The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity

By Kory Kogon, Adam Merrill and Leena Rinne

Every day brings a crushing wave of demands: a barrage of texts, emails, interruptions, meetings, phone calls, tweets, blogs - not to mention the high pressure demands of our jobs - is overwhelming and exhausting. The sheer number of distractions threaten our ability to think clearly and make good decisions. If we react to these stimuli, moving mindlessly from one task to another, we will fail to accomplish the things that matter most in our professional and personal lives.

In this book, readers will learn how to make the five fundamental choices that will increase their ability to achieve what matters most to them. Backed by science and FranklinCovey's years of experience and research in this field, The 5 Choiceshelps readers increase their productivity and develop an inner sense of fulfillment and peace. The 5 choices are simple but require a radical shift in mindset and will lead to increased personal and professional success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Jan 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781471142383

Kory Kogon

Kory Kogon is FranklinCovey’s Global Practice Leader for Productivity focusing her research and content development around time management, project management, and communication skills. In addition to coauthoring The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity, Kory is one of the authors of Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager, and Presentation Advantage. Prior to FranklinCovey, Kory spent six years as the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations for AlphaGraphics, Inc.

Reviews for The 5 Choices

[imperfectcj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Inevitably the first question people would ask me after I'd mention this book was, "Why are you reading this again?"

It's an interesting question. Because as a homeschooling, not-gainfully-employed parent, I'm not really the target audience for a book from our friends at Franklin Covey.

Truth is, I started reading this book by accident.

I went online to buy myself a new Franklin Planner, a smaller, wire-bound weekly planner to carry me through mid-2016 that wouldn't weigh me down like the ring-bound planner I've been toting around (or more often leaving at home because it's so big and I've got enough to carry with me with two young children in tow). The style I liked was called "The 5 Choices" and the description said it included worksheets to help me implement The 5 Choices. What the heck was The 5 Choices? I looked up the book just to make sure I'd be able to use the planner even if I didn't read the book. And now here I am.*

Originally, I wasn't going to put this book on Goodreads or write about it on my blog. I unofficially swore off of self-help books, and while one could argue that this is more of a time-management book, it's really self-help. Although I said I wasn't going to read self-help books anymore, I figured that if I kept it a secret and didn't log it and didn't get it in actual, physical book form (I checked it out electronically from the library), then it didn't really count.

It was a decent, if self-deceptive, plan, that worked as long as I could keep myself from talking to anyone about the book.

But I couldn't keep myself from talking about the book.

Because it's a good book, or at least a book of good ideas arranged in an accessible format. There's some repetition, some over-simplification (case-study Kiva pulled herself together pretty dramatically after reading The 5 Choices), and some big assumptions about the types of jobs people reading the book have, but I expect that sort of thing from the genre, and it didn't bother me that much.

As a veteran of Franklin Covey programs from my days in the corporate world---and a devotee of Franklin Planners despite the ease of use and sync-ability of online calendars---I didn't actually find much that's new in The 5 Choices. There's the familiar Time Matrix and the Four Quadrants and the Big Rocks and the terminology that sounds comforting in my head but makes people laugh when I say it out loud. But the information was arranged in such a way that it felt new, or at least in such a way that I could see ways to address energy and stress in my life that I didn't before I read this particular book. It got me thinking in different directions.

And while it's kind of cheesy, the suggestions for how to manage energy and reduce stress are good ones that I'm already applying to my daily life, like having the kids and I take walks or play outside for a few minutes between homeschool lessons that involve a lot of sitting still so we can get our brains up and moving again and not get burned out. I'm not sure yet whether these ideas will have staying power or make a big difference, but they're small changes that feel empowering to me right now so it feels low-risk.

I was so relieved that there's no Mission Statement assignment in The 5 Choices. Coming up with inspiring names for my Q2 Roles and thinking of what Extraordinary Outcomes for each role would look like almost overwhelmed me with cheesiness; Mission Statements would have pushed me over the edge.

It occurs to me that I don't have a clue who else would find this book useful. I'm sure someone would, but would they have to have a background with the 7 Habits or other Franklin Covey ideas? Would others be willing to wade through the rah-rah cheerleading that peppers the book (and is concentrated in the first couple of chapters) to see the good stuff? I'm old enough to know that I have no idea what will resonate with other people, so while I found it helpful, I won't venture to guess who else might like this book.

*And yes, I do see the irony that a Q3 rabbit hole led me to this book.