Customer Reviews

Organizing Your Day: Time Management Techniques That Will Work for You

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I did not find this book very useful, however I acknowledge that I am absolutely not the target market for the book.

I pre-ordered it before release, so I wasn't able to check it out in a store first. I should have researched the authors, as this would have indicated it was aimed at the same market as [...] and [...]. I assumed from the blurb that it covered techniques for balancing work projects and fighting procrastination, but on reading it is clear the book is aimed more at a domestic manager (aka mom) who is trying to manage a large variety of day to day domestic, personal and family tasks, but failing to do so though a lack of basic skills and/or an internet addiction.

For example, the chapter entitled Daily Scheduling: Move Smoothly Through the Day is about very basic domestic self-care. The morning routine (p. 172) is:

Wake up: at a set time
Jump up: actually get out of bed
Make up: make the bed
Eat up: have breakfast
Wash up: have a bath or shower
Brush up: clean your teeth
Dress up: dress with care from head to toe, including shoes, and makeup for women
Look up: turn your heart upwards to God
Clean up: pick up clutter and care for breakfast dishes

and the evening routine (p. 172-73) is

Eat up: have a meal planned ahead so all ingredients are on hand
Clean up: get the whole family to help clean up the kitchen
Straighten up: Set a timer and have the family help strighten the house for ten minutes
Start up: Do a to-do list for tomorrow.

As well, there are a suggested five daily duties, including tasks such as emptying the dishwasher, washing drying and folding a load of clothes, putting on makeup, reading the bible, making an inspiration point (one place in the house that is kept beautiful and sparkling at all times) and planning weekly meals (p.174-75).

These domestic tasks are the only contents of this chapter on daily scheduling, and this was the biggest let down in the book.

I guess because of this home-based target market, I found many of the case studies to be teeth-achingly cutsey. These include;

Kim, who can't invite new boyfriend Randolf over because the house is too cluttered.
Linda, who wants to manage her time to achieve her perfect life. To her this means having 30 mins a day to play with her son, to "spend more time with her mom, soaking up her wisdom", "go shopping for frivolous things", and talk about social things with her friends.
Bev, who is so busy running errands for her family she has no time to plan her family reunion.
Terrie, a volunteer at a religious retreat, who doesn't make a to-do list and so is derailed by things that pop up.
Eileen, who forgot to pick her father-in-law up from the airport because she didn't write it in her diary.
Alan, who missed the departure of his family holiday cruise through chronic lateness.

The book is designed to help people who have little or no skills in time management. There are practical techniques in the book that are transferable to the paid workplace. The book's main message is to have a to-do list, keep a current diary/calendar, monitor where your time goes, prioritize jobs, challenge perfectionism, and be prepared to say no to people. These are all good tips. They discuss the Pareto Principle, Stephen Covey's priority quadrant method, and David Allen's Getting Things Done method. If you are having VERY basic time management problems then the book would be very useful. It may suit someone who was starting their first job out of college.

My specific challenge is juggling multiple work projects simultaneously. I'm a single mom, working full time, caring for older family members, finishing my PhD, with a part-time job as well. I can schedule personal, family, and short/medium term work commitments perfectly, and anything to which I have to liaise with or report to someone else. However I am having trouble working on long term projects (specifically writing articles for publication), because although these are absolutely essential to my career, they are projects with a distant deadline, no-one else will be affected by my failure to complete them, and they have no immediate pay-off: therefore I schedule in everything else first. I was looking for a way to approach my daily organization that would help me pick away at some of these longer-term projects. This book did not help: I did not need a book to tell me to brush my teeth every morning. However, it's clearly not aimed at me.

As an alternative suggestion, I did find 'The War of Art' by Steven Pressfield very helpful, and I recommend this if you have mastered basic time management and are looking to commit larger blocks of time to your life's purpose, but being derailed by important tasks (but not ones that will add as much to achieving your long-term goals).

This book goes beyond helpful tips and the "how-to" of using a daily planner; the authors hit on the WHY of poor time management. Many chapters are devoted to helping the reader understand what leads him/her to choose how to spend his time. The beginning of the book uses fictitious case files to illustrate different perspectives of poor time choices and really draws an eye-opening comparison between personal goals and priorities and how that reflects in a daily plan. The authors experience shines in such insight as "time management is really SELF management".

I think the authors do a superb job of encouraging the reader to create a vision for life and then showing how to begin achieving that dream, in part, by crafting a schedule that will serve the reader, as opposed to the reader feeling that his/her day is out of control. Very helpful and encouraging.

