economics-times

And in reading Jeff Davidson's latest resource for leaders, managers, and just about everyone, it's clear that the pressure is here to stay, at work and at home - and it will get worse. There is no returning to an earlier, simpler, unhurried time.

So....we need some strategies, some tools, and some...breathing space.

Fortunately, Jeff Davidson makes good on his title. Breathing Space starts with a clear and compelling analysis of why we feel so pressured. The reader is then focused on very positive, healthy strategies to deal with a world where 565,000 books are published each year, 95 million printers are spewing paper from at least 95 million computers, and the typical executive receives 225 pieces of unsolicited mail each month.

In 22 succinct, comortably paced chapters, Breathing Space offers practical and innovative strategies for clearing up the clutter, breaking through procrastination, organizing your workspace, managing your reading, and choosing your priorities wisely - among other work and personal challenges.

Breathing Space attacks paper clutter with a vengeance, as in - get rid of it! Eighty percent of the paper we save will never be needed. Most importantly, the reader learns how to conrol paper at the intake point, so that it never piles up in the first place.

Davidson's insights are especially powerful on the widespread perceived need to keep up with information overload from print, media, and electronics. He draws our attention to how much we are exposed to information that does not really support us but which, day after day, robs us of breathing space. His sensible strategies leave the reader feeling that this too, can be handled, and that we need not waste energy in guilty responses to an information overload which we can never posssibly keep up with.

Chapters are broken up with short messages labeled "Fresh Air", that put our need for breathing space in perspective. One Fresh Air message captures a theme that radiates throughout the book:
"Telltale signs of being too busy: If you're too busy to enjoy life, you're too busy; If you're too busy to stay calm, you're too busy; If you're too busy to stay in shape, you're too busy; If you're too busy to see your friends, you're too busy."

Breathing space is really about quality of life, or more accurately - learning to leave enough space in your life so that you identify what matters to you, and then allocate your life efforts accordingly. It is about taking control and creating environments that support your choices in life, as opposed to reacting to useless information, negative people, and distracting but ultimately unfulfilling stimulus of many sorts.

Without a doubt, Breathing Space is must reading for anyone who wants to master the art of dealing effectively with more information, pressure and time crunch. From the looks of what is to come, that is just about all of us.

Life in the today's world is busy, full, and rife with distractions. Satisfaction can easily slip away without special efforts to create an environment and habits which support our own goals and priorities. Fail to do so and you life will -- as Jeff Davidson amply demonstrates -- be thoroughly colonized by advertisers, entertainers, and co-workers. It has often been said, and is even more true today, that if you are not working your plan you are working someone else's plan. Breathing Space is the most succinct and useable approach I have seen to get back on your own plan. I have used his methods myself and with many clients. They not only work but keep working.

I call my variation of the organizing techniques "Clutter Buster." I noticed that before I organized my workspace, it gradually got less usable until I was moved to clean-up. My cleaning blitzes never quite got the space up to snuff, however, and each succeeding cleaning frenzy had poorer results than the last, for a picture over time like the "Before" graph below. I was spending more time "getting organized" and less time feeling organized. After an extensive and thoughtful re-design of the workspace based on Davidson's principles, I noticed that my area stayed more workable longer plus (1) the messy phases were less horrible, (2) my office was easier to re-organize, and (3) I spent much more time enjoying the peaks of organization. Bottom line: more productivity and greater satisfaction.

My home office was something of a disaster before I thoroughly organized it with the help of a consultant and this book. Not only did it look great afterward, but it stayed that way permanently. The considerable time and expense invested in that clean-up has been more than repaid. I have since applied the techniques to my garage, briefcase, car, and other parts of my life.

Getting Breathing Space can give you your life back and even create space for the life you always wanted.

organizedhome.com has a free household notebook you can print out. They also give information on how to set one up and how to tailor it to YOUR family's needs. This site also has lots of great home management information. Check it out!

However, if you are not sure where to begin or need ideas on storage, this is an excellent book. However, if you are interested in organizing your home and want a starter book, I would suggest you consider her other book Confessions of a Happily Organized Homemaker. In this book she discusses the whys, how tos, and what fors of organizing every aspect of your life. Also, it seems to me that much of what is in this the Family book is also in the Housewife book. Either way, both are good.

Get it, read it, live it. You will not regret it!

This immediately took my mind back when some arrogant nerd said that there was going to be a personal computer in every home. At that time you would have to purchase another home to have adequate space for the monster. Also, it was helpful but slow compared to the paper system we had. Nevertheless, look where we are now.

The info in this book is right on target and in my opinion could come to pass in the next 5 years. Regardless, demand by the industries as a whole for just in time possessing will be upon us shortly. This book describes how and why the benefits are worth pursuing. ...

It not only points out the results of procrastination in our business and personal lives, but gives us the tools to change them and illustrates the results we can expect. A simple read with an engaging character, and a memorable strategy in it's "3-P Solution".

Sometimes, maximum value is only achieved by transforming your business. Ultimately, maximum value may be achieved by breakup or dissolution of the business. Once these sobering realizations are assimilated, Professor Williams proceeds in a very readable and informative way to help businesses understand where they are, where their markets are, and how to maximize value where they need to be. A must read for voyagers through the New Economy.

Other chapters had similar problems - her suggested solutions are too rigid, don't address fundamental problems.
Here are her tips for organizing computer files:
1. Right click the start button, click Explore, then find My Documents folder , and double click to open.
2. Click File, point to New: then click Folder.
and on and on...

So, if your computer files are disorganzied because you don't know the basics of how to use a computer, you might benefit from this book. But if you'd like tips on how to deal with files that could go logically go in more than one place, ways to keep track of different versions of the same file, or anything more complex, forget it.

The topics on organizing your house & workspace are much better covered in Morgenstern's "Organizing From the Inside Out".

I don't have spare time aplenty. I thought this book would be helpful, but it wasn't.

The ideas recommended were common sense, and worse the writing was wordy, dry and not at all engaging.

I realize this book is nonfiction, but even nonfiction should offer interesting language, and words, and delightful anecdotes.

This book had none of that.

In my opinion this tome should have been called THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO WASTING TIME.

"What I wrote about resistance in my [first] book is great for people who are working in what I call Push Mode.

What do you mean by that?

It's the opposite of what I call Pull Mode. Essentially the difference is that in Push Mode you are pushing yourself towards your goals. In Pull Mode you are allowing your goals to pull you towards them. The results may look much the same, but Pull Mode is much less effortful [sic] and relies more on the unconscious activity of the brain rather than conscious linear processing."

Clearly even the author doesn't think there's any point in buying this book, as it will only show you how to do things the hard way.

So maybe you'll want to get the new book instead, so you can be right up to date.
Or better yet, why not hang on for a little while. No doubt there'll be yet another book along soon to show us an even better way of managing our lives?

Alternatively, I suspect many readers will be smart enough to spot the pattern and will choose to invest in an author who doesn't completely change their mind every time the sales figures for their current book start to dip.

Mark Forster started from the position that he was poor at managing his time. He analyzed what was going on, and recognized that the problem he had was about attention and about poor habits. He also noted that some of the most time-effective people he knew didn't use time management techniques at all. He created a series of training exercises, described in the book, which will help develop more effective habits.

The book is personal, and describes the problems he had in learning his new methods in an interesting form. I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants to be more effective in getting things done.