Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive

Top positive review

Excellently Portrayed Real life application

Reviewed in Australia on 20 December 2020

I loved this book, and what it stands for. Your own improvement. This provides some wonderful tools based off solid research. I will be applying these in my life tomorrow and every day after. I really appreciated the appendix where he provides his own experience with the tools and how he used them.
Excellent book :)

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Gaspard Marsala

Anecdotal over Practical

Reviewed in Australia on 10 May 2016

I wish the author had spent more time outlining strategies and giving some practically advice - it's in there (sort of) however the books structure is confusing anecdotal stories are abruptly cut and reappear after another anecdote.

2 people found this helpful

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From Australia

Carrie Fairweather

Delivers

Reviewed in Australia on 18 April 2016

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Had you engaged from beginning... well written with a suitable tempo... challenges thinking

2 people found this helpful

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Noor

Interesting insights

Reviewed in Australia on 15 August 2016

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An amazing and insightful book from the author of Power of habit. Really enjoyed reading.

The one thing that could have made it even better was some how linking all the topics and synthesising them.

One person found this helpful

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Emma S

Exactly what it says on the packet - you will be smarter, faster and better!

Reviewed in Australia on 3 September 2017

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I refer to this book over and over. It delves more deeply into some of the concepts introduced in The Power of Habit with even more insights and thinking.
The stories are informative and engaging and really do help with strategies to be smarter, faster and better. I originally purchased the audio, but went back and purchased the Kindle version so I could search and reference the stories when explaining certain concepts to colleagues and clients. I like the personal stories that show how the author applied the concepts to himself and would have loved more.

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From other countries

CheeseFan

Fascinating case studies but a muddled theme

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 April 2017

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I loved 'The Power of Habit' and was really excited to read this. In many ways I wasn't disappointed: if there's one thing Charles Duhigg can do, it's write in a fascinating, engaging manner. I was gripped by the various anecdotes given throughout the book, and at times it felt like a series of interesting stories more than anything else. The points made around productivity were interesting, but buried; quite often I found myself wondering how this related to the overall theme of the book (if indeed there was one). Part of me wonders whether Charles just put together an anthology of what might otherwise have been a series of journal articles and attempted to unify them under a theme of 'productivity', but really to me this doesn't ring true. This is more a series of ways to live your life a little better, with accompanying case studies. It is a good, engaging and interesting book, but it seems a little muddled and confused at times.

22 people found this helpful

J L M

Very enjoyable and informative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 May 2020

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Duhigg draws from many real life examples to inform the reader about what makes people smarter,faster,better and more productive. Reading this book is a good use of your time!

Julio Frantz

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2017

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Very good book! Helped me with my goals and my way of work.

Uday Reddy

One of the most ADVANCED books on PRODUCTIVITY!

Reviewed in India on 20 June 2021

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Why this is a hard book to read –
1. The strategies are way too advanced to apply quickly.
2. The author doesn’t try to clearly differentiate the story and the advice.
3. The book is filled with many unnecessary anecdotes and stories.
4. The advice is hard to grasp if you don’t pay attention to the lines.
5. Only with patience and perseverance will you be able to use the advice in your life.
The long version -

Productivity is a topic on which a boatload of books have been written. All of them offering more or less the same cliched advice. But this book beats all of them to be one of the most advanced books on productivity ever.

The book has one of the most advance strategies to improve your productivity. So hard in-fact, they might be difficult to apply. Each chapter starts off with a story and moves along with it. The author doesn't make any effort to make a difference between the advice and the story. The advice is mixed up within the story, and it takes a keen eye to discern the advice from within the lines.

Another thing is that the author uses way too many stories to illustrate his point. Which in fact makes this book a collection of short stories. The stories have unnecessary details and almost 90% of a chapter is dedicated to the story. I must stress this point, if you don't pay attention to the lines while reading, you will lose the advice given by the author. The productivity strategies are very advanced and difficult to apply. This book isn't your typical sugar-coating about good thoughts, which many books on productivity are. The tips are actionable only if you have the patience and perseverance to stick with them. If you can skillfully apply the strategies, you can find yourself being better and more productive.

