Take Back Your Life: Smart Ways to Simplify Your Daily Living by Odette Pollar

Take Back Your Life: Smart Ways to Simplify Your Daily Living Reviews

• 
  Steve Barrett

  The book is focused on pragmatic approaches to simplifying day-to-day living. I love that concept, but unfortunately most of the ideas are outdated in the digital age. The principles are still okay but you'd do better picking them up elsewhere.
• 
  Fernando

  Es un libro que contiene un montón de consejos para facilitarte la vida diaria ya sea en casa, en familia, en el trabajo; algunos de ellos evidentes, pero que aún así no los aplicamos por falta de tiempo o interés. El libro fue escrito en una época en la que la tecnología apenas avanzaba (años 90s) por lo que muchos consejos son actividades de tipo manual y rudimentario, pero aún así, son aplicables hoy en día.
  
  Se lee muy fácil y con un lenguaje coloquial y entendible.
• 
  Anne Ku

  This is one of those easy-to-read self-help books that will always sell.
  
  I think I've read too many of these such that the content doesn't surprise or entice anymore.
  
  However, amazingly the message got through to me, while tackling the nitty gritties in my life this past summer. I have made my life way too complicated. And I wanted out.
  
  Recently I find myself telling a student to find the simplest way to solve a math problem. "How can you accomplish this in the fewest number of steps?" When I showed her my way, she saw the light. Not to follow how the book did it, moving a variable from the right to left and a number from left to right, cancelling different things out, and getting lost in the complexity, but she should sit back and observe. What's the easiest way to solve it?
  
  I should be telling myself this. No need to drag it out -- keep searching for the optimum. No need to apply complicated algorithms to save money or make money that's too small to notice in the grand scheme of things. No need to worry about what I can't change or control. Don't micromanage. Just focus on the 20% that make 80% difference.
  
  Today, I heard a young pastor preach "Satan keeps you busy." Most people are busy. I've heard "I'm overwhelmed" more than once from a busy professional. My parents & my neighbours ask why do I keep myself so busy. Do people want to busy for status reasons or are they truly busy?
  
  The path I want to take is simple:
  1- Declutter. Let go of the past. Let go of my possessions. Empty the mind.
  2- Don't go on a shopping spree. Every acquisition brings new responsibilities and problems. Just because you can afford it doesn't mean you should buy it. "The more you own, the more you are owned."
  3- The undo button is not without cost and time.
  4- Don't be too eager to get to know people or join new groups or take on new activities. The more people you know, the more time it will take to keep up the socialization which can become an obligation. The more your time will not be yours. The more interruptions you'll get.
  
  I longed for uninterrupted and unscheduled time and unshared space. I finally got it, and I must guard it carefully otherwise I'll need another self-help book!