Having the problem of chronic lateness (even if only 5-10 mins) inspired me to buy this book. I underestimated how many other aspects of my life this book would positively impact! It is very readable and full of inspiring and practical ideas of how to manage your time to make the most of life. I can see it's value for people in various working roles as well as stay at home mums or part timers. I am recommending it to all my friends, but can't bear to loan them my copy just yet!

This book is me all the way. Too many uncompleted projects, time stretched too far and never enough time in the day. If this is you, I highly recommend this book. Love the little quotes along the way also.

Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims have written a book that can help you reclaim your time, your motivation, your inspiration, and in short, your own best life! This book goes beyond the typical sort-purge-store system by helping the reader discover the personal characteristics and habits that keep many of us in a cycle of harried activity, cluttered spaces, and seriously diminished productivity at work and at home. They include all the strategies and skills necessary to design, create, and maintain an organized life, but for me the best part of their book was the renewed desire I found to invest myself in the key relationships in my life. I want the people who matter most to me to have the lion's share of my time, energy, and focus; this book gave me both the tools and the inspiration to accomplish my real life mission!

this is a succinct, clear book w/ a layout that makes referring back to it later very easy. as i read the book, i was amazed to find the writers seemed to have an understanding of my problems as if they had done a personal consultation w/ me in my home and office. they obviously are experts on the subject and know how to convey a message of hope and understanding while offering realistic suggestions for change that are not unreasonable nor overwhelming in their execution. this book stays very near to me as i carry out the changes i need to make in the small steps suggested.
highly recommended.

Co-authors Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims have decades of combined experience as professional organizers in South Florida. Their book is filled with stories, analogies, famous quotes, and proven techniques (e.g., Covey's four-quadrant model, prioritizing, de-cluttering, and rethinking the efficiency of multitasking.) Readers might feel as if they are enjoying an informal, nonjudgmental conversation with their own professional organizer.

One key idea underlying the book is the importance of time itself. Our decisions about how to spend time are really moment-to-moment decisions about how to live. Because those decisions are so personal, readers will benefit from the book's many opportunities for self-discovery. Without taking some time for inner reflection and some individual "aha" moments, readers are unlikely to make significant, permanent changes.

Here are some examples of self-discovery exercises:

* Each chapter ends with "Your Turn," encouraging readers to personally apply what they just read.

* Readers have the opportunity to consider their own goals (e.g., schedule, organization of workspace, organization of the home, etc.) and their own obstacles to achieving those goals.

* An appendix offers activities that could be used in a workshop, a book club, a discussion group, or other group formats.

Kudos to the authors for encouraging readers to maximize their time instead of wasting it. As Randy Pausch said, "Americans are very, very bad at dealing with time as a commodity. We're really good at dealing with money as a commodity... but we don't have time elevated to that. People waste their time."

I found Felton and Sims' Organizing Your Day to be extremely helpful because of its careful detail and focus on real practicality. If you've read any of the more popular books on time management, you'll recognize some of the tips and processes, but likely find plenty to help you think productively about your time. The book is organized into 24 short chapters, which lets the reader easily pick and choose the ones that speak to her particular challenges. Each chapter includes about three page-long "case studies," which can help the reader to diagnose her own biggest problems with organization and time management.

The chapters cover the challenges of multi-tasking, goal setting, project management, procrastination, interruptions and time-wasters, behavior changing, physical organization, and more. The book taught me to build more efficient work habits into a daily routine, and to think concretely about my responsibilities and how my work environment can both help and hinder those. For example, I schedule projects that require higher concentration for the quietest times around the office, and work on more routine tasks during the times of day that have more interruptions. I've stopped working on projects chose to the due date, and instead work on them during the "appointments" that I make for them. It's made a great difference in my stress level and my productivity. Felton and Sims take the reader through all the questions one might ask about the work environment, the nature of one's projects, personal and personality-based challenges with productivity, and personal habits.

This book is full of the practical advice that we need to hear in the midst of our busy lives. "Organizing Your Day" helped me to define what my major goals are at this time, and also how to go about accomplishing them without becoming overwhelmed. I felt that it spoke well to my particular situation: I'm a homeschooling mother of four young children, but I think this book would also be helpful for men and women in many different situations. The authors did a good job of balancing examples and advice for people who are at home all day, and also those who work outside the home full time (men and women). Many of the examples they use are of men and women who have careers outside the home.

This is one book that I will read many times and refer to often!

This is a great book for improving time management skills. The chapters are nice and short. Each chapter ends with a step by step guide to implementing ideas for change. You can take advantage of a bunch of ideas or just use the one that fits what you need right now. I have seen improvement at both home and work. Highly Recommend!