Subtitled Transforming Chaos into Calm, A to Z, this book’s intent is to teach readers organizing and planning skills to help them develop good habits and reduce stress brought on by procrastination and disorganization.
Mitzi Weinman, founder of TimeFinder, has worked as a coach, workshop leader and professional speaker on this topic since 1989, with New Balance, Reebok and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute among her clients. Information is organized using an alphabet format, with occasional bonus chapters when she wants to share a second concept under that letter. Chapters conclude with “next steps” to motivate readers to follow through.
The author readily admits to redundancy of information in various categories and contexts to “help reinforce what works.” Each chapter opens with wise quotes from the likes of Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, Colin Powell and many more. She clearly credits the ideas of others, such as M. Scott Peck and Stephen Covey, when referenced.
This how-to book is highly reader-friendly in style and chockfull of ideas (albeit several commonly known) for being better organized and streamlining your time at home and work while avoiding common pitfalls. Ironically, however, by organizing the points alphabetically, key topics become disordered. For example, Weinman discusses (A)nticipating roadblocks and (D)elegating tasks before hitting upon the all-important (G)oal-defining and (L)ist-making, which lay the groundwork for the first two.
Also, only at the book’s conclusion does the author emphasize that all these strategies require a strong commitment to change. It would be better to highlight at the outset that simply breezing through her tips and tricks will NOT magically transform readers’ lives.
Despite being weakened by the alphabet setup, which causes the otherwise unnecessary repetition of information, the book offers an abundance of ideas and is likely to draw high readership due to the author’s concise suggestions offered with calm reassurance.
Also available as an ebook.
