How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein

Lakein, Alan. How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. 1973. New York: Signet, 1974.

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life is a short, direct guide to practical time management. The essence of Alan Lakein’s approach is setting priorities and planning.

The early chapters of the book present techniques for identifying and setting your priorities. It addresses both big goals and manageable tasks.

I put one of these prioritizing techniques, related to my to-do list, to immediate use. This has helped me spend more time on things that are important to me. It also helped me to feel less guilty about dropping low-priority things off my to-do list. If something is unimportant, I shouldn’t waste my time on it or let it clutter my to-do list.

Lakein isn’t judgmental about priorities. He doesn’t tell you what you should be doing. The book is about helping you accomplish what is important to you.

Planning goes hand-in-hand with setting priorities. Lakein says, “Control starts with planning.” Planning is simply making decisions about what you want to do, when you want to do it, and sometimes how you want to do it. I’ve seen complicated planning systems, but Lakein keeps is simple: make a list and set priorities.



Lakein also recommends scheduling. Life is full of routine and needful things that can take over our days. Making time for the things that are important means setting aside time to do them and not doing other stuff, especially less important stuff, during that time.

The latter chapters of the book present several techniques for staying on track with your priorities. Whether you need to carve out time, get started, break down overwhelming tasks, overcome fear or get back on track when you backslide (it’s bound to happen), Lakein has helpful suggestions for overcoming these and other obstacles.

I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of Lakein earlier, especially in this time-obsessed age. Maybe it’s because his book predates fancy, leather-bound planning binders, personal digital assitants and smart phones. This may be why his methods seem simpler than some other programs. His methods are compatible with today’s popular tools for time management, though they were developed when the tools were paper lists and calendars.

Lakein’s focus is practical and he doesn’t give much attention to deep theories. His tone is often like the conversational, no-nonsense, blunt self-help books of earlier decades. This makes the book readable and useful and maybe you, like me, will find something in it you can use right away.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven K. Scott

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Public Utility Depreciation by NARUC

I don’t usually read reference books, or textbooks, all the way through like I did with Public Utility Depreciation Practices. Because of my new job as a “depreciation engineer,” I undertook reading this guide from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

The title describes the content of the book. It includes some historical and legal background, but the bulk of the book is aimed at the practicalities of determining depreciation expenses.

The main elements going into depreciation rate determination are depreciation base, service life, net salvage, and depreciation computation methods. Depreciation base is the starting point; it represents the initial investment of capital that is to be recovered as a cost through depreciation. Generally it is the book cost (original cost of the infrastructure including materials, equipment, labor and related costs).

Most methods of computing depreciation are referred to as age-life methods. These methods spread the cost of the expected life of a piece of infrastructure. The preferred method is straight line depreciation. To apply these methods, one will need to know or estimate the life of the infrastructure under consideration and the net salvage value. The depreciation rate is the difference between the base and the net salvage, divided by the life of the infrastructure. With the exception of unique pieces, like types of infrastructure are lumped together because they are expected to have a similar life (wooden poles, steel poles, copper wire, conduit, etc.).

Life expectancy can be estimated by several methods. Survivor curves are developed from statistical studies of the life of particular types of infrastructure, though other methods may be used depending on the type and quality of data available.

Net salvage is estimated based on experience. The gross salvage is the price received for the equipment or materials retired. The cost of removal is subtracted from this to calculate the net salvage. Sometimes it can cost more to remove infrastructure than the value of the retired equipment and materials, so net salvage can be negative.

Calculating depreciation is more art than science. Projections of future values are inherently tricky. Growth can cause infrastructure to become inadequate before it is expected, or slower than expected growth can extend the life infrastructure. New regulations can make infrastructure obsolete in an instant, as can new technologies. In addition, utilities are constantly adding and retiring infrastructure. Amidst this uncertainty, regulators must balance the level of service needed by utility customers with the returns needed by utility investors in a complex environment.

Admittedly, a book from 1968 may seem dated. However, many of the practices described are still in use. Government regulation of monopoly utility rates in the United States has been occurring for more than a century, and the practices to not change rapidly. Even so, some of the practices described were considered obsolete, or near obsolescence, at the time of publication, and are not likely to be encountered now unless you’re a financial historian combing through moldy account books.

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Public Utility Depreciation Practices. 1968. Washington, DC: Author, 1974.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer

Nicholas Meyer plays The Game. He presents his novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, as a found manuscript of John Watson, friend to and chronicler of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective inspired pastiches and fan fiction even during the time when he was writing the canon of Holmes stories. Meyer even mentions Doyle in the book, though in keeping with The Game, he alludes that he is something like a literary agent, helping Watson place his recollections in magazines.

The occasion of the reference to Doyle is his connection to both Watson and Doyle’s medical studies in Vienna, where most of the story is set. According to Meyer, neither the real life or fictional version of Doyle met another famous physician who resided in Vienna. That physician’s expertise in a certain specialty is the reason Watson and Holmes visit the European mainland.

After Watson marries and moves out of the Baker Street apartment, Holmes is more tightly gripped by his addiction to cocaine, the seven percent solution mentioned Doyle’s The Sign of Four and the title of Meyer’s book. Overcoming addiction was beyond the expertise of Watson and his medical colleagues, but the work of a Viennese physician gave him hope. Watson conspires with Sherlock’s brother Mycroft, and even enlists the aid of the old Holmes family math tutor Moriarty, to trick Holmes into going to Vienna to be placed in the care of Sigmund Freud.

The first half of the book deals with Holmes’ addiction and his treatment in the home of Freud. This is more interesting than some may think it sounds, and even in this section Meyer maintains the feel of a Holmes story.

In the second half, Freud’s consultation in the case of a silent patient prompts the kind of detective story you expect to see Holmes in. Freud is along for the ride and his insights prove useful to the detective. The physical side of the adventure ramps us in this part, too. The climax (can you do a spoiler alert for a 40-year-old book) is a saber duel between Holmes and the story’s villain on the top of a speeding railcar.

Meyer sticks close to the canon, though he does it by discrediting certain “disputed” stories. The long-retired Watson, dictating this after the death of his friend, admits to fabricating certain tales in order to protect Holmes’ life and reputation.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

Fic by Anne Jamison

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

Meyer, Nicholas. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974.