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Laura Mae Martin: Uptime (2024, HarperCollins Publishers) 4 stars

Great general personal productivity book that covers a lot of office worker territory

4 stars

There's no secret sauce or inside tips here. It's general advice over several topics, with a focus on office / tech / business workers. You'll find her on one of the Google Youtube channels with shorts that promote their products/services, some of which I find are really helpful.

She defines Productivity as Vision + Execution. She laments that balance is the new busy. Guard your personal time, work on your flow, and don't plan for you, but for the future you.

She does reflect on her Google work, sometimes mentioning people by full name, other times first name or generally. It's very well written, an easy read, flows well, and each chapter has a summary of important points.

Compare with Make Time by Knapp and Zeratsky, Martin's book flows very well and is organized.

Even if you take 1-2 items from this book immediately, the effort to read it will pay off. This is the type of book you should re-read every couple years or when you feel friction in your life or flow.

She rarely pumps Google services in this book. As I mentioned earlier, she mentions people she's coached. Her advice will generally apply to almost everyone.