Falling Behind on Your New Year’s Resolutions? 5 Books to Put You Back on Track Inline
Photo: Courtesy of Ten Speed Press1/5For those who promised to be more organized:
If you haven’t gotten around to purging your closet, and your desk is still a mess of paperwork, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (Ten Speed Press) should be next on your reading list. Written by organization sensation Marie Kondo, the Japanese expert’s ode to decluttering is simple and easy to follow. Broken up into short sections such as “Arranging clothes: the secret to energizing your closet” and “Sorting papers: rule of thumb—discard everything,” the book makes a strong case for why you need to part with those Prada mules you might love, but have yet to wear.
Photo: Courtesy of Penguin Books2/5For those who said they would procrastinate less:
Your inbox is overflowing with unread emails and your to do list is simply a joke at this point. Get your responsibilities under control with the help of **Carson Tate’**s Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style (Penguin). The key to her approach is to identify a person’s individual productivity style (we all fall into Arrangers, Prioritizers, Visualizers, or Planners), and then maximize each type’s best time-management skills. The book also contains valuable pieces of advice to use in the office every day, including ways to control distractions from technology and how to lead the perfect meeting.
Photo: Courtesy of Artisan3/5For those who vowed to eat healthier:
Drop the juice cleanse and pick up The New Health Rules: Simple Changes to Achieve Whole-Body Wellness (Artisan), a stylish handbook of tips for healthier living from nutritionist Frank Lipman, M.D., wellness guru to Gwyneth Paltrow and Maggie Gyllenhaal. With brevity and wit, he and writer Danielle Claro issue a series of maxims—think of dairy as a condiment, everything you know about breakfast is wrong—that are easily digested and, at times, easily adopted. Because Lipman extols healthy fats while likening sugar to poison, you may find yourself trading your morning latte (skim or soy) for green tea, and happily giving up those egg-white omelets for the real thing.
—Kate Guadagnino
Photo: Courtesy of Shambhala4/5For those who wanted to meditate more:
If you’re having difficulty finding the time or headspace to meditate, Lodro Rinzler’s book Sit Like a Buddha: A Pocket Guide to Meditation (Shambhala) might be the help you need. Rinzler, who has been teaching meditation since he was eighteen, presents a ten-step process to help you become more Zen, starting with pinpointing the reason why you want to meditate in the first place. The book gets bonus points for the fact that it’s not written in that new age-y language that can sometimes feel inaccessible—Rinzler even throws in a multitude of pop-culture references, including Parks and Recreation andJay Z, throughout.
Photo: Courtesy of Workman Publishing5/5For those who resolved to get their finances in order:
Still don’t understand the math behind an interest rate or how exactly a 401k works? Then it would be wise to pick up **Ramit Sethi’**s I Will Teach You to Be Rich (Workman). Don t be confused by the title, as this book isn’t one of those “Become a Millionaire Overnight!” schemes; rather, it teaches anyone (particularly those in their twenties and early thirties) how to take control over their financial life. Sethi’s book covers every major aspect of personal money (spending, saving, investing), and his easy-to-comprehend chapters on optimizing your credit cards and why investing isn’t only for rich people suggest simple steps that you can immediately apply to your own bank account.
