Effective Work
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Effective Work

Secrets to working effectively in the age of information overload

About the Book

Around 2007, Facebook broke out and iPhone broke out. These two disruptive products set a course for two things to happen:

  1. The social Network Effect, arguably, driven primarily by Facebook. It changed how we interact with one another forever: a few years after and we have Github for our code, Slack for our discussions, Twitter for our rants, WhatsApp for our messages. The network effect also made everyone reachable to everyone and discoverable by everyone should they only want to be. Technologically, it pushed the world to compensate: distributed systems, big data, document stores, real-time and more.
  2. iPhone made the network effect accessible. It changed how we interact with the digital world. It pushed the world to compensate as well: better WiFi, better cellular infrastructure, better experiences and better and explosive growth in software and developer experience driven by the new concept of Appstore.

At the start of the 2000's we were just figuring out high speed Internet so that we get to share information more effectively. Today, around 20 years later, and only about 10 years later from Facebook and iPhone, as information workers, we're at the age of information overload.

We're at a severe case of the paradox of choice: the more choices a person has, the longer it takes to decide. Big decisions are cut into low-resolution high-impact decisions. Making a decision became instant, like snapping a picture.

How to navigate information overload? how to take decisions in tech? how to plan? how to set goals? how to model and mitigate risk?

How to work effectively?

This book will teach you all of these and more.

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  • Categories

    • Management
    • Software
    • Self-Help

About the Author

Dotan Nahum
Dotan Nahum

Dotan Nahum is a founder at Paracode, a boutique software consultancy, and was a former CTO at HiredScore, an AI for HR startup, CTO at Como, a DIY mobile app maker platform. In the past years he had filled various architectural and tech lead roles in the Web and Enterprise software worlds. On his free time, he's also an avid open source creator and contributor, and builds various successful open source projects ranging from Ruby, to Go, Rust, Node.js, React.js, Ember.js, D3, Clojure, and others you can find on his Github account.

Reader Testimonials

Alon P.
Alon P.

Already found a few hacks

I used to procrastinate a lot, but until I read Effective Work I wasn't even aware of it. Using the 10 minute hack to start things I'm not excited about unlocks this for me. Thanks!!

Jeff R.
Jeff R.

I couldn't believe how much time I can save after reading this book!

GET. IT. NOW. I have my life before this book, and my much much better life AFTER this book. I use the "hunt" method to just pick and implement tips from the book, as the author recommends: go to Table of Contents, pick a subject, profit. Top productivity tip of my own: use a PHYSICAL Pomodoro timer on your DESK. This way you can't easily dismiss it like an app.

Table of Contents

  • A System for Effectiveness
    • Who is This Book For?
    • How to Read This Book?
    • The Age of Information Overload
  • You
    • Find Someone Who Believes In You
    • You Are a Mirror of Your Childhood
    • Find What You Believe In
  • Are You Effective?
    • Procrastination
    • Your Environment
    • Effectiveness Systems
    • A Word About Going Indy
  • Time
    • Set Your Time Expectations
    • Avoid Time Sinks
    • Switch Context Effectively
    • Learn to Shut Down
    • Know How To Ask and Answer
  • Flow
    • Don’t Prepare To Start, Just Start
    • Adopt an Execution Framework
    • Motivate Yourself Relentlessly
    • Explore and Experiment
    • Groom and Optimize Your Tools
    • Keyboards and Screens
    • Keep Opportunities Flowing
    • Build and Maintain Your Network
    • When You Can’t Start Anything
    • Burn Out
    • Flow Drain
    • Low Energy
    • The Circadian Rhythm
    • Know How to Stop
    • Commitment Anxiety
    • Pen and Paper
    • Control Imbalance
    • Work Full Screen
  • Workflow
    • Just Enough Tasks
    • GTD
    • Waterfall, Scrum, Agile, Kanban
    • OKR
    • Purpose-Goals-Tasks = GTD + Scrum + OKR
    • Workflow Applied: JIRA
    • Workflow Applied: Evernote
    • Workflow Applied: Make It Stick
  • Goals & Planning
    • Impact and Delegation
    • Work the Right Things
    • Go Through a Required Self-Observation
    • Have a Purpose
    • Model Product Value
    • Risk & Complexity
  • Principles
    • Perseverance
    • Make Success Effortless
    • Immersion
  • Learn
    • Learn Effectively
    • Set Learning Expectations
    • How to Read Books
    • Biases
    • Learn How to Fail
  • Appendix
    • Quick Hacks For When You Can’t Start
    • Daily Sprint Execution
    • Sprint Closing Checklist
    • Weekly Trigger Checklist
    • Product Feature Spec Template
    • Tech Spec Template

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