A road-tested formula for improving your professional performance, from one of the business world's most successful and productive executives – with practical suggestions and takeaways in every chapter.
Discover the secrets to professional productivity and high performance. Extreme Productivity is for anyone feeling overwhelmed by their existing workload—facing myriad competing demands and multiple time-sensitive projects. Offering antidotes to a calendar full of boring meetings and a backlog of e-mails, Robert Pozen explains how to determine your highest priorities and match them with how you actually spend your time.
Pozen demonstrates that in order to be truly productive, professionals must make a critical shift in their mind-set: from hours worked to results produced. In a knowledge-based economy, what’s important is what you’ve accomplished, not how many hours you’ve logged at your desk.
Pozen teaches you how to efficiently complete your large projects and quickly move through the small stuff. He shows you how to delegate functions and manage your boss. He helps people at all stages of their careers read, write, and make presentations more effectively. He provides professionals with practical tips on how to efficiently use their time—while leading full and productive personal lives as well.
Robert C. Pozen teaches at MIT Sloan School of Management. He was President of Fidelity Investments and Executive Chair of MFS Investment Management, and served as a senior official in both the federal and state government. He is also the author of six books, including Extreme Productivity, one of the top rated business books of 2012. He offers MIT courses for executives on personal productivity, and has been teaching online since the spring of 2020. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Part I Three Big Ideas 1
1 Set and Prioritize Your Goals 3
2 Focus on the Final Product 21
3 Don't Sweat the Small Stuff 35
Part II Productivity Every Day 49
4 Your Daily Routine 51
5 Traveling Lightly 69
16 Efficient Meetings 85
Part III Developing Personal Skills 101
7 Reading Effectively 103
8 Writing Effectively 119
9 Speaking Effectively 139
Part IV Managing Up and Down 157
10 Managing Your Team 159
11 Managing Your Boss 177
Part V Pursuing a Productive Life 193
12 Maximizing Your Career Options over a Lifetime 195
13 Embrace Change but Stay the Same 211
14 Balancing Home and Work 227
Epilogue 241
Appendix 1 The Big Idea: The Case for Professional Boards 245
Appendix 2 Speech by Robert Pozen to the Boston Bar Foundation (2000) 255
Notes 259
What People are Saying About This
J. Michael Cook
“Read this book if you want to learn how to run efficient and effective meetings-or how to avoid them altogether. Bob really knows how to lead a discussion, get the group engaged, and drive to a consensus on what to do.”
Charlene Barshefsky
“This book is a must read for overwhelmed professionals. It gives you tips and tools to accomplish more on a daily basis and to make better choices about your career.”
David Calhoun
“Personal productivity requires you to focus on the most important tasks rather than spending your time on busy work or small wins. If you want to learn how to raise your game, look no further than Extreme Productivity.”
Martin Feldstein
“Bob Pozen’s prodigious output is extraordinary. Read this book to learn how he does it all in a 24-hour day.”
Shirley Ann Jackson
“It’s impossible to get ahead in today’s knowledge economy without knowing how to read, write, and speak effectively. Pozen’s tips on these three subjects alone are enough to make Extreme Productivity required reading for professionals-and aspiring professionals-of all levels.”
