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The Experts' Guide to Doing Things Faster: 100 Ways to Make Life More Efficient

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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.From the Hardcover edition.

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

11 people are currently reading
139 people want to read

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Samantha Ettus

5 books24 followers

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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Jon.
390 reviews
December 4, 2013
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.)
Profile Image for Erin.
699 reviews19 followers
January 3, 2009
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.
Profile Image for Elruin Elmsroot.
225 reviews1 follower
March 11, 2024
This book can kill you.
If you try to follow everything it says, you would die of exhaustion........

The simple massage this book tells you is: Run.....run.....run.....faster in life.

It doesn't tells you anything new that, you already don’t know.
A rather pointless read.
Profile Image for S.
780 reviews10 followers
March 24, 2019
1.7/5

I mainly skimmed through it. Nothing new and nothing deep in any of the sections.
Profile Image for The_J.
2,178 reviews5 followers
September 23, 2021
Not much chaff in this store of wheat, and 100 actual experts including some interesting pithy advice.
Profile Image for Katherine.
283 reviews
May 8, 2013
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.
166 reviews
January 26, 2017
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.)
Profile Image for Nancy.
1,343 reviews22 followers
November 4, 2008
O wah ta-goo siam.

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.
Profile Image for Tracey.
2,744 reviews
April 4, 2009
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.
Profile Image for Gloria.
2,301 reviews55 followers
December 1, 2008
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.
Profile Image for Nathan.
53 reviews2 followers
November 10, 2008
This one is a keeper! So much helpful advice, packed into compact essays. It makes those "For Dummies" books seem like an enormous waste of paper.
Profile Image for Lori Mason.
293 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2009
This is just silly - little mini advice paragraphs on everything from cooking dinner to having an orgasm. No depth and most of it is common sense.
Profile Image for Pam.
19 reviews6 followers
March 17, 2013
Something for everyone!
Profile Image for Nohreen.
222 reviews2 followers
April 24, 2015
An innteresting points and strategies for being more efficient from different sources compiled together in this book.
Profile Image for Anne Stephenson.
46 reviews1 follower
December 29, 2015
I had high hopes for this book, but found little in the tips that was new to apply to my daily life. I ended up skimming to the end.
290 reviews2 followers
January 28, 2021
Has some helpful hints about a variety of subjects. I can reread this and look for books by the authors of the different articles.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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