How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life
A seminal time management book published in 1973 by Alan Lakein, one of the first modern time management books that inspired early time management research and helped establish the field. Lakein is also known for creating the Swiss Cheese Method of productivity.
Last updated: 2026-04-04 22:53
Overview
Published in 1973, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein is recognized as one of the first modern time management books. Alongside Alec MacKenzie's The Time Trap (1972), it inspired early modern time management research.
Historical Significance
- One of the very first modern time management books, published in 1973
- Along with The Time Trap, credited with inspiring early empirical time management research
- Helped establish time management as a major talking point in productivity discourse
- Part of the foundational wave of practitioner literature that preceded academic studies by over a decade
- The surge in time-related academic papers in organizational behavior began around the end of the 1980s, following these practitioner manuals by roughly 15 years
Author
Alan Lakein is also known for creating the Swiss Cheese Method of productivity, which involves breaking large tasks into small, manageable pieces — like poking holes in Swiss cheese.
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