Life Hacking Round Up: Ben

What did I learn from reading these books? This is the real question.

I’ll be the first to admit it, I am a complete novice at librarianship and ‘Oxford’, therefore reading these life hacking books during Michaelmas term was a blessing in disguise.

Juggling reading these books whilst managing a large library collection has been a great education. It taught me about time management, but also about how to navigate the world of work, to embrace it and thrive in it. One lesson I learnt is that work is just as much about self-development as it is getting tasks done. For instance, it took me a while to reserve time during my working days to read the life hacking books. I assumed that reading such a book at work was not in fact work, but it completely is! To repeat: work is as much about self-development, as it is getting tasks done.

When finally, you have the ability to reserve (and therefore time manage) a moment in your day to read a book about time management, that is when you know it is working. You learn without even realising it!

A brilliant theme throughout all the life hacking books is that they advocate for moments of self-reflection during your working day. Work often makes us act in strange robot fashions and on auto pilot, but it does not have to be the case. Once you pause and reflect, you will see that ‘work’ suddenly transforms into a series of tasks. Realising that work can be interpreted as such, is the first step to understanding the importance of time management.

The book that most spoke to me was Mark Forster’s Do It Tomorrow. I dived into this book without a shadow of knowledge on this genre of literature, and with a feeling that “I don’t need a book telling me what do”. The latter was soon proved wrong once term commenced. Luckily, Forster’s book was at hand! Approaching life hacking books with an arrogance and a lack of knowledge of its subject is actually a good thing, rather than a bad thing. I would recommend picking up one of the books from the library and delving into it without trying to research the ideas behind said book. This is a difficult thing to do especially as a student, since you are constantly doing preparatory reading and analysis. I was the same when I started my current position. The student mindset had not left me. But, go into your chosen book without context and see what you make of it! You may well be surprised at how much you take from the books, and how much you can personalise these books to your own working lives.