Self-help · Book club
Make Time book club questions
Here are 12 book club questions for Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
Make Time is a practical guide from two former Google Ventures designers who grew frustrated watching their own attention get swallowed by the default rhythms of the modern workday.
Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky · 2018 · 4h 20m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 12 questions
- 1.
What would your Highlight be today, and what stopped you from protecting time for it this week?
- 2.
Which Infinity Pool has the strongest pull on your attention? What would it take to remove it from your phone's home screen?
- 3.
Knapp and Zeratsky say the Busy Bandwagon makes busyness feel like virtue. Where in your life do you perform busyness for an audience?
- 4.
The book offers eighty-seven tactics. Which three feel most immediately actionable in your current setup? Which three feel unrealistic right now?
- 5.
How does your current morning routine shape what you end up spending your first hour on? Is that what you'd choose?
- 6.
The authors frame the nightly reflection as a two-minute check-in. What would you need to believe about your evenings to actually do that?
- 7.
Think of the last week you felt genuinely satisfied at the end of each day. What conditions made that possible?
- 8.
The book deprioritizes goals in favor of daily design. Do you find that freeing or unsettling? Why?
- 9.
Which energy tactic — sleep, movement, food, or real breaks — is most neglected in your week? What would a one-week experiment look like?
- 10.
Knapp designed Google Ventures' sprint methodology. How does the Make Time framework compare to sprints as a way of protecting focused work?
- 11.
The authors removed social media from their phones but kept it on laptops. Where would you draw your own line?
- 12.
If a version of you from five years ago looked at how you spend your attention today, what would surprise them most?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for Make Time?
Here are 12 book club questions for Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on time management, focus, habits.
How long should a book club discussion of Make Time last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in Make Time?
Time management, Focus, Habits, Intentional living, Distraction. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like Make Time or questions for other book club picks.
