Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I finished this book because severe loss aversion would not let me abandon it. Once I had started reading it, I kept thinking, “Oh, I have already suffered through some of it, might as well read the rest”. That is time I am never getting back.

First, I want to touch on the Seven Habits themselves. They aren’t “Habits” per se, they’re more ideas and principles which can be applied and internalised in various ways. Most of it is obvious stuff presented as motivation. “Be Proactive”, “Sharpen the Saw” and “Begin with the End in Mind” are basically complex ways of telling you to take action, take care of yourself and be focused on goals. At best these are motivation, but the book is SO LONG that it is hardly necessary. The “Quadrant II” idea is a common one these days, perhaps the most interesting of the lot BUT explained so half-heartedly compared to so many better books. Then we have “Synergize” which is just confusing and a badly presented Rogerian Argument.

At it’s core, this is horribly written. The advice is badly phrased, the examples are all over the place and the book could have been a fourth of the current length and lost nothing. It is rambly, it shifts gears abruptly and sometimes the advice seems to overlap so much that you forget which of the different habits you were reading about. Today, a hundred and one books and websites teach all of these principles better than this book can.

I wish I’d read an online summary of this book instead of reading the actual book.

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