Nicholas Bate - The Business Skills Collection: 30 Minute Reads: Go Home E-Mail Free; Bags of Energy Now; Give Great Presentations; Make Better Decisions More Often; Boost Your Productivity

Table of Contents

What will this book do for you?

Energy. If you are reading this you would probably like some more. Perhaps to be able to stay fully alert in all those meetings, to feel like going to the gym at lunchtime, or simply to just do something with your evenings. What happened? Once, when you were a toddler, nothing could stop you! Then, as a child playing 5-a-side every lunch time and even as a teenager who could skip a night's sleep with no real downside. But now now you seem on autocue and survival mode a lot of the time, clutching your latte to go: the buzz has gone.

Most of us would probably distinguish two kinds of personal energy. There's the mental kind: that's feeling like doing something, having the willpower to make it happen. You've just come back from a fantastic vacation feeling pretty well-rested and had planned to go for a swim most lunchtimes but somehow a spot of retail therapy seems more attractive: you lack the mental energy, the willpower to make the swimming happen. And there's the physical kind: that's the oomph in your muscles. So although you would actually really like to get out into the garden, as it is such a lovely summer's evening, and do a bit of watering and tidying up you are just so physically shattered from the long day at the office, you cannot get off the sofa: you lack the physical energy.

The two are strongly linked: the salesperson who closes a great deal (a wonderful mental boost) she has been chasing for months suddenly finds untold reserves of physical energy and decides to go hit the gym before going to celebrate at the pub. The person who takes a walk every lunchtime whatever their work load or the weather finds he has more drive to cope with poorly-run conference calls with head office in the US.

The goal of this book is help you have more energy. Energy for every day, for dealing with the kids and the team and the email, as well as energy for the other stuff such as your start-up plans and archery class. We will look at the two threads we have mentioned: physical energy, that is the stamina and the oomph we need for so many activities; and the mental energy, that is the focus, clarity and willpower.

Here's the structure of Bags of Energy Now