A Make Time review and summary: two ex-Google designers on shaping your day around a single priority, without a rigid system.
★★★★½4.4/5
The verdict: A gentle, flexible daily system for making room for what matters.
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What is Make Time about?
Knapp and Zeratsky offer a light, flexible daily framework for reclaiming your time and attention from busyness and distraction, built around choosing one daily highlight and defending your focus.
Make Time summary
The authors, who worked on products designed to grab your attention, turned that knowledge around to help people take their attention back. Their framework has four simple steps, repeated each day rather than followed as a rigid system.
First, Highlight: choose one thing each day you want to make time for, your single priority or the thing you will be glad you did. Second, Laser: defend your focus on that highlight by beating the distractions, especially phones and endless feeds, that they call infinity pools. Third, Energise: look after your body with movement, food, sleep and real breaks, because attention runs on energy. Fourth, Reflect: note what worked and adjust tomorrow.
The book offers dozens of small, optional tactics under each step, and the whole point is to pick the few that suit you rather than adopt everything. It is friendlier and less demanding than Deep Work, aimed at people who want to feel less frazzled and more intentional without overhauling their entire life.
Published in 2018 by two former Google and Google Ventures designers, it drew on their experience building attention-grabbing products. It is aimed at people who feel busy and distracted and want a flexible way to reclaim their time.
Key ideas and takeaways
- Pick a daily highlight. Choose one priority you will be glad you made time for.
- Beat the infinity pools. Defend your focus from endless feeds and notifications.
- Energise. Attention runs on sleep, movement and real breaks.
- Reflect and adjust. Tweak your approach a little each day.
My honest take
This is the gentle, flexible cousin of Deep Work, and for a lot of people it is the easier place to start. Rather than a demanding system, it gives you a menu of small tactics and tells you to pick the handful that fit your life, which suits the messy reality of self-employment.
The daily-highlight idea is the keeper. Choosing one thing each day you actually want to make time for cuts through the noise of a hundred competing tasks and gives the day a spine. Coming from two people who helped build the very apps that steal our attention, the advice on beating distraction carries some weight. It is light, kind and practical, if not especially deep.
Because it is a pick-and-mix of tactics rather than a single strong argument, it can feel a little slight, and you get out what you put in. But that flexibility is deliberate, and it makes the book approachable for people who bounce off stricter systems.
Where it falls short
- The pick-and-mix format can feel slight and scattered.
- Lighter and less rigorous than Deep Work, so it may underwhelm serious productivity readers.
How it compares
Deep Work is the demanding, all-in approach to focus; Make Time is the gentle, flexible on-ramp. Read Make Time to start and Deep Work when you want to go further.
Who should read it (and who should skip it)
Anyone who wants to feel less frazzled without adopting a strict system. Skip it if you want one rigorous, demanding method instead.
How to actually use it if you are self-employed
- Each morning, pick one highlight you want to make time for.
- Remove one distraction, mute an app or leave the phone in another room, while you work on it.
- Protect your energy with a proper break and some movement.
- Choose one daily highlight.
- Defend your focus from distraction.
- Protect your energy and adjust daily.
Twenty years self-employed, 500+ people coached. If you want help applying this to your own situation, book a free discovery call.
Frequently asked questions
What is the daily highlight?
One thing you choose each day to make time for, your single priority or the thing you will be glad you did.
Is it a strict system?
No. It is a flexible menu of tactics; you pick the few that suit you rather than follow it rigidly.
How does it compare to Deep Work?
It is lighter and friendlier. Deep Work is more demanding and rigorous; Make Time is easier to start.
Do I need to use all the tactics?
No. The authors explicitly say to pick a handful that work for you and ignore the rest.
Is it good for beginners?
Yes. It is one of the more approachable productivity books, especially if strict systems put you off.
Final verdict
Make Time earns 4.4/5. A gentle, flexible daily system for making room for what matters. If it is the stage you are at, the cheapest way in is a free Audible trial or Kindle Unlimited.
