Simplify Your Work Life: Ways to Change the Way You Work So You Have More Time to Live

by Elaine St. James

Book Overview

Bestselling author and simplicity guru Elaine St. James shows readers how to scale down and simplify one of the most important and all-consuming aspects of their lives: their work. James's "Simplify" series has taught the world how to start doing less and enjoying it more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786885963
• ISBN13: 9780786885961
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Balance
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 6.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Some New Ideas

This book has enough "new" ideas and presents them in an excellent fashion, so it warrants a five-star rating. It is a quick read and easy to incorporate immediately.

Another great book by the St. James!

Having read or heard other books by Elaine St. James (SIMPLIFYYOUR LIFE, INNER SIMPLICITY, etc.), I found myself lookingforward to reading her latest: SIMPLY YOUR WORK LIFE . . . Iwas not disappointed in it, and you won't be either--even if youhave not read anything else by the author . . . she presentsboth big and small ways to scale down and simplify life onthe job . . . in doing so, she will help you understand the difference between making work easier and making it easier to do more work. For example, there were these thought-provoking passages:One way to seize time is to get into the habit of takingfive minutes at the end of your day to clean up your spaceand get organized for the next day's work. Even if you'rein the middle of a project you want to continue with thenext day, you'll find it helpful to straighten up your paperand files and put away books, folders, notes, and othermaterials for which you don't have an immediate need.One of the most important steps you can take toreduce the pressure you put on yourself is to avoidmaking promises you can't keep that will throw the rest of yourlife out of balance. So if your boss asks when you expect to havea particular project completed, never, ever answer on the spot.Always respond with "Let me figure it out and I'll get back toyou." Then actually take the time to realistically estimate,given your other duties, when you could have the project completed. Then double that estimate. One of the main concerns Marie had when she was tryingto decide whether to take the leap and go for her doctoratewas that she was too old. I pointed out that I hadn't writtenmy first book until I was forty-five. Julia child didn't make herfirst television appearance until she was fifty-five. ThomasEdison didn't discover electricity until he was fifty-nine. Eleanor Roosevelt didn't become a delegate to the UnitedNations until she was sixty. And, as it turned out, Marie's own husband, Joe, didn't do his most creative engineeringuntil he was sixty-two.

A must own in this modern work age

Just shy of three hundred pages and the compact size of 7X7 inches I was amazed at how much useful information this small book gave me. The book is laid out the way I like a book...Seven acts of a play. The FIRST act deals with CUTTING BACK ON THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU WORK and this is about 11 issues to look at, from Cutting back on hours, stop working week ends, leave work at work and dont bring it home, eliminating the commute and simply taking the time to think.SECOND act deals with LEARNING TO SEIZE TIME and deals with issues like getting a jump on tomorrow, learning how to schedule better, using the phones and technology to your advantage. And something we all need to know in this Internet age, handle e-mail wisely. Her ideas on how to cut back on email will save you at least two hours of stress a day.THREE deals with BEING MORE PRODUCTIVE and deals with eliminating distractions, bringing your full attention to work, Take your lunch break, laugh more, take a nap and get a life.FOUR deals with BEING MORE EFFECTIVE WITH PEOPLE and covers issues like Speaking up, figuring out why you say yes, and how to work more effectively with those you are with.FIVE deals with BEING MORE EFFICIENT WITH YOUR MONEY and covers living within your means, understanding what you make and what your taxes are. Knowing how much house we can afford and how to avoid debt, and simply learning how to handle money.SIX CHANGING THE WAY YOU WORK and is about finding a work friendly environment, creating our own options, starting your own business and finding a Coach.SEVEN is called CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT WORK and she deals with Understanding how you got where you are, rethinking your belief system, imagining and seeking the ideal work life and following ones heart and head. And finally if not now then when?I keep picking the book up and reading new parts and re-reading chapters and seeing things I missed the other times. I think this is a book every workaholic needs.

Finally! Hope for the overworked masses

In the early pages of this book, Ms. James invites us to learn how to simplify our work life so that we have more time to live, and she certainly delivers! From cutting back our work hours, to switching jobs for improved lifestyle, Simplify Your Work Life offers hope for the overworked masses.I really enjoyed reading all the insightful statistics included in the book because they revealed so much about our society and its expectations-- we have longer work days but crave more time with our family. Beyond a philosophical book which labels the problem, Simplify Your Work Life provides multiple solutions for loving our work and living with less. This book is a must read for anyone suffering from office overload.

Simple Ideas for Carving Some Time for Your Life from Work

A recent survey reported that the average working woman in America puts in an 85 hour week between her job and home chores. Many career-obsessed men also spend that amount of time on work, commuting, and travel combined. While I have read many books on how to be more successful at work, this is the first one I have read that works on your effectiveness while reducing your hours and stress. I found it relaxing to even contemplate the subject.The author speaks from her own experience, having gone from being an active head of her own real estate investing activities for 15 years to successful, best-selling author of five previous books. In the process, she cut her work week down to 30 hours . . . and eventually quadrupled her income in the process. She reports that recent Yankelovich surveys show that 80 percent of people approve of those who put their families ahead of work, half of the people have taken jobs that allow them to get more time away from work, and one-fifth changed jobs for lower-paying employment in exchange for more free time.There is no doubt in my mind that if you follow through on even 10 percent of what she suggests you will spend less time working, feel better, and be a lot more fun to be around. The book is organized into seven sections, comprised of 85 individual concepts. The seven sections are:(1) Cutting back on the amount of time you work(2) Learning to seize blocks of time in ways that allow you to have more time to get things done(3) Being more productive when you are working(4) Being more productive in your relationships with people while working(5) Being more effective with the money you earn and save(6) Changing the way you work to provide more flexibility(7) Changing the way you think about work.Like many books filled with lots of lists, the materials are complete enough for anyone in somes cases (like stop working weekends), while much less than what you need in other cases (making better decisions, starting a business, and improving your money management). In the latter cases, I suggest that you also read books about personal decision making (such as "Smart Choices") and improving your finances (like "The Finance Doctor") that have a bit more meat on them. You can obviously go on to more advanced material as your interest and expertise grow. In a few sections, you are encouraged to use "body-mind" techniques based on meridians (accupuncture points). These I will leave it up to you to assess. I have no experience here to draw on. I would suggest that you add meditation to the list of what is encouraged here.I also think that those who would just like less stress will find this book helpful, even if you don't want to cut down your work week. A good complementary book for women is "Outsmarting Female Fatigue." For those sections that were complete enough on their own that no further reading is needed, I was impressed by how many included sample dialogues that you can use to help you negotiate chan