Book Review: Tell Your Time

A couple weeks ago I was looking at books and planners that could help me manage my time and get the most out of my day.  I looked through a lot of them, mostly through Amazon.  I was looking for something that was focused on stay-at-home moms, or even working moms.  But I found a lot of them to be a little too complex, or they were focused on people with lots of kids or a super demanding career.

I realized that I needed something simple and basic.  I only have one child right now, and he’s just two.  So there’s no school or extracurricular activities yet.  And since I’m a stay-at-home mom there aren’t a lot of demands on my time.  But I still have a problem with being focused and getting all the things I want done in a day.

Then I stumbled upon Tell Your Time: How toManage Your Schedule So You Can Live Free by Amy Lynn Andrews.  Here is the description on Amazon:


There's one thing I've never understood about time management books, and that is, why do so many of them take so much time to read? Have you noticed that? It seems to me a book about time management should be, well, short. To the point. Efficient.

So that's what I did in Tell Your Time. 

I distilled all of the time management, organization, scheduling and goal-setting tips I've gleaned over the years (that's a lot) into one easy-to-read, easy-to-implement, straightforward, no-nonsense ebook.

Remember, time management is like weight loss. There's no magic bullet. The basic principles in weight loss books are all variations on the same theme: eat well and exercise. Consume fewer calories then you expend. 

The same goes for time management books. There's no magic bullet. The basic principles in time management books are all variations on the same theme: make sure all your to-dos fit within the 24 hours allotted.

This book will walk you through a process—the one I personally use—that has helped many others. And it will do it in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost.

Because I think you should live life living, not just reading about it.

Tell Your Time will help you identify the most important things—and the most important people—in your life. You will easily set goals and learn how to manage your time efficiently so no *thing*—or no *one*—falls through the cracks.

Oh, and by the way, during the writing of this book I finally figured out the answer to my question, you know, the one about time management books being so time consuming. A traditional publisher contacted me and offered to publish Tell Your Time as a "regular" book. But there was a catch. In order to justify the cost of publishing, I had to beef it up...and make it about 7 times longer. I was very grateful for the offer, but I declined. (By the way, if you want to hear that full story, find the Tools page I reference throughout the book.)

Tell Your Time packs a huge practical punch. Small time commitment, small price tag, huge benefit.

The description sold me pretty well and then I read some of the glowing reviews.  I decided it couldn’t hurt to buy it on my Kindle.  It’s only $3 and 30 pages long.

Well, the book delivered.  I read it in one sitting and then went on to the website TellYourTime.com to get the worksheets that are referenced through out the book.  The worksheets helped me a lot to figure out what were the most important aspects of my life and how I could be better at all of them.

Andrews is very encouraging as well as straight forward.  She tells you what to do, shows you how to do it and then tells you to get it done.  Plus, the way she presents it makes it very individualized and easy to adapt no matter what your life situation is.

I’ve been using these tips for a couple weeks now and I’m already seeing improvement.  I’ve already established some good routines and have found plenty of time in my days to get chores done, take care of Will, spend quality time with Daniel and even write.

So, if you’re looking for a short, simple time management plan I highly recommend Tell Your Time: How to Manage Your Schedule So You Can Live Free by Amy Lynn Andrews.  It’s available on Kindle, Nook and as a downloadable e-book, you can find all the information at TellYourTime.com

5 out of 5 Stars!

As an ending note: I really enjoy doing book reviews, so if you have any suggestions, please tell me.  Depending on what kind of volume I get will determine how often I do this.  I’m not trying to become yet another book review blog, but I do like to share those things that I love or are interested in.  So if you’d like to know my opinion on something, just comment here.

Thanks for reading!  Happy Monday!