Manage Your Day-to-Day

99U

By: Jocelyn K. Glei - editor

Narrated by: Fred Stella, Laural Merlington

Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Stop doing busywork. Start doing your best work.

Are you over-extended, over-distracted, and overwhelmed? Do you work at a breakneck pace all day, only to find that you haven’t accomplished the most important things on your agenda when you leave the office?

The world has changed, and the way we work has to change, too. With wisdom from 20 leading creative minds, Manage Your Day-to-Day will give you a toolkit for tackling the new challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace.

Featuring contributions from: Dan Ariely, Leo Babauta, Scott Belsky, Lori Deschene, Aaron Dignan, Erin Rooney Doland, Seth Godin,Todd Henry, Christian Jarrett, Scott McDowell, Mark McGuinness, Cal Newport, Steven Pressfield, Gretchen Rubin, Stefan Sagmeister, Elizabeth G. Saunders, Tony Schwartz, Tiffany Shlain, Linda Stone, and James Victore. Plus, a foreword from Behance founder & CEO Scott Belsky.

©2013 by Behance. (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. “Awakening to Conscious Computing” © 2013 by Linda Stone. “Scheduling in Time for Creative Thinking” © 2013 by Cal Newport.

A must read for creatives!

What made the experience of listening to Manage Your Day-to-Day the most enjoyable?

The contributors showed a real understanding of the artistic and creative mind.

What about Fred Stella and Laural Merlington ’s performance did you like?

Fred and Laural did not get in the way of the message. Their delivery was neither turgid nor preachy. I felt that another artist/colleague was speaking to me.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The chapter on perfectionism was bang on for me. Also, in a few places, the contributors drive home that, as a professional artist, you can't expect inspiration to move you to create. Most of the time you just have to get down to doing it.

Any additional comments?

Before reading Manage Your Day-to-Day, I would start my day doing mundane tasks like answering email or just looking for something interesting on the internet. Now, after I exercise, I start writing or composing first thing. It makes me want to get out of bed. I rise now about 2 hours earlier than I had in the past. My productivity has gone way up.

A great companion to this book is Accidental Genius by Mark Levy. He has given me great ideas on how to kick start my creativity through writing; a real boon now that I have all this extra time to create!

Just Finished My Third Time Listening

Manage Your Day-to-Day is a perfect blend of information and insights that I have been able to use immediately in my day to day work. The variety of content is exceptional due to the fact that this is more of a compilation of ideas, which is very beneficial because productivity is more of a "finding what works for you" - so you're sure to find content that meets your style of work.

Due to the short length, I love the fact that I can re-listen and remind myself of the nuggets that are found throughout.

NOTE: I would recommend having a way to jot down a few notes while listening, especially when they give you some "hidden" web addresses with additional resources from 99U.

Narrated with the cadence and warmth of Siri.

Is the narrator a human? The information could be life changing but I’m so bored I can’t pay attention.

Simple book to build a routine...

This is a simple book that provides steps for the primary three areas: build your routine, find your focus, and increase your creativity. The steps are obvious, such as book time to work on your priorities rather than let other people suck your time for their priorities through emails or meeting invites. The book is structured nicely. Provides the main points, gives some examples, and summarizes at the end of the chapter with key takeaways. I listened to the audio book. I would listen to it again if I needed the reminder to return to a routine and focus on my priorities.

Great if you're a writer but not otherwise.

What would have made Manage Your Day-to-Day better?

Something not just solely about writing. I was thinking it was more about managing your time on things in the work place not just about writing. It was grouped with other time management books and the sample sounded ok.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Something about time management like 4hr day by tim ferris

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Fred Stella and Laural Merlington ?

The narrators were fine it was the content I didn't care for.

What character would you cut from Manage Your Day-to-Day?

none

Any additional comments?

no

It has boosted my effectiveness

Would you consider the audio edition of Manage Your Day-to-Day to be better than the print version?

I don't know, I haven't read the print version.

What did you like best about this story?

The practical tricks and tips how to manage my time.

Have you listened to any of Fred Stella and Laural Merlington ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't

What did you learn from Manage Your Day-to-Day that you would use in your daily life?

• Creative work first, reactive work second.

• Don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has to get down to work.

• We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.

• The human mind is better suited for running sprints than marathons.

• We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period and we underestimate what we can do over a long period. A small daily task, if it'll be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. Over the long run, the unglamorous habit of frequency fosters both - productivity and creativity.

Superficial and Terrible ensemble of stories

Don’t bother with this book. I wasted money on it and I shouldn’t have. Buy a book not put together buy an editor begging for essays but but a good work together.

Great examples

Would you listen to Manage Your Day-to-Day again? Why?

This is one of the few audible books that I would have to say would have worked better with a text companion. When you are listening all you can do is let these great examples wash over you. It's extremely hard to retain all this advice.

Has Manage Your Day-to-Day turned you off from other books in this genre?

It has no real genre. All the 99U stuff is genre busting. How to be more productive and organized for artists and poets.

What does Fred Stella and Laural Merlington bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The performance quality is very high and it goes very quickly.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Organizing tips for the creative class.

5 star material, 3.5 star narration

Lots of food for thought for the distracted, overworked, and overwhelmed.

Regarding narration, a man and a woman tag team. The man's narration is fine, the woman's comes off to me as robotic. The worst parts, though, are the question and answer type sections, where they go back and forth; they are clearly not doing it together, and the lack of flow is a bit jarring. But all in all it doesn't distract so much that it interferes very much with the ability to absorb the book.

Same Information-Different Book

Pick almost any book on management, focus, goals, etc. This one is unlike any other.

Good Book with Helpful Tips - Some Narration is Robotic

In general I found this book to be encouraging, helpful and informative.

My one criticism of this audio version is in the narration which consisted of two voices, male and female. I found the female vocal performance to be somewhat robotic with little or no expression. The gaps between words and sentences sound somewhat unnatural at times - almost like what one would hear on your car Sat-Nav in or the synthesised voice on your computer. I found this quite off putting and distracting.

Really good listen

I love the audiobook. The voices need to sound a little more natural though. It was clear and very informative. I loved the 99u books. Its just great.

Very helpful.

Very helpful. Short but packed with brilliant advice. Easy to listen to. Great takeaway bulletin lists. Thank you, loved it

Good Info, Terrible Narration

If you could sum up Manage Your Day-to-Day in three words, what would they be?

The narration in this sounds like Apple's "text-to-speech" from the early naughties. Terrible. Which is a shame because the book itself is good.

not recommended

the main ideas repeated in another book. the book doesn't concentrate on one problem. therefore, no issue is really discussed in depth.