have unlimited to finish the Make Time Book then yes, you might take 1 month or even more to finish the book.

You Are More Than a Brain

Imagine you’ve got a battery inside you. All your energy is stored in the battery, and just like the battery in your phone or laptop, it can be charged all the way up to 100 percent or can drain all the way down to zero.

When your battery is empty, you’re totally exhausted—you feel wrung out and maybe even depressed.

This is when you’re most likely to get distracted by Infinity Pools such as Instagram and email. Then you feel worse because you’re tired and you’re annoyed at yourself for wasting time.

That’s 0 percent. It s*cks.

Now imagine how it feels when your battery is full. You’ve got a spring in your step.

You feel well-rested, your mind is sharp, and your body feels alert and alive. You’re ready to take on any project—not only ready but excited.

Can you visualize the feeling? Pretty nice, right? That’s 100 percent.

The defaults of today’s world assume that the brain is the one driving the bus, but that’s not really how it works.

When you don’t take care of your body, your brain can’t do its job.

If you’ve ever felt sluggish and uninspired after a big lunch or invigorated and clearheaded after exercising, you know what we mean. If you want energy for your brain, you need to take care of your body.

A simple trick is you already know, exercise, don’t use social media if you don’t need it, spend time with your loved ones, and lastly, spend time with yourself.

Make Time Review

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky have explained the value of time which will help you a lot if if you’re wasting your time on things like Reels and Shorts. End of the day, this is a productivity book and will tell you how you can get the most out of everything.

Go read it, if you have never read any productivity book in life.

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