There are a lot of books that advise “Unplug once in a while, and go outside”. But it doesn’t really take a book to convey that, does it? And it just leaves all the digital catching-up once we get back. Surely there must be a better way?

Rather than relying on a “digital detox”, Dr. Newport offers principles to apply to our digital lives, that allow us to reap the benefits of modern information technology without being obeisant to it.

The book’s greatest strength lies in that; having clear guidelines that can be applied to cut out the extra weight of digital media that has simply snuck in because of The Almighty Algorithm—and even tips on how to engage more mindfully with that if we still want to, for example using social media only in a web browser rather than on our phones, so that we can ringfence the time for it rather than having it spill into every spare moment.

In the category of criticism, the book sometimes lacks a little awareness when it comes to assumptions about the reader and the reader’s social circles; that (for example) nobody has any disabilities and everyone lives in the same town. But for most people most of the time, the advices will stand, and the exceptions can be managed by the reader neatly enough.

Stylistically, the book is not very minimalist, but this is not inconsistent with the advice of the book, if you’re curling up in the armchair with a physical copy, or a single-purpose ereader device.

Bottom line: if you’d like to streamline your use of digital media, but don’t want to lose out on the value it brings you, this book provides an excellent template

Click here to check out Digital Minimalism, and choose focused life in a noisy world!

James Clear’s Atomic Habits has become “the” go-to book about the power of habit-forming. And, there’s no shortage of competition out there, so that’s quite a statement. What makes this book stand out?

A lot of books start by assuming you want to build habits. That can seem a fair assumption; after all, we picked up the book! But an introductory chapter really hammers home the idea in a way that makes it a lot more motivational:

• Habits are the compound interest of productivity
• This means that progress is not linear, but exponential
• Habits can also be stacked, and thus become synergistic
• The more positive habits you add incrementally, the easier they become because each thing is making your life easier/better

For example:

• It’s easier to save money if you’re in good health
• It’s easier to sleep better if you do not have financial worries
• It’s easier to build your relationship with your loved ones if you’re not tired

…and so on.

For many people this presents a Catch-22 problem! Clear instead presents it as an opportunity… Start wherever you like, but just start small, with some two-minute thing, and build from there.

A lot of the book is given over to:

• how to form effective habits (using his “Four Laws”)
• how to build them into your life
• how to handle mishaps
• how to make sure your habits are working for you
• how to see habits as part of your identity, and not just a goal to be checked off

The last one is perhaps key—goals cease to be motivating once accomplished. Habits, on the other hand, keep spiralling upwards (if you guide them appropriately).

There’s lots more we could say, but it’s a one-minute book review, so we’ll just close by saying:

This book can help you to become the kind of person who genuinely gets a little better each day, and reaps the benefits over time.

Get your copy of Atomic Habits from Amazon today!

One of the biggest challenges we often face when undertaking diet and exercise regimes, is the “regime” part. Day one is inspiring, day two is exciting… Day seventeen when one has a headache and some kitchen appliance just broke and one’s preferred exercise gear is in the wash… Not so much.

Authors Jordan Syatt and Michael Vacanti, therefore, have taken it upon themselves to bring sustainability to us.

Their main premise is simplicity, but simplicity that works. For example:

• Having a daily calorie limit, but being ok with guesstimating
• Weighing regularly, but not worrying about fluctuations (just trends!)
• Eating what you like, but prioritizing some foods over others
• Focusing on resistance training, but accessible exercises that work the whole body, instead of “and then 3 sets of 12 reps of these in 6-4-2 progression to exhaustion of the anterior sternocleidomastoid muscle”

The writing style is simple and clear too, without skimping on the science where science helps explain why something works a certain way.

Bottom line: this one’s for anyone who would like a strong healthy body, without doing the equivalent of a degree in anatomy and physiology along the way.

Click here to check out “Eat it!” on Amazon and simplify your diet and exercise plans for great, sustainable progress!