Help With Admin Blog Post

Read a New Book Month:

3 Books That Changed How I Think About
Work and Life

Read a New Book Month: 3 Books That Changed How I Think About Work and Life

Whether you’re looking for inspiration, a fresh perspective, or simply an excuse to switch off from everyday life, reading can be one of the simplest ways to invest in yourself.

To celebrate Read a New Book Month, I’m sharing three of my favourite books. Each one has taught me something different about managing work and life.

Find Your Why – Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek’s Find Your Why is all about understanding the purpose behind what we do. Rather than simply focusing on what we do or how we do it, Sinek encourages us to identify our “why” — the underlying purpose, cause or belief that motivates us.

Whether you’re thinking about your career, business or personal goals, understanding your “why” can give you greater clarity and direction.

If you finish the book and still can’t quite pin your why down, I recommend booking a session with Jonathan Cooper (https://www.linkedin.com/in/unlearningcoach/). He has a great one-day session and knows the questions to tease out what really makes you tick. A day with him really did help me.

Deep Work – Cal Newport

In a world full of emails, notifications, meetings and constant distractions, Deep Work feels incredibly relevant.

Cal Newport defines “deep work” as focused, distraction-free concentration on something cognitively demanding.

One of my biggest takeaways is that being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being productive. Sometimes, the most valuable thing we can do is remove distractions and give one important task our full attention.

It’s a brilliant reminder to protect our time and be intentional about where we put our focus.

Maybe this is where a VA can help you. What tasks can you give away to free up your time to be able to focus on just one thing?

The Art of Life Admin – Elizabeth Emens

Although Elizabeth Emens’ The Art of Life Admin explores the hidden workload of managing everyday life and offers ideas for making it more manageable, there is one chapter I recommend everyone read, whether they like admin or not.

Chapter 3 – Admin Personalities – This looks at “Who Are You” and grades people into 4 personality types, accepted in an admin setting, but the principle can be used for everything when grading how good people are at a certain task.

Those tasks where you score personality type 3 or 4 are the ones you should think about outsourcing so you can focus on your strengths.

What these books have taught me

Although these books cover very different subjects, they share a common message: be intentional with your time, energy and attention.

Find Your Why encourages us to think about our purpose. Deep Work shows us how to protect our focus. The Art of Life Admin helps us rethink who is best to carry out certain tasks that are competing for our attention.