Cut to the Chase and other 99 rules to liberate yourself and gain back the gift of time by Stuart R Levine, published by Random House.

I tried skimming through Cut to the Chase, but found myself caught up almost against my will. I say almost, since I was embarrassed to find myself described in more than one of those 100 rules to curb the wasting of time.

We like to think other people waste our time, but it is mortifying to discover that you could be the cause of your own lack of time.

Once I got over my embarrassment, however, I found it to be quite a handy little book that is easy to read and allows you to jump chapters and return to them later without losing anything.

Stuart R Levine, the author, has gathered 100 lessons to help readers to get to the point, stay focused and concentrate on what is important to help you make the most of your time and energy – both in your business life and in your home life.

In fact, he claims these rules will improve your home life since you will be able to spend less time at work by being more effective and efficient with your time.

And who wouldn’t like to find more time to spend with your family or free some time for a weekend getaway?

They are practical tips, things that we do all the time like hammering home a point for 15 minutes, when the person you’re talking to got the point 10 minutes ago and you could have moved on from there.

How not to sound like the meeting waffler - you know the one that rambles on through meetings saying the same thing in 20 different ways - by thinking in bullets. Precision thinking he calls it.

Or when driving to work and someone cuts you off in traffic and you bring that anger and aggression to your workplace and allow it to cloud your judgement and you find fault with everything and slow down processes because you’re being difficult. To curb this, he has rule number seven: get over it.

There is nothing new in these rules, though. But it is good to hear them again and think about them – really think about them.

If you want to buy a book to read on a plane or a book for some light reading on a weekend, this is the one.