Book picks similar to
How to Set Up Your Desk: A Guide to Fixing a (Surprisingly) Overlooked Productivity Problem by Matt Perman
productivity
non-fiction
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self-help
The Sentimental Person's Guide to Decluttering
Claire Middleton - 2017
and none of the mess you live with now. Declutter Your Home and Let Go of Your Stuff Without Losing Your Nostalgic Memories In this book, Claire shares tips that will help you give up the bulk of your sentimental clutter while keeping your most precious treasures to use and display. Learn how to shrink your collections of nostalgic items such as: Your children's baby clothes and toys Mementos from your own youth Clothes you've kept for decades Heirlooms you inherited Books you've kept for years Gifts you don't want (but feel you have to keep) Holiday decorations And everything else that brings back happy memories. Claire will teach you the art of discarding items that trigger your memories without actually losing those memories. If you've been hoarding too much stuff because you fear losing the memories along with the stuff, you need this book. This Decluttering Guide is Packed with Advice Whether you're downsizing the family home or you simply need to learn how to declutter in a way that honors your memories, this book is for you. If your adult children are moving out, or you're faced with going through the belongings of a beloved parent or other loved one, this will be one of your books that you refer to again and again, as it lists categories of sentimental items, and how to deal with each. Yes, You Can Declutter Without Losing Your Treasured Memories You don't have to live with overflowing closets, an attic full of boxes and a basement packed with more of the same, just because it's so hard for you to sort through and give up belongings linked to your past. The truth is, you CAN finally free yourself of clutter while keeping your most treasured belongings. There are many decluttering books and downsizing books, but this one is written by someone with personal experience. Claire and her family gave up more than half their possessions when they downsized from their large family home to a much smaller house. She let go of things she'd been carrying around for most of her life, as well as treasured mementos from many years of raising her large family to adulthood. In this book, she spells out the steps a sentimental person can take to reduce their clutter while keeping their memories intact. Read The Sentimental Person's Guide to Decluttering now, and start on the path to conquering clutter without giving up happy memories.
Smart Change: Five Tools to Create New and Sustainable Habits in Yourself and Others
Art Markman - 2014
Smart Change explores the psychological mechanisms that form and maintain habits in individuals and groups and offers real, accessible and actionable advice for changing habits. In an engaging narrative, Markman covers a wide range of habits, from individual behaviors like eating better and exercising regularly to work-related behaviors such as learning effectively and influencing customers’ purchases. He proposes that there are five effective tools to help individuals change behavior and to help people influence the habits of the people around them:1. Tame the “Go” system: Identify the triggers of habits, replace old behaviors with new ones and generate specific plans to deal with obstacles.2. Harness the “Stop” system: Learn to deal with stress and other factors that hinder the development of new and positive habits.3. Optimize your goals. Determine the course of behavior change and how to successfully incorporate those changes for the long term.4. Manage your environment: Change your surroundings to dramatically reduce poor behavior and habits.5. Engage your Neighbors: To affect other people’s behavior, understand the shared culture that creates a mutual dependency, and allows neighbors and colleagues to have a profound positive influence on the behavior of other members of their community.
The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money
Carl Richards - 2015
More than once, they’ve begged, “Just tell me what to do.”It’s no surprise that even my most successful friends feel confused or paralyzed. Even if they have a shelfful of personal finance books, they don’t have time to make sense of all the information available. They don’t just want good advice, they want the best advice—so rather than do the “wrong thing,” they do nothing. Their 401(k) and bank statements pile up, unexamined or maybe even unopened.What they don’t realize is that bad calls about money aren’t failures; they’re just what happens when emotional creatures have to make decisions about the future with limited information. What I tell them is that we need to scrap striving for perfection and instead commit to a process of guessing and making adjustments when things go off track. Of course we’re going to make the best guesses we can—but we’re not going to obsess over getting them exactly right.The fact is, in a single page you can prioritize what you really want in life and figure out how to get there. That’s because a great financial plan has nothing to do with what the markets are doing, what your real estate agent is pitching, or the hot stock your brother-in-law told you about. It has everything to do with what’s most important to you. By now you may be wondering, “What about the details? How much do I need to invest each year, and how do I allocate it? How much life insurance do I need?” Don’t worry: I’ll cover those topics and many more, sharing strategies that will take the complexity out of them. The most important thing is getting clarity about the big picture so you can cope with the unexpected. Maybe you’ll lose the job you thought was secure; you’ll take a financial risk that doesn’t pan out; you’ll have twins when you were only budgeting for one. In other words: Life will happen.But no matter what happens, this book will help you bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to go.
Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age
Bruce Feiler - 2020
Bruce Feiler has long been writing about the stories that give our lives meaning. Recently he began to notice a new pattern: our old stories, with their predictable plot points along linear paths, no longer hold true. The idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated. Yet many people feel overwhelmed by this change. We’re concerned that our lives are not what we expected; that we’re living life out of order. Galvanized by a personal crisis and family emergency, Feiler set out on what became an epic journey to harvest American stories and see what he could learn from them. He crisscrossed the country, collecting hundreds of life stories from a breathtaking range of Americans in all 50 states. He then sifted through and coded these stories, building a massive database of patterns and takeaways that can help all of us live better. LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS introduces the fresh, pressing vision of the nonlinear life, in which personal disruptions and lifequakes are becoming more plentiful, nontraditional life shapes are becoming the norm, and each of us has the opportunity to write our own story. Drawing on an extraordinary trove of insights, Feiler offers a powerful, new transition toolkit with original strategies for coping with the difficult, painful, or unsettling times of life. From a master storyteller with a timely message, LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS can move readers of any age to think deeply about times of change in their lives and how to transform them into periods of creativity and growth.
Radical Frugality: Living in America on $8,000 a Year
Nic Adams - 2011
Radical Frugality tells the story of 5 people who did it: Paul, 27, discovering how to overcome student loan debt; David and Winona, late 40's, living their retirement dream today; and Dan and Charlotte, family of 4, with an underwater mortgage. Waking up every morning debt-free with cash in your pocket helps your brain feel safe, secure, and smart. Embracing the concepts in this book frees you from the overwhelming anxiety of the consumer lifestyle by showing you how to take control. You can start today. What if you could spend 66% less money than you spend today setting yourself up to live a self-determined lifestyle doing exactly what you love to do regardless of financial compensation? Radical Frugality shows you exactly how to achieve those goals within one to five years. Using our step-by-step common sense plan, we teach you what to do (break the spell of the consumer credit con), when to do it (planning and preparation), and most importantly where to do it (discover the 5 top cities for living frugally). We'll help you evaluate your financial situation. Are you in the Yellow Zone, the Orange Zone, the Red Zone, or even the Dead Zone (paying debt with debt)? This book lays out a plan for how to pay off your debt and get into the Neutral Zone (getting back to monthly break-even), the Green Zone (debt free with $1,000 a month free cash-flow) or even the Golden Zone (living a self-determined life). Whether you are desperate right now about your financial situation, facing retirement, just starting out, or just plain tired and worn-out from struggling to pay bills, Radical Frugality can show you over 100 tips for feeling better today. Radical Frugality offers a soup to nuts plan for living a self-determined life that will leave you happier and healthier than ever before. CHAPTER ONE: IT'S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU EARN—IT'S ABOUT WHAT YOU SPEND. HOW TO TAKE CONTROL CHAPTER TWO: THE CONSUMER CREDIT CON. HOW MARKETERS PLAY TRICKS ON YOUR BRAIN CHAPTER THREE: WHY FRUGALITY? GETTING STRAIGHT ABOUT WHY YOU'RE ON THE PLANET CHAPTER FOUR: WHO ARE YOU TODAY? EVALUATE YOUR SPENDING PROFILE CHAPTER FIVE: HOW TO DO IT. YOUR STEP BY STEP PLAN TO GAIN CONTROL CHAPTER SIX: GOING GREEN AND NEVER LOOKING BACK. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON CASH CHAPTER SEVEN: WHEN WILL YOU BE READY? LEARNING TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS CHAPTER EIGHT: LIVING THE DREAM. WHERE YOU LIVE DETERMINES HOW YOU LIVE
Feel Better In 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life
Rangan Chatterjee - 2019
For good.Feel Better in 5 is the first daily 5-minute plan that is easy to maintain, easy-to-follow and requires only the smallest amount of willpower.Top tips include:· A strength workout that you can do anywhere· Gut-boosting snacks you can eat on the go · Yoga moves to relax and stay supple · Breathing exercises to calm the mindDrawing on Dr Rangan Chatterjee's twenty years of experience and real-life case studies from his GP practice, Feel Better in 5 is your daily plan for a happier, healthier you at no extra cost.
