Hi friends,
This week, I’d like to share my thoughts on two books: Designing Your Life and The Making of a Manager. Through Designing Your Life, I reviewed my daily work habits and found ways to organize my time more effectively. The Making of a Manager helped me better understand how management operates and how to collaborate more effectively with leadership.
Review of Designing Your Life:
I’ve been reading a couple of books lately, and one of them is Designing Your Life. It’s all about self-reflection and setting goals. One of the exercises in the book is called the Good Time Journal, where you track your activities, engagement, and energy levels to figure out what you enjoy and find your flow.
I’ve been logging my activities for the past three weeks, and after reviewing the data, I noticed a pattern: I’m usually more tired in the mornings but more focused in the afternoons. When I have a clear design goal or I’m really interested in the project, I can be fully immersed and barely notice the time passing. For smaller meetings, 1:1 discussions, or writing, I stay focused but my energy drains quickly. On the other hand, during larger meetings, it’s tough to concentrate; my focus drops rapidly, sometimes down to 10%, and I end up exhausted. If I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do, I find myself switching between tabs, and my energy gets scattered.
Looking at my calendar, about a third of my work is spent in meetings, another third on project discussions, file updates, and presentations, and less than a third is actually spent on design. If I were to become a manager and spend two-thirds of my time in meetings, I’m not sure if that’s a good fit for me. Maybe it means I’m better suited as an individual contributor. Before I figure that out, I’ll keep tracking my activities and focus levels, exploring how to use flow to be more effective, and finding better ways to manage my time.
Review of The Making of a Manager:
Another book I read recently is The Making of a Manager. I picked it up because I wanted to understand what managers actually do. I’m not necessarily aiming to be a manager, but I do want to know how to work better with them and understand their daily tasks. This book is different from other management books; it’s written in a conversational style and is easy to read, though it can be hard to pinpoint the key takeaways because of how it’s written.
What is management: Management is about building a team, setting goals that show what success looks like, and supporting each member to reach their career objectives. It’s also about creating processes that help work get done smoothly. The book emphasizes that at its core, management is all about people—building trust and respect, and using 1:1s to remove obstacles, provide new insights, and adjust priorities. I often struggle with 1:1s, not knowing what to discuss beyond progress updates and design reviews. The book suggests using this time to talk about priorities, share feedback, and reflect on what’s going well or what needs support.
Feedback skills: This chapter emphasizes that effective feedback starts with setting clear expectations, providing timely and specific feedback on tasks, and regularly sharing behavioral feedback. The idea is to make feedback actionable and clear about what success looks like. The book suggests using phrases like, “When I saw/heard your action, I felt concerned because….” I realized I’m not always sure what kind of feedback I need or how to handle it. Reflecting on this, I realized I’m often unsure of the feedback I need or how to handle it. The best feedback I’ve received was in grad school with note cards for constructive feedback after presentations, and when a friend helped me prepare for interviews by questioning each slide’s purpose. At work, feedback can feel overwhelming, especially during design reviews when it’s hard to prioritize what’s important, and in 1:1s, it can feel like criticism rather than guidance. The book suggests viewing managers as coaches who guide you towards clear goals, so I’ll try asking more about their expectations to improve.
Understanding yourself: The book also talks about understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and triggers. It suggests imagining what a perfect person in your role would be like, identifying gaps, and seeking feedback to adjust. I often find myself unsure about my strengths or how to leverage them, and I realized that asking for feedback can help me better calibrate myself. It’s easy to fall into a fixed mindset and be afraid of criticism, but the goal is to adopt a growth mindset, learning from feedback without taking it personally.
Making things happen, leading growing teams, and nurturing culture: These chapters discuss setting a clear vision, planning around team strengths, and focusing on execution while constantly adjusting processes. It’s important that everyone understands the team’s goals and shares the same vision. Whether managing a small or large team, the key is alignment and trust. The book encourages managers to empower their team members through delegation and support, and to consistently communicate the purpose behind the work to keep everyone motivated. It also stresses the importance of identifying gaps between the current culture and the ideal culture, and taking steps to close those gaps to build a strong, long-term team culture.
Takeaways: This book gave me a lot of insight into the mindset of managers, showing me that it’s okay to ask for feedback and use it to grow. It’s not as serious as other management books, but it’s packed with different perspectives that have made me rethink my approach to work, management, and personal growth. Even though I’m not sure where I’m heading next, this book definitely gave me new ways to think about how I fit within my team and the company. Until next time!
