http://pro-libertate.net/20150123/254-read-power-less ( )

A waste of time and money. I only stuck with it and finished it because it wasn't a very long book. But I learned nothing from it. It was all just common sense, and things I'd heard before. ( )

I recommend this over the GTD system. I've tried the GTD system many times and just ended up hating my long to do list which never ended. With this, Babauta has you focus on a few projects at a time--to completion. He also gives advice on how to focus and how to be mindful of what you are doing. ( )

After mooching around the library for a while, I was struggling to find something to capture my attention. Usually when this happens I tend to leave empty handed but I decided to see if anything new was in the Psychology section. This book caught my eye, and without taking too close a look at it I decided to give it a shot. Something about it jogged my memory but after checking my previous loans and determining that I hadn't taken it out before I couldn't think of why.

After a few pages it all became clear to me. The book is written by Leo Babauta, the owner of Zen Habits, a blog which I have had a nose around in during the last year. His blog posts are relatively short and cover a broad spectrum of minimalism, Zen Buddhism, health & fitness and productivity all mashed together. I have found some of these posts useful and interesting to read, but none of them have been a massive departure from my current mindset. Having read a book based on a blog before I was a little concerned that it would be a collection of blog posts thrown together. I am happy to say that this is not the case, this is a properly written and edited book and not merely a collection of articles.

This book concentrates mainly on how to be more productive in your working life be simplifying things. It is a concept that I am fairly familiar with but I had hoped the book would cover the other aspects of life in more detail. It also really only applies if you do an office job, something which doesn't apply to me. There is also a degree of confusion in the writing as he advocates concentrating on one goal at a time but then mentions doing at least 3 tasks a day and having 3 projects on the go along with various other numerical rules. I understand the basis of what he means but he doesn't communicate this very effectively. He also touches on some other things like reducing stress and things such as health & fitness. The health and fitness advice is very good, it's just a shame that it isn't covered in more depth. In my experience, the tips on improving your health are spot on but unless you are already familiar with them they will be hard to implement as they are not thoroughly explained.

Overall I quite liked this book, it's easy to read and the subject is covered in a decent enough manner. ( )

Read the stuff you're interested in on his blog. Shorter, less repetitive, less condescending. I finished the book because I scanned most of it looking for content I hadn't heard of yet, but I never should have started. ( )