The Underdog Advantage - Rewrite Your Future By Turning Your Disadvantages Into Your Superpowers
Dean Graziosi
Do things look good on the outside but on the inside, you feel like a prisoner trapped in mediocrity? Or maybe you feel like you missed your chance, or you can’t find your starting point and no matter what you do, nothing moves you forward? You’re the underdog—dismissed, counted out, lacking the right resources and unsupported. This book changes all that by taking you on a journey and showing you what successful "Underdogs" throughout time have already discovered. Your so called disadvantaged are the fuel and the hidden superpower to accomplish anything you know the secret on how to flip the success switch on in your life... This Book will show you that as an underdog (Something we all are) you’re actually in a great position, and with one or two small shifts, you can unlock limitless potential. Being an underdog means you don’t have to worry about what other people think, you have a lot of room to improve, you can get easy momentum, you can sneak up on competitors, and you have incredible sources of motivation. Soon you will learn that being an underdog is actually your ultimate unfair advantage to next level wealth, prosperity, happiness and joy...
Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind
Scott Barry Kaufman - 2015
Revealing the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, along with engaging examples of artists and innovators throughout history, the book shines a light on the practices and habits of mind that promote creative thinking. Kaufman and Gregoire untangle a series of paradoxes— like mindfulness and daydreaming, seriousness and play, openness and sensitivity, and solitude and collaboration – to show that it is by embracing our own contradictions that we are able to tap into our deepest creativity. Each chapter explores one of the ten attributes and habits of highly creative people: Imaginative Play * Passion * Daydreaming * Solitude * Intuition * Openness to Experience * Mindfulness * Sensitivity * Turning Adversity into Advantage * Thinking Differently With insights from the work and lives of Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Proust, David Foster Wallace, Thomas Edison, Josephine Baker, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, musician Thom Yorke, chess champion Josh Waitzkin, video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and many other creative luminaries, Wired to Create helps us better understand creativity – and shows us how to enrich this essential aspect of our lives.
More Than Enough: How One Family Cultivated A More Abundant Life Through A Year Of Practical Minimalism
Miranda Anderson - 2019
It meant learning to use what they already had and being more creative.Less Stuff, More Adventure became their mantra as they focused on gaining enriching family moments and seeking personal development. Life became about only choosing what truly matters and simply disregarding the rest.With candid narrative of her experiences, insightful discussion of principles, and practical pages to fill in, Miranda s journey will empower the reader to make small, impactful changes to live more intentionally and will show that whatever they have today can be more than enough.
Time Management Ninja: 21 Rules for More Time and Less Stress in Your Life
Craig Jarrow - 2019
Moran and Michael Lennington will love Time Management Ninja.
More time, stress relief, and relaxation: You want more time in your life. Time to spend with family, to achieve big goals, and to simply enjoy life. Yet, the world we live in is busier and changing faster than ever before. More things competing for your time, and more distractions interrupting your day.Simple and practical time management: You have tried to manage your time better but have found that most time management systems and tools are too complex. Or they are too unwieldy to be effective or sustainable. Time management shouldn’t be difficult, and it shouldn’t take up more of your precious time than it gives back!Easy tools, rules, and tactics: Craig Jarrow has been there, too. However, after spending many years testing time management tactics, tools, and systems and having written hundreds of articles on productivity, goals, and organization, Jarrow discovered a simple truth. Time management should be easy.More productivity and less stress: It is only when you simplify your approach that you can rise above the busyness and chaos of our fast-paced society. Time Management Ninja offers "21 Rules" that will show you an easier and more effective way to take control of your time and manage your busy life. If you follow these simple principles, you will get more done with less effort. You will have less stress and more time to do the things you want to do.
No-stress, uncomplicated time management that works
Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives
Tim Harford - 2016
His liberating message: you'll be more successful if you stop struggling so hard to plan or control your success. Messy is a deeply researched, endlessly eye-opening adventure in the life-changing magic of not tidying up' Oliver BurkemanThe urge to tidiness seems to be rooted deep in the human psyche. Many of us feel threatened by anything that is vague, unplanned, scattered around or hard to describe. We find comfort in having a script to rely on, a system to follow, in being able to categorise and file away.We all benefit from tidy organisation - up to a point. A large library needs a reference system. Global trade needs the shipping container. Scientific collaboration needs measurement units. But the forces of tidiness have marched too far. Corporate middle managers and government bureaucrats have long tended to insist that everything must have a label, a number and a logical place in a logical system. Now that they are armed with computers and serial numbers, there is little to hold this tidy-mindedness in check. It's even spilling into our personal lives, as we corral our children into sanitised play areas or entrust our quest for love to the soulless algorithms of dating websites. Order is imposed when chaos would be more productive. Or if not chaos, then . . . messiness.The trouble with tidiness is that, in excess, it becomes rigid, fragile and sterile. In Messy, Tim Harford reveals how qualities we value more than ever - responsiveness, resilience and creativity - simply cannot be disentangled from the messy soil that produces them. This, then, is a book about the benefits of being messy: messy in our private lives; messy in the office, with piles of paper on the desk and unread spreadsheets; messy in the recording studio, the laboratory or in preparing for an important presentation; and messy in our approach to business, politics and economics, leaving things vague, diverse and uncomfortably made-up-on-the-spot. It's time to rediscover the benefits of a little mess.
Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality
Henry Cloud - 2006
It is more than simple honesty. It's the key to success. A person with integrity has the -- often rare -- ability to pull everything together, to make it all happen no matter how challenging the circumstances.Drawing on experiences from his work with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and individual leaders, Dr. Henry Cloud, a clinical psychologist and nationally syndicated radio host, shows how our character can keep us from achieving all we want to (or could) be.In Integrity, Dr. Cloud explores the six qualities of character that define integrity. He uses stories from well-known business leaders like Michael Dell and sports figures like Tiger Woods to illustrate each of these qualities. He shows us how people with integrity:Are able to connect with others and build trust Are oriented toward reality Finish well Embrace the negative Are oriented toward increase Have an understanding of the transcendentSuccess is not related to only talent or brains. There are a lot of bright, talented people who are never successful. And the most successful are not only the ones with the most talent. The real factor, Cloud demonstrates, is the makeup of the person. All of us can grow in the kinds of real character that bring about fruitful relationships and achievement of purpose, mission, and goals. Integrity is not something that you either have or don't, but instead is an exciting growth path that all of us can engage in and enjoy.
Clutter Free: Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space
Kathi Lipp - 2015
Building off the success of her The Get Yourself Organized Project, this book will provide even more ideas for getting your life and your stuff under control.Do any of these descriptions apply to you?You bought a box of cereal at the store, and then discovered you have several boxes at home that are already past the “best by” date.You bought a book and put it on your nightstand (right on top of ten others you’ve bought recently), but you have yet to open it.You keep hundreds of DVDs around even though you watch everything online now and aren’t really sure where the remote for the DVD player is.You spend valuable time moving your piles around the house, but you can never find that piece of paper when you need it.Your house makes you depressed the moment you step into it.As you try out the many easy, doable solutions that helped Kathi win her battle with clutter, you'll begin to understand why you hold on to the things you do, eliminate what's crowding out real life, and make room for the life of true abundance God wants for you.
Principles of Product Management: How to Land a PM Job and Launch Your Product Career
Peter Yang - 2019
The book has three parts:
Principles: Part one covers the leadership principles that PMs use to lead their team to overcome adversity. When your product fails to gain traction, when your team falls apart, or when your manager gives you tough feedback—these are all opportunities to learn principles that will help you succeed.
Product development: Part two covers how PMs at Facebook, Amazon, and other top companies build products. We'll walk through the end-to-end product development process— from understanding the customer problem to identifying the right product to build to executing with your team to bring the product to market.
Getting the job: Part three covers how you can land a PM job and reach the interview stage at the right company. We'll prep you for the three most common types of PM interviews— product sense, execution, and behavioral—with detailed frameworks and examples for each.
Hear directly from product leaders at Airbnb, Amazon, Google, and more on:
How to overcome challenging situations from a VP of Product at Amazon.
How to build a great product roadmap from product leaders at LinkedIn and Airbnb.
How Google, Airbnb, and other top companies evaluate PM candidates from leaders at those companies.
How PMs can grow their career from a Director at Instagram and Twitter.
Table of Contents1. PrinciplesTake OwnershipPrioritize and ExecuteStart with WhyFind the TruthBe Radically TransparentBe Honest with Yourself2. Product DevelopmentProduct Development LoopUnderstanding the Customer ProblemSelecting a Goal MetricMission, Vision, and StrategyBuilding a Product RoadmapDefining Product RequirementsGreat Project ManagementEffective CommunicationMaking Good Decisions3. Getting the JobPreparing for the TransitionMaking the TransitionFinding the Right CompanyAcing your PM InterviewsProduct Sense InterviewExecution InterviewBehavioral InterviewYour First 30 Days4. Product Leader Interviews
Personal Productivity Secrets: Do What You Never Thought Possible with Your Time and Attention... and Regain Control of Your Life
Maura Nevel Thomas - 2012