Summary of Make Time by Jake Knapp

Making time lets you accomplish the things you always wanted to do, and replace the feeling of always being busy with being present in the moment and satisfied.

There are two sources of problems: busy bandwagons and infinity pools. Busy bandwagons are overflowing inboxes, calendars that are too full, and the feeling that you need to fill every minute with productive work to be successful in today’s world. Infinity pools are things like Youtube with more content than you can watch in your lifetime.

Some people think we can make time by improving our productivity. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work. If you do 10 tasks in a day, and you improve your productivity, it produces free time. But an eleventh task will appear to use up that time. If you run faster, the hamster wheel will spin faster. So improving productivity is not enough to make time. Instead:

• Delete social media accounts like Instagram or Facebook that you don’t use.

• If you can’t delete certain accounts, like email, delete their apps from your phone.

• Turn off notifications for all apps.

• Log out from accounts. For example, at Google, we needed a two-factor authentication key to login to our corporate accounts. Before going home, I’d leave my key on my desk, and clear all Google cookies from my browser, to ensure that I can’t log back in till I return to my desk the next morning. Increase friction this way. In the past decade, social networks like Facebook exploded by reducing friction. Less friction leads to increased usage. If you want to decrease your usage, increase friction.

• Use a social network for your goals. For example, I use Instagram to promote my consulting; I don’t share any personal photos or videos. Use the service to accomplish your goals, not the other way around.

• Close tabs like email and social networks before moving away from your laptop. That way, you don’t have multiple tabs flashing and drawing your attention when you return.

• Don’t bookmark distracting sites. Configure your browser not to show frequently visited sites.

• When you need a break, don’t check social media — it only makes you envious of someone’s wonderful vacation photo, or feel anxious, angry or helpless about something going wrong in the world. None of these are constructive emotions. Checking social media for a break is like hitting your finger with a hammer for a break. Instead, look out of the window and notice the landscape. Observe the antenna on a distant building. Look at a bird on a tree.

• You need to set up habits like this, not rely on willpower.

• Practice Inbox Zero so that you process each email only once, and you don’t have to mentally track which emails you need to work on: if it’s in your inbox, you need to attend to it.

• Some tasks like clearing your inbox trigger a sense of accomplishment in your brain: “Yes, I completed this!” But this is only a fake accomplishment.

• Don’t fall down the rabbit hole of researching fancy tools, like a cool note-taking app, making this research an end to itself, rather than the purpose for which you’re using it. Use a boring tool and focus on the goal, not the tool.

• If you read the news, ask yourself if you made any decision differently as a result of knowing that the Ukrainian electricity grid was attacked by Russia.

Body

• Some of us think of our body merely as a transport for our brain. But that’s not true: If your body is not functioning at its peak, neither will your mind. Exercise every day. If you’re exhausted after exercise, it means you’re overdoing it. You don’t need to push a train for it to count as exercise. Research shows that most of the cognitive, health and mood benefits of exercise are achieved in 20 minutes. If you’re not fit to do 20 minutes of exercise, do 10. If you can’t do intense exercise like tennis, do milder exercise like a brisk walk. Plan to exercise every day, because you want to be energetic everyday, and because daily habits are easier to continue than “5 times a week” habits. You’ll skip some days anyway, and so end up doing it 5 days a week, whereas if you plan for 5, you’ll fall short of your goal. Walk to office instead of using motorized transport. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Use a suitcase without wheels. Get off the metro one stop before your office and walk. Exercise need not happen in the gym.

• If you’re unable to focus, pay attention to one breath: close your eyes, breathe in, observe how it fills your chest with air, and breathe out, softening your body.

• Expose yourself to nature. Taking a walk in a park results in 20% higher cognitive performance than taking a walk in a city.

Eating

• Eat healthy food like fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts. Not manufactured food.

• Avoid sugary food. Again it causes a peak and later, a crash. Try dark chocolate instead, with at least 70% cocoa. It will take some time to get used to it but once you do, regular chocolate will feel overly sweet.

• Modern life has ingrained many habits that are unhealthy for us. One of them is constant eating, thanks to widespread availability of food without needing to hunt every meal as in prehistoric times. Don’t eat as a diversion, or because you have nothing else to do. Don’t keep snacking to prevent being hungry by the time of your next meal. It’s healthy to be hungry before a meal!

• Avoid coffee. It perks you up at the moment, but causes an energy crash later. It’s like going into debt to buy something: you’re not getting it free; you have to pay the bill later. Worse, coffee causes you to lose touch with your body telling you what you current energy level is. Caffeine has a half-life of 5-6 hours, which means that if you have coffee at 4 PM and sleep at 9-10 PM, half of the caffeine is still in your blood, interfering with sleep and, in turn, the next day’s energy. Instead of coffee, have green tea. It doesn’t cause a crash like coffee does.