25th hour : how to thrive (and gain ridiculous amounts of time) by getting out of your own way / Neal Schore.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * " The 25th Hour is both a revelation and a challenge. Schore redefines mediocrity not as incompetence but as cowardice--the idea you didn ' t share, the tough conversation you sidestepped, the decision you let drift. The result is a bracing guide to reclaiming your time by confronting the emotional habits that quietly give it away." --Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drive and The Power of Regret

Are you craving not just extra time but the wisdom and self-awareness to use it joyfully and effectively? An elite executive coach brings us his proprietary approach to finding at least another hour in our day to do anything we want--all by learning to manage our fears and other emotions better.

We often equate saving time with working smarter. If only we could cut unnecessary meetings, streamline emails, and collaborate more strategically, we could claw back all the stolen hours in our day. While these tactical adjustments help, they only skim the surface. The real problem isn't external, but internal. In The 25th Hour , Neal Schore reveals how our emotional reactions quietly eat away not just at our time but also our energy. It's the unproductive worrying, the anxiety that blooms and spirals, the decisions we make based on fear, the obsession over other people's actions and behaviors--all those complicated emotional dynamics that we so rarely address at work. More than anything else, we get in our own way.

In three parts, The 25th Hour offers a simple, practical, paradigm-shifting approach to professional development, moving the focus beyond strategies for greater efficiency to what really costs us so much time and energy: our uncontrolled emotional responses.

Part I starts us off with some simple tools that can help you handle yourself better in any professional exchange, including the one question you should always ask yourself.

Part II introduces a series of strategies for maneuvering when life isn't going as you'd hoped, including a failsafe way for resetting after a distracting or tough experience leaves you in a miasma of self-doubt.

Part III helps you reach new levels of achievement and efficiency by firing your fears, breaking with your automatic responses, and fighting back against impostor's syndrome, with creative tools that will make you smile as you put them to work.

Drawing on Schore's personal experiences and his successful work with some of today's most consequential business leaders, The 25th Hour will show you how to manage yourself in order to manage your professional life. With proven guidance and tools for becoming more self-aware, reigning in unruly feelings, and preventing needless drama, this book will equip everyone from CEOs to students with the skills to focus in on what matters to work more productively and efficiently while also having more fun along the way. The counterintuitive surprise? Your colleagues will love that you don't waste their time either!

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This handbook is designed to help readers identify, recognize, accept, and manage unhelpful emotional reactions that can distract from the efficient use of time and getting more done. Schore (CEO of the 25th Hour Group, a coaching and leadership events firm) believes being inefficient on the job can stem from ineffective use of time, which can result from unproductive worrying and anxiety. The book comprises three parts: first, Schore offers simple tools to help readers handle themselves better in professional exchanges; then come strategies for addressing what drains time and energy, and the uncontrolled emotional responses that cause this (worry and anxiety); also, how to deal with resetting after a particularly tough experience or event, which can lead to self-doubt. Finally, he offers readers help in overcoming their fears, controlling their emotions, and fighting imposter syndrome that can hinder their ability to accomplish more. Schore includes case studies that illustrate how people on the job work to manage their fears and emotions, becoming more productive. Bibliographic references offer further reading. VERDICT A highly practical guide focused on boosting workplace efficiency by managing emotional reactions and anxiety. Useful for practitioners and business students.--Lucy Heckman

Publishers Weekly Review

Schore, cofounder and CEO of the executive coaching firm the 25th Hour Group, debuts with a lackluster guide to saving time and energy by managing one's emotions. He argues the real enemy of productivity isn't a jammed calendar but unproductive worry, fear-driven decisions, and fixation on others' behaviors. To combat these setbacks, he lays out self-management tools, encouraging readers to manage their own emotions instead of trying to change other people. Rather than wasting time reading into a colleague's tone over email or in a meeting, he urges asking oneself "What's the intent?" and acknowledging most people aren't out to get someone. Instead of obsessing over avoiding blame or negative feedback, he recommends easing the stigma around culpability by pretending "everything is your fault" and turning "insults into fuel," or channeling righteous indignation into positive action. Elsewhere, he encourages dismantling fear responses and imposter syndrome by speaking directly, not hedging, and generously offering compliments to oneself and others. Drawing on two decades of coaching C-suite executives, Schore illustrates each principle with client cases and personal experience. Unfortunately, much of his advice comes across easier said than done (his suggestion to use a notebook to track time saved by using his tools, for example, feels like its own time-drain). The result is an oversold presentation of cognitive reframing exercises. (Aug.)