Productivity Plan by Robert Green

Fuzzy Focus, Not Much of a “Plan”

This book is all over the map. I like it when my nonfiction books are precisely about what they say. If you call a book a “plan,” it should have a plan. If a book is about productivity, every chapter should focus on that theme. I found the book did not fulfill either word’s promise. I didn’t see any big overall “plan” mentioned in this book. There are a variety of strategies and tips offered but no comprehensive plan. The book does have some discussion of productivity, including what hampers it, like perfectionism and thinking that working long equals working well. But I didn’t really feel like he got to the heart of the issues about what can make one more productive while still maintaining mental, physical, and spiritual health. The book should have been more tightly focused on productivity itself instead of peripheral subjects, and he needed to delve more deeply into productivity as well. Many sections in the Table of Contents (which is far too long and detailed) are just a paragraph in the book itself; there’s little depth here. The book in places felt like a grab bag of pop-psych ideas about productivity and peripherally related concepts like sleep and meditation. If you are genuinely looking for a productivity plan, you would do better to look elsewhere.