Long
嗨，讀者朋友們，
這週我想分享兩本書的讀書心得：Designing Your Life和The Making of a Manager。透過Designing Your Life，我檢視了自己的工作狀態，找到了更有效安排時間的方法；而The Making of a Manager則幫助我更好地理解管理層的運作，並學會如何與他們更好地合作。
Designing Your Life讀書心得：
我最近看了兩本書，第一本是 Designing Your Life – 檢視自己和設定目標的書。書裡有個活動是記錄自己在工作中不同活動的參與和投入程度，來檢視自己對哪些事情最有興趣。
我斷斷續續地記錄了三週，今天整理了一下數據，從過去三週的記錄中，我發現早上通常比較疲累，下午則有較多專注時間。當我明確知道自己要設計什麼時、或是對專案內容很有興趣的時候，可以全神貫注，也不太會注意時間流逝；當要進行溝通、討論、紀錄、寫作、少人的專案會議和一對一會議的時候，會很專心，但專注力跟能量會消耗得很快。相反地，多人會議中，我真是很難專心，而且會隨著時間和內容專注力急速下降，有時甚至低到 10%，會後整個人也會很疲憊，腦袋當機；而在沒有明確設計目標時，我會在各種軟體中來回切換，無法集中精力，能量也很分散。
如果從行事曆來看，日常工作大約三分之一是開會，另一部分在進行專案討論、檔案修改和準備發表，真正投入設計的時間不到三分之一。如果成為主管級別，是否會有三分之二的時間都在開會？這樣似乎不太適合我目前的狀態，是否暗示我比較適合當獨立工作者individual contributor呢？還沒解答之前，我打算繼續紀錄活動與專注力，研究如何利用心流來提高工作效率、更好的分配時間，之後再來分享。
The make of the manager讀書心得：
第二本書是The make of the manager，一開始讀是因為我想了解主管到底在做什麼，與其說我想要成為主管，而是想知道怎麼跟他們相處，以及他們的日常工作到底是怎樣。這本書和其他管理書不太一樣，書寫的方式口語化、易讀，但重點不好抓，反覆看了幾次才寫下這些心得。
管理是什麼：管理就是打造團隊，找出”目標”讓團隊知道成功長什麼樣子，了解每個成員，協助成員”人”達成事業目標，然後制定”流程”讓工作順利完成。書中強調管理的核心還是“人”，透過信任、尊重、1:1對話來移除障礙、提供新觀點、調整優先順序。我常常不確定 1:1 要聊什麼，除了講這週進度和設計，書裡提到可以聊優先順序、理想結果等等。
回饋的技巧：講理想的回饋應該是清楚設定期待，針對任務給即時回饋，並定期分享行為上的反饋，也可以蒐集 360 度回饋，讓回饋更客觀。回饋要具體，描述成功的樣貌，建議接下來的步驟，讓對方清楚理解如何改進，例如「當我（聽見/看見/考慮）你的（行動/行為/產出），我感到關切，因為…」，並邀請對方一起討論解決方案。這讓我反思，其實不太知道自己想要的理想回饋是什麼樣子，不論是給回饋、或是獲得回饋我都不太在行。回想起來，我覺得很好的回饋有兩次，一次是在研究所的時候，大家手上有小卡片寫下對發表者的回饋，那些稱讚和幾句改進的建議讓我覺得被支持。還有在面試準備時，友人仔細的討論每一張發表簡報的內容，給予我回饋，一一提出目的與想法。相反地，工作中的回饋常常讓我無所適從，在設計發表上，有時候不知道怎麼回應，甚至被問到為什麼一開始是這樣，會讓我覺得很挫折。同時我覺得語氣和方式會讓回饋的感受差很多，有時候會像指責一樣，讓我壓力很大，覺得是不是做錯了什麼。事後想想，其實很多時候只是期待不一致，書裡建議把主管當作健身教練，具體目標和經驗指引會讓回饋更實用，所以我應該多問對方的成功定義，請他們建議下一步，這樣我也可以更清楚怎麼改進。
了解自己：書裡也講到要多了解自己，列出強項、弱項和地雷，找出影響力在哪裡。想像一個完美的人來做自己的工作，看看有哪些技能需要提升，也可以問問同事和主管他們覺得我在哪些方面有影響力。我發現，我一直不太確定我的長處在哪，可以怎麼應用，而最大的幫助可能就是去要求他人的回饋。我發現自己有時候可能陷入定型心態，會自我感覺良好或害怕被批評，其實應該多擁有成長心態，從回饋中學習，坦然面對失敗，記錄下失敗的經驗並持續進步。我覺得自己是能夠面對失敗的人，但也花了很長時間在低谷慢慢爬出來。
其餘章節：談到如何設立明確的願景，根據團隊的優勢制定計劃，並專注於執行，同時不斷調整流程，讓每個成員都清楚目標和願景。從小團隊到大團隊，雖然管理層級不同，但統一的願景和明確的目標是關鍵。管理者需要透過授權和信任來激勵成員，1:1 的焦點應該放在員工身上，而非主管自己，重要的是達成共識、統一對目標和流程的看法。這讓我重新思考，工作背後更大的意義是什麼，例如「如果你的團隊達成目標，世界會有什麼不同？」此外，了解現有團隊文化與理想文化之間的差距，並透過行動和建立團隊價值觀來縮短這些差距，是塑造團隊長期發展的重要步驟。
心得總結：這本書讓我學到最重要的就是不害怕尋求和接受回饋，找到可以進步的地方，並更了解自己和團隊。它不像其他管理書那麼嚴肅，但也給我了很多不同的思考方式。雖然我還不知道未來會去到哪裡，但它確實改變了我看待管理和成長的態度。下次見！
Long