Four Seconds: All the Time You Need to Stop Counter-Productive Habits and Get the Results You Want

Peter Bregman, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller 18 Minutes, offers strategies to replace energy-wasting, counter-productive habits that commonly derail us with truly effective ones.

The things we want most—peace of mind, fulfilling relationships, to do well at work—are surprisingly straightforward to realize. But too often our best efforts to attain them are built on destructive habits that sabotage us. In Four Seconds, Peter Bregman shows us how to replace negative patterns with energy boosting and productive behaviors. To thrive in our fast-paced world all it takes is to pause for as few as four seconds—the length of a deep breath—allowing us to make intentional and tactical choices that lead to better outcomes. Four Seconds reveals:

• Why listening—not arguing—is the best strategy for changing someone’s mind
• Why setting goals can actually harm performance
• How to use strategic disengagement to recover focus and willpower
• How taking responsibility for someone else’s failure can actually help your team

Practical and insightful, Four Seconds provides simple solutions to create the results you want without the stress.

All too often our best efforts to accomplish the things we want most—to do our jobs well, to make meaningful contributions at home and at work, to have satisfying relationships with loved ones, friends, neighbors, and coworkers—are built on bad habits that sabotage us. We feel overwhelmed by our increasingly large to-do list, so we automatically multitask to get more done—and end up more stressed and more overloaded. We say something with the hopes of impressing the other person, but instead of end them—then spend days trying to repair the damage. We give what we think is a pep talk to our team— but they walk away demotivated.

How can we be most effective and productive in a world that moves too fast and demands so much of us?

In Four Seconds, Peter Bregman shows that the answer is to pause for as few as four seconds—the length of a deep breath—to replace bad habits and reactions with more productive behaviors. In his trademark style of blending personal anecdotes with practical advice, Bregman reveals some of our most common counter-productive tendencies and describes counter-intuitive strategies for acting more intentionally, including:

• Why setting goals can actually harm your performance
• How to use strategic disengagement to recover focus and willpower
• Why listening—not arguing—is the best strategy for changing someone's mind
• How taking responsibility for someone else's failure can actually help you succeed

Drawn from Bregman's hugely popular Harvard Business Review blog, this engaging and wise book provides simple solutions to create the results you want without the stress.

Praise for 18 Minutes: “18 Minutes is an intensely smart, insanely readable, and eminently practical guide to boosting our effectiveness and deepening our satisfaction. I’ve already benefited from the ideas in is book in my own work. So will you.” - Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

“Pick this book up and read it. Bregman’s wisdom, humility, and ability to tell a great story run through every page of this gem. 18 Minutes is the best blend of a business book and a self-help book I have ever read.” - Robert Sutton, Stanford University Professor and bestselling author of Good Boss, Bad Boss

“Feeling in control of your time is a key element of happiness. In the thoughtful, practical, and often funny 18 Minutes, Peter Bregman explains how to make sure we have plenty of time to do the things that matter most to us—so that our lives reflect our true values and priorities.” - Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project

“Peter Bregman is back, this time with an even faster way to find your focus and get back on track when life throws you off. His honesty and empathy for his own failings make Four Seconds a refreshing read.” - Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive

“Bregman’s insights are life-changing, often surprising, and—most importantly—entirely practical. His strategies can be used every day, take very little of your time, and yet yield extraordinary results.” - Heidi Grant Halvorson, associate director, Motivation Science Center, Columbia Business School, and author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

“This book is priceless, a book that could change your career, your marriage, your life. I hope you get a chance to read it.” - Seth Godin, author of The Icarus Deception