So, please pay attention while reading this book, only then will you be able to discern the full potential of this book.

3 people found this helpful

Produkttester

Geschichten zum Thema Produktivität

Reviewed in Germany on 18 March 2018

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Kurzfassung
- Lesenswert, interessante Geschichten, überschaubarer praktischer Nutzen
-> Lesen Sie die Originalversion

Details
Das Buch ist in 8 Kapitel gegliedert plus Anhang.
Charles Duhigg behandelt die folgenden Themen: Motivation, Teams, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing others, Decision making, Innovation, Absorbing Data. Im Anhang findet sich auf 17 Seiten eine Zusammenfassung der Themen mit praktischen Empfehlungen.
a) Gut gefallen hat mir
- Das das Buch in verständlichem Englisch geschrieben wurde.
- Die Menge an Beispielen
- Die Erläuterungen zum Thema Team anhand eines Projekts von Google Forschern.
- Die Geschichte des tragischen Flugzeugabsturzes Air France 447 zum Thema Focus
- Die Erklärung was SMART Goals sind im Kapitel Goal Setting
- Die Beschreibung des Lean Manufacturing im Kapitel Managing others
- Das Kapitel Absorbing Data

b) Weniger gut gefallen hat mir
- Das Springen zwischen Geschichten - es hat den Lesefluss gestört
- Das Beispiel der Pokerspielerin zum Thema Decision Making - ich fand es zu detailiert und dennoch (ohne Vorwissen des Pokerspiels) schwer nachvollziehbarzuvollziehen
- Den Reader's Guide im Anhang - die praktischen Hinweise finde ich nicht gelungen - insbesondere SMART Goals sind im Haupttext (siehe oben) besser erklärt.

Fazit:
Ich empfehle das Buch zu lesen um neue Ideen und Beispiele zu den verschiedenen Themen zu erfahren. Es dürfte für viele Leser etwas Interessantes dabei sein. Man sollte allerdings nicht dem Titel zu viel Glauben schenken, das die Lektüre den Leser sofort "smarter, better, faster" macht.
Die deutsche Übersetzung (Stand 3/2018: ca 25 Euro) finde ich zu teuer im Verhältnis zum Inhalt und Nutzwert. Da das Buch in (meiner Meinung nach) gut verständlichem Englisch geschrieben ist empfehle ich die Lektüre der Originalversion.

14 people found this helpful

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Archana L

A good collection of insights

Reviewed in India on 10 April 2018

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I picked up this book after I read Charles Duhigg's, "The Power of Habit". This book is packed with good insights and observations on productivity and the appendix ties it all together with a practical example in classic Duhigg style. The only gripe I have is that there are too many concepts packed into a small book. There's enough content in here to write 4-5 separate books, each exploring a unique facet of productivity. Perhaps that's why when you read it all at once it all seems a bit disjointed. Regardless, one can still reap many benefits by focusing on one chapter at a time and supplementing it with a real life action plan to find out which techniques work the best.

8 people found this helpful

Simon Smith

Enjoyable and informative, but could be more cohesive

Reviewed in Canada on 23 June 2016

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Overall, this is a great example of narrative nonfiction. There is lots of information and analysis, but it's woven together with compelling stories that illustrate the points and keep you turning pages. If, however, you're looking for a cohesive, end-to-end book on improving productivity, this isn't really it. You'd do better reading something like Getting Things Done first, then read this book to pick up some additional ideas. My biggest issue with this book, hence four rather than five stars, is that the author hasn't cohesively assembled the ideas into some kind of overarching framework, nor is it clear to me why he chose these topics versus others. So I'm left asking whether the topics covered are just productivity approaches of interest to him, or truly the most objectively important ways to maximize effectiveness. Similarly, unlike authors such as Chip and Dan Heath, who go out of their way to connect the dots between ideas (e.g. "simple unexpected concrete credible emotional stories" in Made to Stick), this book has no connective tissue, and the author only really pulls the ideas together in the appendix. So, overall, a great read and worthwhile, but be prepared for each chapter to stand on its own rather than relate strongly to the others. It's not a system for better effectiveness, it's an exploration of various strategies and tactics for effectiveness.

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