Book review: How to become a straight-A student "How to become a straight-A student" is another good book by Call Newport. It was written when Call Newport was a high-school student. He interviewed a lot of top-school students to understand their secret: were they so good because they studied harder or because they studied smarter? In this book you can find some useful tricks and acks to study less but better. First of all, the author discovered that the amount of work done is equal to the time by the intensity (W = T x I). For example, if you need 60 hours to complete a work and you do it with an intensity of 6, you will spend 10 hours doing it. But if your intensity is 10, you will need only 6 hours. So, the intensity, your "focus" on the activity, is really important. To improve your focus, you must conquer procrastination. The writer describes some strategies to achieve this goal. For example, it's easier to procrastinate when you are tired and when you have a decreased of psychic and mental energy. So, feed yourself well, sleep enough during the night and don't study for too long. You can study at most for one hour at a high intensity level, then it’s better if you take some rest. The last thing that I want to discuss is the "fluency illusion" theory: some people think that to learn something is enough to read and re-read it. The result of this approach to the study is a false sense of preparation. To improve your study, quiz yourself, explain what you have learnt to your friends, write it down without looking the book. You know something only when you can repeat it to someone else with your own words. This is a short book that you could read if you are a high-school student.

Book review: So good they can't ignore you "So good they can't ignore you" is a lovely book by Call Newport. These are the concepts that struck me most. 1) Don't follow your passions. Following your passions is not only unproductive, but it is also dangerous. Instead of spending your time searching for your true passion, spend your time acquiring new, rare and valuable skills. Skills trump passions! 2) To succeed you need to be "so good they can't ignore you". By working hard, you will accumulate the career capital useful to find the job that you love. Passion is a byproduct of working hard! 3) Don't search for the right work but work right. Stretch yourself out of your comfort zone. Don't waste your time at work doing the urgent stuffs. Do the important stuffs, the things that are more valuable for you career. Don't work for your boss, work for yourself! 4) Self-determination: a high fulfilling job has these characteristics: autonomy (you need to have a certain degree of freedom), competence (you have to feel good in what you do) and good relationships (with your coworkers). These are qualities that you can find (and build) also if you are not passionate about your job. I liked reading this book because many of these ideas resonate with me and my job. I suggest you reading this book if you want to find a job that you love and succeed in it.

Book review: The One Thing "The One Thing" by Gary Keller is a really great book. These are the most interesting things that I have learnt reading this book. 1) Don't do a generic "to do list” but do a "success list"; in other words, do a list with few, but really important (for you), items. You must to discover the most important thing in your life (the One Thing). You can extend this concept to many areas in life: the one thing for your career, the one thing for your relationship, the one thing for your health, and so on. But how can you discover your One Thing? 2) To discover your "One Thing", you can apply the Pareto principle (or 80/20 principle) in its extreme form. The 80/20 principle tell us that the 80% of the outcome, derive from the 20% of the process. Generally speaking, only the 20% of the thing that we do are important and contribute for the 80% in the result that we have. Don't waste time in the 80% but focus your energy in the 20%. Then, apply the Pareto principle to this 20% (so you find the 20% of the 20%). Go on in a recursive way (find the 20% of the 20% of the 20%, etc.) until you reach your One Thing. And then do it! How? 3) Use "time blocking". Time blocking is the most useful tool to achieve your goals. When you have identified your most important things, assign them a scheduled period of your time, and do the activity in a focused and undistracted way. Best if you do this as the first thing in the morning. This is only a brief description of a book full of effective hint to improve our life and our productivity.