Manage Your Time to Reduce Your Stress: A Handbook for the Overworked, Overscheduled, and Overwhelmed

by Rita Emmett Narrated by Rita Emmett

Overview

A self-improvement guru's inspiring and effective tips for gaining control of our Herculean workloads and overbooked personal lives.

How often do you think to yourself, So much to do and so little time? In the sympathetic and insightful style of The Procrastinator's Handbook, Rita Emmett offers help for those of us with too much to do. The key is not time management but "stuff" management-taking control of all those tasks to do, people to see, commitments and obligations to fulfill. Mismanagement of all that "to-do" stuff is what leads to stress.

We often have little control over the demands made upon us, yet we can control our response. That's where the management of stress must start.

Emmett combines quick, easy-to-digest tips and infectious good humor to give readers positive ways to handle stress and their overly busy lives, first by understanding how stress impacts our physical, mental, and emotional health. She shows us how to cut down on distractions and interruptions that sap our concentration and energy, be more organized and streamline our duties, ask for help and be more selective about what we choose to do, and clarify our values and prioritize activities based on what is important. Spending time doing things that are incongruent with your values, striving for perfection, being overly competitive, and job insecurity are some of the reasons people feel overburdened and overwhelmed. Emmett draws on the stories of many people who have participated in her seminars, and readers will not only identify with their problems but can find common ground in the strategies that have worked for them.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Emmett makes effective use of her cheerful, Midwestern motherly tone and relaxed speaking style to convey the practical insights and tips in her resource. While the stress-busting thesis may not seem especially revolutionary, Emmett's approach to proactive boundaries in everyday life is a refreshingly tangible self-help initiative. Emmett acknowledges the challenges posed by the audio format for such an action-oriented title. She implores listeners who are driving to plan on listening to key portions of the last disk later in order to complete the critical list-making exercises. While such suggestions should help consumers get more lasting benefits from the content, the publisher could have included a bonus CD featuring downloadable versions of Emmett's extra-credit time-management activities. A Walker & Co. hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 17). (Jan.)

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From the Publisher

A mantra of excellence over perfectionism drives many of the book's lessons, and work sheets and the author's fresh voice make this slender volume a quick and thoughtful read.” —Publishers Weekly

“In her new book, Manage Your Time to Reduce Your Stress, author Rita Emmett names time as our biggest tormentor and ‘busyness' our great curse. ‘Time management doesn't mean running around like a nut doing 20 things at once,' she writes. ‘True time management means actually spending as much of your time as you can doing those things you want to do.' She acknowledges that we need to make time for gainful employment but advocates giving equal priority to such things as family, good books, ice skating, and lazy Sundays.” —Body+Soul magazine

“If you feel frazzled, frantic or frustrated, this is an excellent book to help you turn your life around so you can start finding joy in every moment.” —Barbara De Angelis, PhD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, How Did I Get Here?

NOVEMBER 2009 - AudioFile

Rita Emmett's conversational writing and practical views make this a compelling book on how to manage destructive, excessive, or unfocused stress. Encouraging us to pay attention to the routines we fall into, she explains how to establish more fulfilling and values-centered life patterns, rather than blindly pursuing maximum achievement. Stress and hard work are unavoidable, but they pay off best when directed toward what's deeply important to us. The author's humanitarian approach is a welcome broadening of the blind productivity many audios in this genre promote. But her husky voice and adolescent-sounding intonation all but demolish the audio's accessibility. A more experienced narrator with a more appealing voice could make this excellent primer the kind of listening experience it deserves to be. T.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169110852
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	12/23/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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