54 pages • 1 hour read
Ed MylettThe Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 4 Summary: “One More and the Five Principles of Time Management”
Chapter 4 describes how a one more thinker can maximize their time management and “get three days in a single 24-hour block of time” (54). This technique is called “mind time,” defined as how the mind perceives the speed of time. Mind time is opposed to clock time, which is the chronological time measured by time-keeping instruments. Perceived duration of an event or task can be manipulated to capitalize on opportunities each day, as “time is more valuable than money” (55). Mylett’s five principles of time management can help the brain capitalize on every moment throughout the day.
The first principle is “Add more ‘days’ to your day.” One more thinkers do not believe that 24 hours exist in one day. Rather, they use technology and “our ability to bend and manipulate time for our best purposes” (58). Mylett divides his day into three six-hour parts, from 6 a.m. to noon, noon to 6 p.m., and 6 p.m. to midnight. Mylett claims that readers who implement this strategy will experience a compounding effect of working more days a week, more weeks in a month, more months in a year, and more years in a lifetime.
The second principle is “Approach time with a greater sense of urgency.” This means treating projects, work, assignments, and activities as though they need to be finished as soon as possible. Principle three is “Learn how to control time instead of time controlling you.” Mylett insists that the first 30 minutes after waking up set the tone for the rest of the day. Instead of wasting those minutes checking social media or watching television, you can “use that 30 minutes to plan out your day; review your meetings, phone calls, and projects; create priorities, meditate, pray, stretch, practice equanimity, reaffirm your standards, and update yourself on your goals” (58).
The fourth principle is “Measure your performance often,” which argues that top performers measure their performance more often than ordinary people. Mylett advises readers to shrink their measurement intervals so that they can receive weekly or daily feedback on their progress. The fifth principle is “Focus on the future.” Dwelling on past accomplishments or failures can inhibit the potential of the individual. One more thinkers can dream about their goals while “taking decisive actions in the present to shape what lies ahead” (60).
Mylett suggests that incorporating the five principles of time management will change the way others see you. Employers and families will notice the shift from “react mode” to “attack mode” (61).
Chapter 5 Summary: “One More Emotion”
Chapter 5 describes how one more thinkers use their emotions to succeed in their lives. Mylett introduces the concept of the “emotional home,” a set of five or six emotions that individuals experience on a regular basis (62). Returning to neuroscience, Mylett writes that the “synapses in your brain are wired to seek and find those emotions” (62). By intentionally shaping their emotional home, one more thinkers learn how to manage all emotions.
The first step to ordering your emotional home is to identify the five or six emotions you want to experience daily. By doing this, Mylett says that the reticular activating system begins to seek out environments and situations that generate these emotions. Likewise, the amygdala releases neurotransmitters that produce powerful emotional responses that influence our behavior. The key to managing negative emotions is to keep them in check. Guilt, jealousy, fear, and anxiety can be harnessed so that you can avoid danger, strive to act better, and plan.
Mylett does not recommend repressing negative emotions. This process of “hoarding emotions” can manifest as negative rumination that leads to mental and physical consequences (66). He advises the same principle for positive emotions. Holding onto positive emotions can dull one’s sense of reality and cause poor decision-making.
To practice emotional management, Mylett recommends meditating, finding balance, identifying triggers, and resolving to change your mindset. Lastly, Mylett encourages readers to set an intention: Identify one negative emotion that you want to get rid of or one positive emotion that you want to experience more fully.
Chapters 4-5 Analysis
In Chapter 4, Mylett teaches readers how to apply The One More Mindset to time management. In Mylett’s eyes, our perception of time—what “scientists call mind time” (54)—can be manipulated by us. The principal example Mylett uses is the idea of working three “mini days” in one. He divides his “waking hours into three equal parts, or mini-days” to accomplish three times what the normal person can (58). This technique is intended to maximize the amount of productive time during a normal day. He does not quantify exactly what constitutes an average day’s work but urges readers to strive for increasing their productivity by managing their time in this way.
Some recommendations for time management are theoretical, while others are practical. An example of practical advice is that readers should gauge their performance on a given task, activity, or goal through regular measurement. Instead of measuring annually or monthly, they should measure weekly or daily so that performance can be tracked as precisely as possible. An example of theoretical advice is the “mini days” concept, which presents an idea of what maximizing productivity during the day can look like but does not lay out the actual steps for accomplishing that objective.
Like Chapter 1’s thermostat metaphor and Chapter 2’s fable of socioeconomic success, the idea of “mini days” requires clarification and elaboration. While it may seem overly critical to read Mylett’s suggestion literally, Mylett himself affirms that “it sounds crazy. But it’s not” (54). Moreover, he claims to be “a living example of what this strategy can do for you” (59), so readers may take him at his word. Instead of providing concrete steps, Mylett describes the process using hyperbolic, emotionally charged language. First, rather than elaborating on what each “mini day” consists of, he claims that he can “turbocharge” how he spends his time and that while “you’re living seven days in one week I’m living 21 days in one week” (58-59). He never provides any specific examples of accomplishing this feat or ways to track productivity. Readers are left to assume that he performs all his recommended activities like lifting weights, meditating, practicing mindfulness, spending time with family, praying, maximizing productivity, and accomplishing personal goals every day. Next, he recommends “squeezing useless air out of the wasted parts of your day” (56). These “wasted parts” include activities such as checking social media and watching TV, which can ruin an individual’s productivity for the day. Mylett stresses the importance of rest, noting that “athletes who aren’t well-rested will play a bad game” (56), but he also stresses that “most people are tired from too little activity, instead of too much activity” (49). Given his own schedule, readers can assume that he works roughly 18 hours a day—his three six-hour mini days—and sleeps for six hours, from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. He does not discuss the dangers of overwork or the steps to successfully implement this “turbocharged” schedule, so readers must decide how and to what extent they will implement his advice on their own.
In Chapter 5, Mylett continues to emphasize the importance of willpower in relation to neurological function and neurochemical reactions. To harness emotions, readers should become aware of their negative and positive reactions and feelings toward events in their life: “Your awareness means you’re gaining control” (71). This chapter provides practical steps to control one’s emotions: meditation, finding balance, identifying triggers, and resolving the way you think. As in previous chapters, Achieving Goals With Neuroscience and Quantum Mechanics is possible if readers cultivate self-awareness, understand how their brains work, and practice discipline. The use of science to strengthen arguments is a common technique of the self-help genre, though self-help authors typically avoid the nuance and complexity of academic scholarship in favor of simple and digestible applications of scientific research to everyday life. For instance, Mylett claims that “[s]tudies have even shown that unhealthy anger in its repressed state has been linked to cancer” without providing citations for this finding (73). Audiences should remember that Mylett is not an expert on the scientific theories he espouses, though he claims an authoritative tone on their application.
