How to Simplify Your Life : Seven Practical Steps to Letting Go of Your Burdens and Living a Happier Life 
asked by perfectstorm on November 24, 2006 6:02 PM
Practical wisdom on work, money, health, and relationships
The international bestseller How to Simplify Your Life offers concrete advice on achieving happiness in a time of economic contraction and uncertainty. The book explains, in seven steps, how to get rid of unnecessary stuff and unload the burdens of modern life--and points the way back to what we know is important but have forgotten. By following the path outlined in the book, readers will learn to organize their time (and their desks), change the way they think about money, improve their health and relationships, and find meaning in their lives.
The book shows readers how to:
Eliminate chaos in the workplace Cut back on activities and slow down Get rid of money hang-ups and get out of debt Balance private life with career life Make room for relationshipsReviews
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This is a very useful and practical approach to organization. Starting with your living arrangement, desk and closets, you progress upward in importance to organizing more important things like free time, work, relationships with others, and with yourself. I find myself carrying this book around and referencing it regularly. My wife and I reread certain chapters and we then tackle another organizing project. I highly recommend this book. There is even a web newsletter run by the author with new tips and suggestions.
reviewed by lauren on November 26, 2006 9:37 PM
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People turn to books for advice on many issues, but the most successful books that fall into the self-help category deal more often with weight loss than self-actualization. That makes it all the more surprising that "How to Simplify Your Life," now in its 13th printing in Germany, has achieved a feat most German books, let alone those focused on self-help, so rarely accomplish: It has been published in English.
The German author duo comprised of Werner Tiki Kustenmacher and Lothar J. Seiwert is a formidable team of self help gurus, the former a trained Lutheran minister and free-lance cartoonist, the latter Germany's most sought-after professional coach. Since their book was first published, the "Simplify Your Life" brand has developed into a complex brand of lifestyle books and products - and a perennial bestseller at home and abroad.
Kustenmacher and Seiwert outline their vision for a simpler life in a seven-step life pyramid that starts with the charge to purge oneself of unnecessary objects and ends with the lofty goal of embracing one's life dream. The steps in between - and there are hundreds of them - stem from both men's private practices and from the over 600 American and German self-help books the authors analyzed while creating their own book.
Money isn't the object in their pursuit of happiness, but neither is an austere lifestyle. Readers are encouraged to weed out the clutter at office and home, which, the experts say, mentally blocks your personal development. If that doesn't scare the packrats to action, they offer ample evidence that having too much stuff in your life can actually make you obese.
Finance and time management form two further tiers of the pyramid, and here as well, the authors' advice is sound. Going far beyond their initial sections on how to unblock the flow of money and reduce debt, Kustenmacher and Seiwert have a collection of valuable tools for preventing interruptions at the office and at home, unlocking more free time. For the technically savvy but punctually bereft, they offer quite a few helpful hints for managing that ever-growing email deluge.
Its section on untangling family ties and building a good life partnership could be a book in itself. Here, the authors' advice ranges from using networking to end isolation and how to be a good guest and hostess to dealing with envy and learning to accept your partner's differentness.
The "Last Steps" section is perhaps the most nebulous section of the book - and also the most uninspired. Few will be reassured by short paragraphs on how to develop one's life dream, and the fill-in-the blank greatest strengths test only detracts from the other practical information in the book.
As for the success of its translation, "How to Simplify Your Life" is laced with fun facts about modern German life, but seems an appropriate tool for Americans as well. It has earned its place alongside that other great self-help book for our times, "Who Moved My Cheese?"
The German author duo comprised of Werner Tiki Kustenmacher and Lothar J. Seiwert is a formidable team of self help gurus, the former a trained Lutheran minister and free-lance cartoonist, the latter Germany's most sought-after professional coach. Since their book was first published, the "Simplify Your Life" brand has developed into a complex brand of lifestyle books and products - and a perennial bestseller at home and abroad.
Kustenmacher and Seiwert outline their vision for a simpler life in a seven-step life pyramid that starts with the charge to purge oneself of unnecessary objects and ends with the lofty goal of embracing one's life dream. The steps in between - and there are hundreds of them - stem from both men's private practices and from the over 600 American and German self-help books the authors analyzed while creating their own book.
Money isn't the object in their pursuit of happiness, but neither is an austere lifestyle. Readers are encouraged to weed out the clutter at office and home, which, the experts say, mentally blocks your personal development. If that doesn't scare the packrats to action, they offer ample evidence that having too much stuff in your life can actually make you obese.
Finance and time management form two further tiers of the pyramid, and here as well, the authors' advice is sound. Going far beyond their initial sections on how to unblock the flow of money and reduce debt, Kustenmacher and Seiwert have a collection of valuable tools for preventing interruptions at the office and at home, unlocking more free time. For the technically savvy but punctually bereft, they offer quite a few helpful hints for managing that ever-growing email deluge.
Its section on untangling family ties and building a good life partnership could be a book in itself. Here, the authors' advice ranges from using networking to end isolation and how to be a good guest and hostess to dealing with envy and learning to accept your partner's differentness.
The "Last Steps" section is perhaps the most nebulous section of the book - and also the most uninspired. Few will be reassured by short paragraphs on how to develop one's life dream, and the fill-in-the blank greatest strengths test only detracts from the other practical information in the book.
As for the success of its translation, "How to Simplify Your Life" is laced with fun facts about modern German life, but seems an appropriate tool for Americans as well. It has earned its place alongside that other great self-help book for our times, "Who Moved My Cheese?"
reviewed by aries on November 27, 2006 9:33 AM