Book Review: 4/5 Impact On Me (Book By Dominica Degrandis, Tonianne DeMaria)
Read more about the book here
Although this book was a dry read, it was interesting and valuable because it discussed the challenges many knowledge workers face daily. For example, many of us feel overburdened and overworked. Our to-do lists seem endless. Often, our managers don’t know where our time goes. Even when they try to help, we struggle to explain how we spend our time and why it feels like there’s never enough of it.
I’d rate the impact of this book as 4 out of 5. The content is great and very relevant, but it was hard to read, which made it difficult for me to absorb and turn into actionable steps.
Below are my notes from reading the book.
Why We Take on More Than We Can Handle
There are five main reasons we take on more work than we can manage:
We Like to Say Yes: It’s hard to say no to people we like or respect.
Fear of Consequences: We worry about blame, criticism, or even losing our jobs if we refuse tasks.
Team Player Mindset: We don’t want to let our team down. Plus, completing tasks gives us a sense of accomplishment.
Optimism Bias: We believe we can finish tasks faster than we actually can.
Shiny Object Syndrome: Starting new things feels exciting, while finishing old tasks can feel boring.
Use a Kanban Board to Manage Work
A Kanban board is an easy, effective way to manage and visualize your work. It helps you track what you’re working on, what’s pending, and what’s done.
Your tasks will fall into two categories:
Tasks you choose to do.
Tasks assigned to you by others.
When setting up your board, decide how detailed you want it to be:
Skip tasks you’re unlikely to ever do.
Consider not adding tasks that take less than 15 minutes.
Choose a system that works for you. Either is ok.
Trade-offs with Small Teams
Small teams, like the famous “two-pizza teams,” can move faster and work more independently. But as organizations grow, small teams can slow things down due to increasing dependencies between them.
To manage these dependencies:
Use software tools to map out dependencies.
Identify and address bottlenecks early.
This keeps the organization flexible while maintaining the speed of small teams.
The Thief of Conflicting Priorities
Conflicting priorities steal time and focus. You’ll notice this problem if you’re having frequent meetings just to figure out what’s most important.
This often connects to unplanned work—tasks that pop up unexpectedly.
How to Manage It:
Show how conflicting priorities delay projects.
Highlight the cost of delays and the overhead of juggling multiple projects without clear progress.
Being clear about priorities helps reduce wasted time and effort.
Key Insight from Eliyahu Goldratt
"Never let something important become urgent."
This quote is a powerful reminder. Just like we wouldn’t run a server at 100% capacity because it risks failure, we shouldn’t run our schedules—or our teams—at full capacity.
Some companies (supposedly) give employees 20% free time. It’s not just to encourage innovation. It’s about keeping workloads around 80% capacity to prevent burnout and stay flexible when unexpected work arises.
This book helped me understand the hidden costs of poor workload management. While it wasn’t an easy read, the insights are valuable for anyone trying to work smarter, not just harder.
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