Rating:
5/5 stars

Before I start, two things about me:
One, I might be the biggest procrastinator in the entire universe.
Two, I am not the biggest fan of self-help books, however, I have found them necessary in the last few months.

While I am still struggling to reach the seventh chapter of Antoni De Melo’s Call To Love (which might be due to a poor translation) and yes, I am still putting Joe Barry’s Panic Away Program to the test, I successfully tackled Design Your Day within a day (pun not intended, if it is, in fact, a pun).

ATTENTION UNIVERSE: Mrs. Diaz-Ortiz deserves all the awards for this book.

When I stumbled onto this book on NetGalley, I KNEW that I had to read it. I felt like it was written for me.

Now, let me tell you a couple of reasons why I needed Design Your Day in my life, and therefore you need it in yours.

First off, the writing. Mrs. Diaz-Ortiz has a one of a kind gift. She has the ability to explain complicated mechanisms with ease and wit which not only makes a usually-slow-moving-genre book interesting, it makes you excited to read the rest. It inspires you to try what it suggests.

I started this book at six in the morning (thanks to my cat) with the intention to power through it, wondering if a rainy Saturday morning is the best timing for a self-help book. But I ended up finishing it in four hours AND I already had my WORD OF THE YEAR, as well as a brainstorming session. That’s how inspiring it is.

Second off, the theories and techniques Mrs. Diaz-Ortiz suggests. While it all sounds complicated and hard to achieve after reading the introduction, once you actually start reading, you’ll see how simple it all is. Some day-to-day things we do can make a difference in your productivity.

Third off, IT WORKS.

I’m a professional procrastinator. Seriously, I have my own talent doing everything at the very last second. Unfortunately, managing to get any project, assignment or job done within 5 minutes of the deadline is not a satisfying experience and can be quite stressful.

“Design your Day” is based on easy concepts that really helped me starting with the right foot. It's all about decide what your goals are, create good strategies that work and organize yourself at the very best. It's a good book, clear enough to make you want to give it a try.

I received this book just as I was about to start my annual process of setting goals for next year. I have been going about that task somewhat haphazardly in the past, but this book offers some very pragmatic ideas for setting those goals and breaking them down into achievable portions. This is instrumental in actually accomplishing those goals. In addition, the author offered some great insight into organizing a workday in order to be more productive and waste less time. Very practical guide for anyone with busy days or who might want to take a good look at what they want to accomplish.

It's short. Practical. And helpful. When you realize you are finite and time is limited, pick up this little jewel of a how-to and reclaim your day and yourself.

When a book comes along that really makes me stop and think, I always want to share... and Design Your Day by Claire Diaz-Ortiz is definitely one of those books!

The days go by so fast - in the blink of an eye it's 2016 and it seems that I'm no closer to my goals than I was a year ago. How does that happen? And how do I keep it from happening this year?

We spend so much time with the little things that we never get to the big things... and that's one of the first things that Ms. Diaz-Ortiz talks about in the book! Do you remember that experiment?
"Take a few big rocks, a ton of small pebbles, and a large glass jar. You'll find that if you put the pebbles in the jar first and then try to put in the big rocks, you'll have trouble fitting everything in. Do things the other way around, though, and you're golden. Put your big rocks in the jar first, and then fill the jar's air pockets up with the big pebbles. Ta-da! It fits. Life is the same way. It's easy to fill up a day or a life with an endless series of pebbles and then not have the time, energy, or resources to fit in the big rocks. A life well designed is about making sure that the important stuff stays important, day in and day out."

The book is divided into sections that spell D-O L-E-S-S.
PART ONE: DECIDE Word of the Year How to Set SMART Goals Fine-tuning Your Goals Create Strategies to Reach Your Goals Keep Your Goals Top of Mind PART TWO: ORGANIZE (LESS IS MORE)
L: Limit Your Work to Your Best 20%
E: Edit the Time You Spend on Work S: Streamline the Work You Do S: Stop Working: Know When and How

Throughout the book there are so many great tips I can't even decide what to tell you about. She helps you learn how to brainstorm more effectively, define your goals to make sure that they will work for you, and then fine-tune them!

Another thing that I appreciate very much about this book is that, although it's published by Moody Publishing and the author talks a bit about her religious beliefs, it's not in your face. I don't mind when someone tells - me in their time management book - that they plan time in each day for God. Especially when it's not preachy!

The authors website, clairediazortiz.com, is a wonderful resource to go along with the book. She has a series of posts called the "21 Days to #DesignYourDay Challenge" that I will definitely be doing for the next 21 days! Lordy knows that I need the help.

Finally, the whole book is only 144 pages. Makes sense, right? Why write a book about making effective use of your time and have it take a month to read? Keep it short and sweet! Thank you!

If you could use the help, too, to define your goals and DESIGN YOUR DAY, you'll love this book.

Decide, Organize, Limit, Edit, Streamline, Stop – DO LESS The acronym above plays a major role in this excellent addition to anyone's self-help shelf. A lot of the suggestions really resonated with me, especially the first half of the book, where Ms. Diaz-Ortiz concentrates on helping readers identify and create goals for any and every aspect of life. We all want to work smarter not harder, and the information in this book will help you do just that. Did I implement every idea? No, but I was impressed enough with the content to attempt quite a few successfully. The idea of choosing a word for my year was splendid, as I had just read Shonda Rhime's book, Year of Yes. Now I know what books I can pair as gifts this year!
*I received my copy through NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Gah! That was not worth my time! Most ideas in this are copied form other books and just re-summarized. At least the author gives credit often is the one thing I can give. Honestly I felt like I was reading a long ramble on mainstreaming life goals and ideas. There are a couple decent ideas, but not original. I didn't get anything new out of this. Just a "been there, read that." Several of the ideas you have to live a certain lifestyle to qualify. And no, I could not think of a way to apply it to my life.
Now the real reason I rated it so low: The grammar and spelling was atrocious! Now I must admit I was reading a review copy so I could over look the terrible formatting (like how the first word of every paragraph had a space in the middle of it) and hope they would be fixed but the sheer amount of basic errors baffled me. If this was a paper turned in to any English teach I ever had in Middle or High School I would have received an F. When it is that bad, it should not be submitted as a review copy even. So it was very frustrating to get through. A final copy might have earned 2 starts but the formatting would have to be amazing and grammar near perfect even still. This whole book just rambled like a bad blog entry. Maybe if I keep going on this rant, you will get the idea...
1.5 stars

Short, quick read about how to better manage your day - armed with some useful ideas about how to do it.

The thing is to do your things smarter, understand your goals and to know when to say no/delegate (among others). Nothing new, yes - but the book is understandable, simple and clear, no irrelevant beating around the bush here - which is always a plus in my books.

While I don´t think this is the leading book on the subject, I still have found some useful tips to manage my (mostly work) time better.