When Molly arrived on the first day of her new job at a midsize investment bank, she opened up her e-mail. and gasped. She had been on the job less than a minute and there were already 385 messages in her Inbox. It would take days to work through them all. Based on his extremely popular Harvard Business Review columns, Peter Bregman's indispensable new guide gently shows how busy people can cut through all the daily clutter and distractions and finally find a way to focus on those key items that are truly the top priorities in our lives. Bregman works from the premise that the best way to combat constant and distracting interruptions is to create productive distractions of one's own. Shared in a series of bite-size chapters, his approach allows us to efficiently navigate through the constant chatter of e-mails, text messages, phone calls, and endless meetings, so we can focus our time and energy on what we truly care about. Mixing first-person insights with compelling case studies, Bregman sprinkles this captivating book with pathways that help guide us-pathways that can get us on the right trail in 18 minutes or less.

Book jacket.