Reading a book on type and time management is a time management
problem in itself. I find, when I read a type-related book, I read the
portion describing my type first and then my wife’s and maybe a couple
of other people I know quite well to see if the book makes sense to me.
After that it is rather a chore to complete the reading. So it was a job
to discipline myself to finish the reading so I could write this review.
As far as I know this is the first Jung/Myers theory book totally dedicated to the topic of time management. It is essentially a reference book to look up the way individual types manage their time. It is also one of the few books that does not devote a section to explaining basic Jung/Myers theory. As there are many excellent books on basic theory, I applaud the author for making this choice.
The author approached her task by sending out four questions to several people of each type and put the answers to these questions into a book.
The four questions were:
Tell me about an occasion when you felt really successful in managing
your time.
Tell me about some of your difficulties in time management.
What advice can you offer to others of your type regarding time management?
What help would you like to get regarding time management from others
of your type?
The answers are written up just as the individual responses were given. In some cases all four questions were answered completely. In other cases, only some of the questions were answered. One person only gave a two-sentence response. A few of the respondents answered the questions whatever way they felt like it and this didn’t fit the format at all. This was partly due to their type. I would have liked a bit more background information on the individuals, such as type of work they were doing and their educational background. Some of the answers gave clues to these concerns.
The section on my type I felt was on target. I had several other people read their type descriptions and they felt that the descriptions were accurate as well.
The author introduces each of the 16 types with a one page general outline of the type and how the type relates to time. After the individual responses are given, the author provides some discussion about the responses and then gives a one page summary in the form of a chart for each type.
An interesting section is the comparisons and contrasts of responses between Judging and Perceiving, Sensing and Intuition, and Thinking and Feeling.
I feel that this book is just a first step in helping people understand time management. It would have helped if the author had sat down with each of the type groups and really discussed their answers as a group. I get the feeling that there are a lot more insights to be learned. The last question, asking what help they would like, elicited several questions that did not really get answered. A group brainstorming session might have come up with useful insights.
There are some useful ideas here, and the book makes a good resource to have when leading a session on time management.