Book giveaway: Do Less Get More by Sháá Wasmund

[SorchaMumsnet]

As part of our ongoing campaign with Penguin Life to bring you books to inspire healthy living, this month we bring you Do Less, Get More- PR entrepreneur Sháá Wasmund's guide to getting the most out of your life instead of 'making do'.

Do Less, Get More is designed for those with short attention spans and tight schedules. Not only does it inspire but it also provides practical ways to create change now, including tips and tricks on identifying your strengths, managing your time and combatting the ‘disease to please’.

We've got 50 copies of Do Less Get More to give away to Mumsnetters who want to read and share their thoughts about it on this discussion thread. Go to the giveaway page to find out more about the book and apply for a free copy.

You don't need to have won a copy to post on the discussion thread - if you've read the book, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

This giveaway is sponsored by Penguin Life.

Thank you MN Towers for including me in the book giveaway; I have just finished my copy and want to review it straightaway.

I have read the whole thing, properly, literally from cover to cover. I'll prefix my review by saying that this is clearly a very successful woman who has obviously done extremely well. Having an MBE in her professional field and clients including Sir James Dyson and Sir Bob Geldof are not to be sneezed at.

So, I actually feel hugely disappointed and wonder whether I have spectacularly missed the point of this book!

My first impressions on receiving the book were favourable - I loved the covers. Minimalistic, clean and to the point, in keeping with the theme. The testimonials on the back made some bold claims "A potential life changer", "devastatingly effective" and "my guide book on how to live a life filled with meaning".

Unfortunately I cannot agree with any of these sentiments.

As some previous reviews here have said, the tone of the book is irritatingly chatty. I felt as though I was being talked at at 100 miles per hour, not being engaged with, even the 'exercises' didn't help draw me in. The same points were made over and over and the relentless use of rhetorical questions was infuriating and felt patronising.

There is nothing new here. This is a very shallow drawing together of common sense notions, presented as though they are groundbreaking ideas. Using post-it notes. Drawing a 'mind map' / brainstorm. Delegate the things you do not love doing (hardly realistic advice when it comes to the daily grind of parenthood).

What was unforgivable in my opinion, was the complete lack of references. Throughout the book the author makes many references to scientific studies from various respectable academic institutions and seems to expect us to take her on her word. The inclusion of Abraham Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs' is casually dropped into page 76 without credit or explanation. A credible non fiction book would use a formal referencing system. The 'Inspiring words' resource list is not a substitute.

I did like the layout however; the many subtitles help to break up the sections and make it (thankfully) very easy to put down and pick up in short bursts. The vast majority of the illustrations were superfluous and seemed to be 'space fillers'. The inclusion of little stars and love hearts scattered throughout were ridiculous and reminded me of a teenager's secret diary.

I loathed this book and felt obligated to read it as part of the giveaway. Ordinarily I would not have read past the first five pages.

I have read all the book now and I loved it. While it may not be suited to me currently (sahm) it can be adjusted to suit me atm, and it will be very positive for me when I go back to work. I am one of those people that ALWAYS say yes, and try to please. Its not good for me and its not going to continue. I have huge amounts of common sense but rarely practice what I preach.
I'm aware that this won't happen overnight but reading this book has given me a much needed kick up the bum :)

Thank you for my copy of this book.

The book is written in a straightforward style but it is a bit repetitive. If you have read any other books about time management, putting yourself first etc then there aren't many new ideas here, however it is useful to revisit these ideas.

It is not a bad book and if you haven't read any of these sorts of books before it could be a good place to start and it would also be a good book to dip into now and again. However I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to friends as a must read that will provide enlightenment - it's not a bad book just not a great book.

I loved this book initially and enjoyed reading the first couple of chapters. I felt like the author was personally talking to me.
The further I got in, the style and tone were still informal and engaging but the concepts lacked depth and, as a previous poster said, the referencing just wasn't there. I'm a bit surprised that clear referencing wasn't highlighted by the editor.
However, I will take a lot of positive messages from this book and will be keeping it as a reference for the future.
Not a book I would recommend to friends, but one I wouldn't mention negatively in discussion.

This is such a wonderful book. A lot to take in. Do Less Get More speaks to me personally. I am a big fan of personal development books. I am familiar with Brian Tracy works and other authors SHAA mentions later in the book. I love the way it is writing. The exercises also are great. It is a book you have to read again and take a step at the time to impliment all the tips and exercises. Taking it all in at the beginning is overwhelming. It will take me personally another read or two before I can process it. But I believe I will get great results. I already started taking magnesium supplements before going to bed and switching off all technology also walking the kids to school instead of taking the car. I do believe as SHAA say little steps will give us a bigger end results. Put the fears aside and yes planning is the key. I need to investigate about Evernote sounds like a good application. OVERALL FANTASTIC BOOK and I will recommend to friends and family but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. I am so grateful to have been chosen to review this book. Thank you so much! Xx

Thanks for the book. It was a quick enjoyable read with some useful tips, however, at times it was a little patronising. Have passed it on to someone else as I don't think I'd refer to it again.

The irony of being one of the last to leave a review, for no better reasons than being busy in a very unproductive way, is certainly not lost on me. So - thank you very much for the book and the opportunity to review it - and I'm sorry it's taken a while longer than planned.
When I actually got down to reading it, it was a faster, easier read than I had anticipated. Sometimes I resent the preachy style of self-help books and I had probably expected much the same from this. As others have said it was a quick read, mainly to do with the fact that there are chunks of only a few paragraphs dealing with each concept.
It is definitely a superficial romp and what I missed was getting a real sense of motivation or urgency in putting into action the various ideas proposed. It did seem to be more of a series of fairly familiar ways to break down tasks than a step by step unravelling of why and how, with a goal-oriented sense of what could be achieved. Sure - plenty of room within this approach for a reader to insert their own goals, but not sure that many of the suggested tactics work for all goals and there was a bit of sense of a magic wand being swept over the possibility of realising individual dreams.
I did very much related to the last section which deals with digital dependency and detox. Concepts such as only checking email two or three times a day, the pomodoro technique etc are old hat but somehow the context in which they were described did resonate with me more than usual. I will definitely be taking steps to try to implement some of these, very soon.
My own circumstances are very transitional at the moment and maybe if I had a firmer idea of what my own life goals might be, I could have seen this book as more realistically motivational than I did on first reading. It has certainly made me want to seek out more by Shaa Wasmund, whose credentials in business are impressive and whose realistic, un-hippy writing style I enjoyed in this context.
If I do manage to implement some of the tips - as I promise I will try to - maybe by the time I get another book to review it won't take me quite as long!

Looking forward to reading this - sounds like the perfect mantra!

Oh dear - sorry this has taken ages for me to review but unfortunately I can't say it was worth the wait. Really patronising and unoriginal. I never leave bad reviews but this book has made me do so. Don't bother reading. Sorry mumsnet, thanks for picking me though!

It took me a while to do one important thing, to read this book! To be honest I liked it a lot! I loved that book is written in chatty and friendly manner and author is enaged with reader. For me book was useful and helpful. I should add that this is first time managment book which I read and I think that not the last.I tried to fit as much chores and to do tasks in my day as possible and was thinking about ways how to fit even more but never ever thought about ways to do less.Just started to try doing less will see how it will go in long run!
Thank you Mumsnet enjoyed this trial a lot! Sorry for late feedback,life was quite busy.