Time Management From The Inside Out

Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile but not life changing
Review: I bought the CD audiobook edition. It has the same info as the print edition to the best of my knowledge. I read her book, Organizing From the Inside Out, first. I am still reaping the benefits of a much better organized workspace several months later. The same ideas are retrofitted to deal with time management. I found the book worthwhile because it gives a fresh perspective on time management by borrowing ideas from organizing principles. But they are separate challenges. Some ideas from the book are likely to have a positive impact, but not the transformational impact that can be achieved from the other book. So, expect about as much from this as the other decent books on time management, no more, no less.

Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile but not life changing
Review: I bought this CD audiobook edition. I read her book, Organizing From the Inside Out, first. I am still reaping the benefits of a much better organized workspace several months later. The same ideas are retrofitted to deal with time management. I found the book worthwhile because it gives a fresh perspective on time management by borrowing ideas from organizing principles. But they are separate challenges. Some ideas from the book are likely to have a positive impact, but not the transformational impact that can be achieved from the other book. So, expect about as much from this as the other decent books on time management, no more, no less.

Rating:
Summary: Repetitive sections, not very instructive
Review: I found this book a lot less helpful than her first book- Organizing from the Inside Out. That was a great book.
This book, however, was not that helpful to me. I read the whole thing in about one hour because I could skim most of the sections which repeated or paraphrased previous ideas. I think there were some excellent ideas in the book- maybe 8 key points that could have been summarized in an article or very short piece. She provided some questions that were helpful (such as "do you like to work on a tight deadline?"; "do you like to work with music on?"; do you prefer to work by yourself," but she left the reader hanging-did not help to use the answers to determine time management preferenecs. What are ways that one should manage time if you prefer working alone as opposed to working with others? Lots of questions went unanswered and information provided was mostly common sense. The book fell into the category of descriptive (providing the usual mantra) rather than instructive.

Rating:
Summary: Very good, but not the final word
Review: I'm a great fan of Julie M., her space managment book IS the best. But time - is a different dimension. I would still wholeheartidly recommend this book, provided you also read "First Things First" by Stephen R. Covey, it will fill in the spaces left out in this book. Which to read first is a difficult choice, depending on your personality. This one perhaps first, then slowly savior Covey's book.

Rating:
Summary: What a helpful book!
Review: If you are like me, you have had a lifelong battle with poor time management, chronic messiness and clutter taking over your life and home. In January 2001 I decided to do something about it and bought this book as a way to conquer these pesky things which have plagued me for so long. I have really enjoyed the way this book is presented. I've owned it for about a year now, and I still frequently refer to it. It's also good to take a few minutes to go over it when you are feeling overwhelmed, especially if you have a lot of "irons in the fire." I find it's reassuring and gets me into the right frame of mind to do my cleaning up, or whatever I happen to be procrastinating on at the moment.

I have now read this book from cover to cover and it is truly a wealth of information.

This book really is worth your time. But you have to use the methods presented in the book or it won't help. Good luck!
And get organizing!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Very similar to her first book
Review: Julie Morgenstern applies the same general principles of ORGANIZING FROM THE INSIDE OUT to time management. This is made possible by seeing time as (metaphorically) space, and using the same SPACE (Sort, Purge, Assign a home, Containerize, Equalize) method to organize time. Though a tad redundant and infused with an icky self-help feel at times, I liked the book. For major procrastinators like me, this is a good reference book to keep on schedule and get things done. If you're going to read it all the way through however, you might want to read it quickly to keep from getting bored. It's not that her writing or her points are boring, but this is a much longer book than it needs to be.

Rating:
Summary: Another Victory for Ms. Morgenstern
Review: Ms. Morgenstern's first book, Organizing from the Inside Out, was tremendously helpful because of its ease with which I could apply the principles to my life. Her kindergarten model of organizing space -- to create activity zones -- totally resonated with me the first time I read OFIO, and her use of it again in relation to time management is so great!

She advocates a goal-oriented approach to scheduling time and actually helps her readers think through their goals. In the second part of the book, which I found particularly helpful, she brings the kindergarten model back and applies it to mapping out time. Morgenstern also provides specific instructions about how to zone your own calendar so that you can make really effective and informed decisions about your time.

The most appealing part of Morgenstern's approach -- and the part that separates her from other self-help authors -- is that she never IMPOSES anything on her readers; rather, she teaches us _how_ to discover what's going to work in our own lives. She gave me freedom to figure out what was going to work for me, rather than making me learn a new, complicated system to impose on myself.