Alan Lakein is a well-known expert on personal time management. A Harvard MBA, his management films have won eight festivals and are best-selling training films. He is most well-known for his book How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life which has sold over 3 million copies.

He is also known for his inspirational quotes, including "Time = Life, Therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life." He is often quoted as the creator of Lakein's question: "What is the best use of my time right now?"

Former President Bill Clinton, who started his new autobiography, My Life, with a reference to the book: "When I was a young man just out of law school and eager to get on with my life, on a whim I briefly put aside my reading preference for fiction and history and bought one of those how-to books: How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, by Alan Lakein. The book’s main point was the necessity of listing short-, medium-, and long-term life goals, then categorizing them in order of their importance, with the A group being the most important, the B group next, and the C the last, then listing under each goal specific activities designed to achieve them. I still have that paperback book, now almost thirty years old. And I’m sure I have that old list somewhere buried in my papers, though I can’t find it. However, I do remember the A list. I wanted to be a good man, have a good marriage and children, have good friends, make a successful political life, and write a great book.

Mr Lakein currently resides in Santa Cruz, California.

References

Books

• Alan Lakein, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life (1973, New American Library, New York; ISBN 0-451-13430-3)
• Alan Lakein, Give Me a Moment and I'll Change Your Life: Tools for Moment Management (1997 Andrews & McMeel, Kansas City, MO; ISBN 0-836-23591-6)

Links