This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
This journal, created by renowned coach and psychotherapist Misha Saidov, will help you become the hero of your own life. It was created to assist you in setting important goals, reaching them, and winning. It will support you along the way, especially when you find yourself lost or confused. The Efficiency Journal will help you stay on track.
You don't need to schedule your day by the minute. If you want to succeed, you only need to complete three key daily tasks, set goals that fit into 12-week sprints, and honestly reflect on your results once a week.
You will learn to manage your energy and analyze your actions, achievements, and experiences.
The result will be a formed character, created by daily volitional actions.
What's inside?
– Weekly and daily planning sheets
– Space for summarizing weekly results and for reflection
– Wise thoughts and tips along the way
Any goal reduced to daily tasks will be achieved, no matter what.
FOR WHOM IS THIS JOURNAL?
For those who want to succeed in business, improve themselves, move forward, maintain their motivation and eliminate distractions.
Many of us have meaningful ideas that could change the world. Without embodiment, they will remain just a dream. A dream about the future.
Read an Excerpt
In 1910, in the center of Paris at Sorbonne, the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, gave a speech.
One of the passages of the speech became known as “The Man in the Arena”:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.Do you ever find yourself asking: “Who am I? The one in the arena, or a spectator?”
Free use image by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay
Ornery Owl's Review
Four out of Five Stars
"THE EFFICIENCY JOURNAL exists to help people become the heroes of their own life stories."
A fine sentiment, but is it even possible for someone who has fallen many times and been kicked so hard while they were down that they find it nearly impossible to believe in themselves?
Yes, it is possible. The Efficiency Journal provides techniques anyone can use to improve their circumstances.
The author provides us with a brief history of who he is and what he does. He states that he primarily works with high-achieving female clients such as best-selling writers, bloggers with large followings, business owners, and celebrities. I honestly don't give a flip about any of them, but I realize that most people are attracted to the idea that they could achieve adulation and wealth. For many years, I was one of those people. Celebrity worship harmed me far more than it helped me, in great part because achieving the illusion of grandeur built up around such people is impossible. Even celebrities can't live up to the illusion of themselves.
I did enjoy reading the anecdote about Michael Phelps. I've always enjoyed swimming and, as a child, I had a pipe dream about being an Olympic medal-winning swimmer. I realized even then that I did not possess the athletic prowess for this to be a real possibility, but it was still fun to imagine while practicing my technique during swim class. Michael Phelps is indeed an impressive athlete.
I wasn't nearly as interested in the example of Oprah Winfrey. While I admit she has achieved great success and she certainly overcame her very difficult childhood and adolescence, I cannot respect the shilling she does for companies like Weight Watchers and overpriced products that simply do not work as they claim. Recently, she promoted apple cider vinegar gummies for the purpose of weight loss. Apple cider vinegar is helpful for digestion and can trigger a slight lowering of blood glucose levels. It will cause no one to lose massive amounts of weight. The above illustrates my reasoning for not seeing Oprah Winfrey as a positive example. It is not reflective of the author's abilities as a writer or life coach.
While I agree that a positive outlook is a helpful trait, the author makes some statements that are unhelpful for people who live with mood disorders such as depression. He states:
"You are holding THE EFFICIENCY JOURNAL in your hands because you dream of being successful."
Actually, I have a copy of The Efficiency Journal on my computer because I struggle with time management and with taking on too much. While I hope I might achieve some measure of success as a writer, it is imperative that I steer clear of pursuing adulation or some arbitrary measure of wealth equated with success.
"Your path may be fraught with difficulty. But a smile on your face and in your heart will help you."
To me, this is just another way of saying "Things didn't work out because you're a Negative Nancy." My baseline state is mild-to-moderate depression. I'm more functional than I was when I was younger, in part because of the perspective achieved simply by living nearly sixty years. However, there are days when having a "smile in my heart" is a bona fide impossibility, and no amount of being told to "BE HAPPY, YOU UNGRATEFUL HARPY" is going to change that.
"Those around you are drawn to smiling, happy people. THE EFFICIENCY JOURNAL will help you smile more often."
Again, the old "put on a happy face" mantra has been done to death and is unhelpful for people with mood disorders. I don't really care if the book helps me smile more often. I'll be pleased if it can help me with my stress levels.
Do I think the book has the potential to help me with my stress levels?
I do. I think I can include it in my bag of tricks for managing time and productivity. I have ADHD, so having certain routines and techniques I can fall back on is a necessity in keeping myself together.
I like the idea of quarterly planning. While I make a basic planner at the end of the year by noting the themes certain publishers are looking for in monthly story calls for their anthologies, doing more detailed planning on a quarterly level makes sense.
I appreciate the author sharing the list of techniques given to Charles Schwab by productivity consultant Ivy Lee. I believe anyone in any field can benefit from these techniques. Also, despite my criticism of the emphasis on happiness, I like the idea of writing three things one is grateful for at the end of the day. I'll admit that some days the best I might be able to muster is "I didn't throw my computer out the window even though ProWritingAid was really irritating me, a volcano didn't erupt in my backyard, and an asteroid didn't destroy the world. Good enough."
I also appreciated the author sharing the anecdote about cardiac surgeons learning new techniques for open heart surgery. The surgeons who were willing to listen to criticism of their work were better able to adapt to the new techniques. I have a thought about this. The world would be a better place if we could all learn to be better critics. Constructive criticism helps people from all walks of life and vocations. Criticism delivered with hurtful intent helps no one.
Overall, I believe The Efficiency Journal is a practical and useful guide for anyone wishing to increase their productivity.
About the Author:
Website
Amazon Buy Link
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an informative book. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete