It’s time to win the race against the clock. From finding a parking spot to getting in a good mood, to falling asleep or thinking on your feet, speed is often at the heart of a better life. The Experts’ Guide to Doing Things Faster provides you with straightforward and creative strategies for being more efficient in every aspect of every day—in 100 compact chapters written by 100 of the world’s leading experts, • Daily essentials, such as getting ready in the morning by Hannah Storm • Lifestyle lessons, such as throwing a dinner party by Colin Cowie and writing thank-you notes by Carolyne Roehm• Beauty basics that include styling your hair by Sally Hershberger and losing weight by Harley Pasternak• Romance road maps, such as making a winning first impression by Neil Strauss • Physical feats that include running faster by Justin Gatlin and relaxing by Rodney Yee • Money matters, such as selling a home by Barbara Corcoran and getting a loan by Sir Richard Branson• Healthy hints, such as speeding up your metabolism by Mark Hyman and overcoming guilt by Keith AblowSome of these experts are household names, others are industry leaders—all are at the top of their profession. From a two-time Super Bowl winner and survivor of twenty-nine operations (“How to Recover from Surgery") to New York’s most famous doorman (“Make Someone Feel Good”), from the founder of the Geek Squad (“Make Your Computer Run Faster”) to Las Vegas’s premier wedding planner (“Plan a Wedding”) and an Olympic eater (“Cure a Stomachache”), they are the authorities on their subjects.Packed with funny, surprising, and incredibly clever advice, The Experts’ Guide to Doing Things Faster teaches you how to lead your life more efficiently, leaving you with more time to enjoy its pleasures.
I think people will get a lot out of this book. Particularly: -People who fell into a coma at age 7 and awoke 30 years later. -Future generations who want to feel superior to our antiquated way of life. -goldfish (possibly).
The book provides excellent expert insider information to skip the basic training and start any task at the front of the line. For example:
-If you are having trouble waking up in the morning, it's all in your head. People who are lucky to get 5 hours of sleep periodically punctuated with screaming babies or noisy neighborhoods should skip the coffee and do some math problems as they stand over the sink. Yes future generations, the expert who penned this advice believed that math is stronger than caffeine, and that everyone gets 9 hours of sleep per night.
-If you want to wash dishes faster, don't use a dishwasher. Throw all your dishes into the sink and wash them in the morning. Highly efficient! Why use a machine to do the work when you can stand over a sink when you're not tired and doing math the next morning. Brilliant. Yes future generations, this was the generation where the internet and publishing industry's credibility intersected. Coma guy, you'll learn about the internet soon enough.
-If you want to run faster, make sure you dress fashionably as Olympic athletes will scoff at you if you wear anything other than ankle length socks. This should appeal to the goldfish, as they find the ideas of ankles and socks equally hysterical.
The book is FULL of these pearls of wisdom, so I wanted to add one financial tip that wasn't included, but should have been. It's called "How to Buy a Million Dollar House."
1. Stop complaining about your lack of a million dollar house. No one wants to hear that.
2. Update your resume and land a job that pays a million or so a year. If you can be some sort of technology mogul, do that.
3. Save a million dollars. Do this by not spending your earnings.
4. Find a million dollar house and buy it from the owner. There may be paperwork involved, so be sure to bring a pen!
5. Enjoy your million dollar home. You earned it.
That's it!
(To all the time traveling, goldfish overlords who were put into suspended animation for 30 years while traveling from their home planet: As you destroy and rebuild this world, please remember that I recommended this valuable piece of literature to you before you destroy my town. Thanks.)
Interesting, pithy collection of how to do things quicker. How to Mend a broken heart, how to lose weight, how to bake a cake (from scratch!), how to use a knife properly, etc. Each is 2-3 pages, none particularly deep, but kind of a fun read nonetheless.
Lots of short, simple advice on how to do everyday things (or general in-your-lifetime things). If you are already an efficient person (ie, list making, multi-tasking, etc), you may find that you already do most of the things they suggest. I think my favourite bit of advice was about how to wake up in the morning. It was written by a firefighter, and it was basically like, "Just get the f*** out of bed! No one's 'entitled' to more sleep! You shoulda got more sleep on the nighttime side of things, not the morning side!" Haha. It was pretty great.
Not bad, Not bad. I read a lot of reviews hating on this book so I was prepared for the worst, however I found a handful of chapters to be super interesting and clever. Yes, there is a ton of useless information here and most of the book is skimmable, but hey, to find a few golden nuggets amongst the bad apples was fine by me. Liked that the chapters were divided by categories. Wish the editors had removed all the ridiculous chapters ('how to get married' in only 200 words? Silly.)
gah! I am such a sucker for books that will tell me what to do! pah. This one is worth about 15 minutes of your life: you either know this stuff, or it's common sense, or it's too glibly brief. But in those 15 minutes, I suppose, you'll remember that you should return phone calls right away, soak your dishes, and that the clitoris is 10 to 12 centimeters in length.
Adult nonfiction. A selection of topics written by selected "experts", a few more useful than others. The most useful tip? Updating your resume frequently on online job search sites puts you at the top of the review list for prospective employers. I'd write more, but I don't think the other tips were that helpful or memorable.
There is some basically good advice contained here; however, whole books have been written on many of the topics. If a person is really keen on making changes in a particular area, go for the more thorough books.