18 Minutes by Peter Bregman
When I read the word length of Peter Bergman’s 18 minutes, it sounded a bit too long for a self-help novel, but the bite-size chapters, make it a really fast read.
The book focuses on elimination of distraction, time management and finding your focus. It does not overwhelm you with heavy words or phrases like most books, but instead in a very light-hearted way tells you about the choices that make difference.
18 Minutes by Peter Bregman has 3 core parts to it.
Distractions
18 minute tells you to take a Pause and look at your goal and the things you are doing daily, are you really working towards your goal, and if you are, are you doing it right, Sometimes we get so involved in things that we lose track, but when you take a pause you can look at where you are headed and work on a plan.
Finish working before even before you have your lunch, so you have the entire day for yourself instead of working late and sleeping less when the deadline is closing.
The Goal
Most of the time we are overwhelmed with things at hand. It gets really difficult to know what you need to do. Everything we do has an impact on us daily and in the long run. Things that we want to do, people that we want to be and task that will help us get there in the long run should be our first priority.
In that way, we can prioritize what you want and organize your to-do list.
Daily Run
Getting distracted is very easy. So, to avoid distraction Bergman tells you to create distractions, proactive distraction, so when you get distracted you fall into doing something useful instead of wasting your time.
Suppose your long run goal is being a photographer, keep your camera near your desk, so you end up looking through the lens instead of starting to scroll down a screen.
The bits of advice mentioned in the book are not the one’s a reader must not have read or heard earlier, but the first person perspective accompanied with different case studies and a lot of mild humor is the one thing that sets the book apart.
18 Minutes by Peter Bregman
book review by Pervaiz “P.K.” Karim
CalcuttaKid.com
Lip Service by Hal Becker
Lip Service by Hal Becker is a very bold attempt by the author. It is way out of the common books you read, and the uncommon always have a point between being greatly appreciated or getting discarded by the audience. You can almost feel Hals attorney or editor cancelled out a lot of words and pages from the book.
Background
Hal Becker, an award-winning salesperson, a sales trainer and eventually a business owner took a minute out to look at all the services and the mess ups the big companies and their small-time employees make. He collected information about them and knew the right way around. He knows exactly where the employee messed up.
The 50 Stories
Lip Service has 50 unique stories about the worst customer service examples in America. Each story has a different character where Hal is an everyday person, an impatient New Yorker and sometimes someone who seemed to play along with the staff.
This puts the reader in the shoes of everyone and tells you what you could have done in a situation like that and it makes you laugh uncontrollably. Some references though not supposed to, make the company obvious because you have gone through it too! Otherwise, they are hard to crack. The different way a salesperson looks at the other, is what makes you go on reading.
10 Interviews
At the end of the book, there are 10 interviews with some big giants. In these interviews, Hal shows the reason why they are earning big and what differences they have in their customer services as compared to the stories you’ve read so far.
He tells that customer service is not what the lips say, its about what the company provides. What a company does is customer service, what it says, is Lip Service.
Conclusion
The unique point of Lip Service is that it almost holds an idea you can imply next time you have some problem with the customer services. It gives you your way around the normal approach. It is a really fast read and though it lacks the comedy punch, it could really be a good laugh if you can relate.
Lip Service by Hal Becker
book review by Pervaiz “P.K.” Karim
CalcuttaKid.com
A well educated mind vs a well formed mind: Dr. Shashi Tharoor
An elected Member of Parliament, former Minister of State for External Affairs and former Under-Secretary-General to the United Nations, Dr. Shashi Tharoor is the prize-winning author of fourteen books, including the classic The Great Indian Novel (1989), India from Midnight to the Millennium (1997), Nehru: The Invention of India (2003) and most recently Pax Indica: India & the World of the 21st Century (2012).
A widely-published critic, commentator and columnist, Dr. Shashi Tharoor served the United Nations during a 29-year career in refugee work, peace-keeping,communications and public information and earnestly worked in the Secretary-General’s office. In 2006, he was India’s candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary-General. He has won India’s highest honour for Overseas Indians, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, and numerous literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
How Laughing at Yourself Can Change the World | Brad Jenkins |
President Obama’s appearance on “Between Two Ferns” made tens of millions of people laugh (and saved lives in the process). In a culture flooded with too much partisan information, comedy is the last great refuge of truth and access. Brad Jenkins is the Managing Director and Executive Producer of Funny Or Die DC. For the last four years, Jenkins served as President Obama’s liaison and director of engagement to the creative and advocacy communities, bringing together creative executives, advocacy leaders, and some of the world’s biggest stars to advance the President’s agenda — including his Emmy-award winning “Between Two Ferns” interview on the Affordable Care Act. See http://www.funnyordie.com
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