Two Awesome Hours

Two Awesome Hours goes directly to my list of Where Were These Books Twenty Years Ago? For anyone who struggles with mental bandwidth, chronic disorganization, procrastination, or attention deficit issues, this book contains absolutely vital information. It's concrete, easy to understand, and based on actual research. I highly recommend Josh Davis's brief book. Even a single chapter can turn your day around.

I'm convinced that most chronic procrastinators simply don't know how to shift into the type of concentration required for deep work. We are right in suspecting that other people know how to do something we don't know how to do. Two Awesome Hours offers tangible things we can do to help set us up for this type of concentration, none of which were obvious or intuitive to me. For instance, I was fascinated to learn that background noise may be helpful or distracting depending on decibel level!

Another common issue is scattering attention between multiple tasks, and avoiding work on the highest priority by focusing on lesser tasks. I see this with my chronically disorganized clients. They have a lot of trouble making decisions, partly because they keep switching focus between multiple items. A huge amount of time can be burned in indecision mode, like when you realize you've spent twenty minutes looking at your movie queue instead of watching something. This is another area where Two Awesome Hours offers specific techniques to fight this time-wasting tendency.

What I liked best about Two Awesome Hours, besides all the under-reported research it shares, is the way that Davis ties everything to emotional states. This is why we need to know this information. It's not just about being more efficient or about being expert at time management. It's about feeling better! Two Awesome Hours can make you feel triumphant, relaxed, competent, and all sorts of positive states that don't come from disorganization or distraction.

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