I was part of the beta read group for this book selected by the author. A copy of the book was provided in exchange for an honest opinion and comments about the book.
Reading this book is like sitting down and have a cup of tea and a conversation with Author Linda Formichelli. The style of the book is conversational, easy to understand, and enjoyable to read. The chapters are short and easy to read a couple if you only have a few minutes.
Even though a lot of this book did not directly apply to me (I live rural and not in a city environment), I still garnered a huge amount of insight from several of the chapters and quite a few of the worksheets that are provided as a free download along with the purchase of the book.
Several topics that hit home are "Stop Checking Your Email" - it is not necessary to check for messages every 15 minutes throughout the day; "Schedule an Admin Day" - set one day a week to run errands instead of running them every day after work; and "Choose Four" - the night before, choose four items on your to-do list that absolutely must be done the next day and post the four items so you see it the first thing in the morning.
The worksheets will prove to be very helpful such as the "Night-Time Brain Dump List" for listing everything on your mind before you try to go to sleep at night. This is a big one for me. Sometimes I just cannot get my brain to be quiet. Listing the items will allow you to rest knowing that you do not have to remember them, they are on a list, and will be waiting for you to tackle tomorrow. The "Naikan Worksheet" ended up being my favorite of them all. I was not familiar with the Naikan method of self-reflection. I have been doing something similar for years but just did not have a name for it -- now I do. It is based on three questions: What have I received from a specific person? What have I given to or done for this person? What troubles and difficulties have I caused this person? The "Tolerations List" is a useful list for getting rid of your frustrations. It is a list you make of everything that irritates you daily from the faucet dripping to the telephone ringing all the time. It is suggested that you list 100 items. It is followed-up by the "Killed Tolerations List" which is where the items go when you have satisfied the problem. This will be a useful and satisfying list for me.
This will be a good book for the person who is trying to balance a full life and wants to still carve out a piece to have for her own. Yes, this is possible and Linda will show you how to do it!!
