Thursday, March 27, 2008

Title: Defeating the 8 Demons of Distraction
Sub-Title: Proven Strategies to Increase Productivity and Decrease Stress
Author: Geraldine Markel, Ph.D.
Publisher: Managing Your Mind, LLC
ISBN: 978-0-9791279-4-6
Genre: Non-Fiction/Personal Management/Self-Help
Presentation: Soft cover

All of us get distracted at times. However, when the distractions become one too many and thus disrupt our work, our homes, our live style etc., stress is the result. Our jobs and our family life get affected adversely. All of us would have wished at some time or other that we had a good mentor and coach to guide us how to deal with the battle against the demons of distraction. This book is an answer to our wishes.

In a short space of 10 Chapters spread over 138 pages, Geraldine Markel takes us through a seminar on the 8 Demons of Distraction and successful strategies to fight and defeat the demons. The book can be read in about a day of say 8 to 10 hours with short breaks for tea and lunch. Thus it is like attending a 1-day seminar. However, you need not travel and spend money on hotels etc. In the comfort of your home, you can read and reread the book and thus save a lot of time, energy and money!

If the above sounds like a sales pitch, I may be forgiven but I was really impressed with the simple, lucid and reader-friendly style of the book. I was delighted with the case studies presented by the author and was inspired by the success stories when the people practiced the strategies presented in the book. So, if you practice what you read, you too are sure to succeed. Here are a few chapter titles: The 8 Demons of Distraction, Your Attention Reservoir and Arsenal, Defeating the Technology Demon, Defeating the Others Demon etc. Chapter 10 is a good summary of the strategies.

Normally management and self-help books are not easy to read, especially since I have a rather short attention span! However, the highly readable style of this book held my attention sufficiently so that I could read it in the space of a few days after a long day of work.

This book would make a good present to any one (employee, home maker, business man, student), who finds that distractions are affecting their lives adversely. So, buy it for yourself and or some one you care for.

About the Author: Geraldine Markel, Ph.D. is an educational psychologist who is a coach , speaker, and author. She served as faculty in the School of Education, University of Michigan, and has coauthored four books on learning and performance for adolescents and adults with ADD and /or learning disabilities.

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