Would you BUY or PASS? #Nonfiction #Selfhelp for #FridayFiveChallenge

Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’

Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?

Welcome to the #FridayFiveChallenge. The original idea comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up here: https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

The rules are laid out at the end of this post if you fancy having a go.

Here is my contribution for this week:

I found my Friday Five book on the ‘Amazon Recommend’ email that landed in my inbox earlier this week. A sucker for non-fiction and more specifically, self-help, I was instantly attracted to the title and cover. When I clicked on the link, I was taken to the paperback page and made an amazing discovery. In the ‘Frequently bought together’ section, I spotted my book (How I Changed My Life in a Year) as the perfect match for this title. I’ve never seen my book as a recommendation before so I ate into my five minutes with a slight jig and an excited squeal before focusing on the task at hand.

Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take 5 Minutes or Less by S.J. Scott

BLURB:

Want to improve your life, but don’t have enough time? Right now you could easily think of a dozen ways to instantly improve your life. Odds are, these ideas will only take a few minutes apiece to complete. The problem? You might feel like there’s not enough time to do all of them. One solution can be found using the power of “habit stacking.”

One Routine + Multiple Habits = Habit Stacking

We all know it’s not easy to add dozens of new habits to your day. But what you might not realize is it’s fairly easy to build a single new routine. The essence of habit stacking is to take a series of small changes (like eating a piece of fruit or sending a loving text message to your significant other) and build a ritual that you follow on a daily basis. Habit Stacking works because you eliminate the stress of trying to change too many things at once. Your goal is to focus simply on a single routine that only takes about 15 to 30 minutes to complete. Within this routine is a series of actions (or small changes). All you have to do is to create a checklist and follow it every single day. That’s the essence of habit stacking.

LEARN: 97 Small Habits that Can Change Your Life

In the book “Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes Or Less,” you will discover 97 quick habits that can instantly improve your life. Plus you’ll discover how to create a simple routine (managed by a checklist) that you repeat on a daily basis. Even better, you’ll discover a few tools that will keep you motivated and consistent. So even if you’re completely stressed out, you’ll still find the time and energy to complete these actions on a consistent basis. By completing dozens of small habits on a daily basis, you’ll be able to make giant leaps forward in your business, strengthen your personal relationships, stay on top of your finances, get organized and improve your health.

“Habit Stacking” contains a catalogue of ideas you can use to take action in your life. You will learn:

How Habit Stacking Helps You Add MULTIPLE Small Changes

8 Elements of a Habit Stacking Routine

Two Examples of a Habit Stacking Routine

8 Steps for Building a Habit Stacking Routine

Productivity Small Changes (#1 to #17)

Relationships Small Changes (#18 to #31)

Finances Small Changes (#32 to #44)

Organization Small Changes (#45 to #60)

Spirituality & Mental Wellbeing Small Changes (#61 to #84)

Health & Physical Fitness Small Changes (#76 to #85)

Leisure (Small Changes #86 to #97) 

Habit Stacking Disruptions and Challenges: What to Do!

My Analysis:

I know that this topic is a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it. As a holistic health practitioner, blogger and self-help writer, I have discovered hundreds of inspirational lifestyle tools from reading widely within this genre. Some of the self-help books can be repetative, but then again, the same lesson taught in two ways will appeal to two different students. I like the cover of this book, although it is quite masculine. Here is an example of a five star review on Amazon.co.uk:

I loved the simplicity and thoroughness of this book. I admit I am biased as I am already a huge fan of Steve Scott, but he always has new ideas and a fresh twist, and this book is no exception. Steve is like many good teachers – he makes you feel good about what you are doing already while at the same time managing to offer suggestions for improvements and changes that are ‘do-able’ and do not leave you feeling overwhelmed with the enormity of the task. This book is truly what it says on the cover – small life changes that can be picked one at a time and take less than 5 minutes to do but will make a real difference. The categorisation of the ideas into Productivity, Organisation, and Personal Life, etc. is inspired and further helps you to choose what is most important at the current time to be applied to your own life and circumstances. Thanks again Steve for a great book!

The lower rated reviews are refreshingly similar to the negative reviews I received, and I think this stems from self-help being such a personal topic. Each reader is hoping for an answer to a specific question that only they know, so when the book fails to deliver, or gives them an answer they don’t want to hear, it is expressed as a negative. I read the lower reviews but didn’t see anything constructive in them. 

The Stats:

The book has 130 pages, and the Kindle price is £2.39, it is also available as an audio book. There are 37 reviews on Amazon.co.uk, 15 of them are five stars, and 366 on Amazon.com, 41% of them are five stars.

I like the concept of breaking habits down into manageable chunks as it’s something I do on a daily basis. The author has managed to pack a wide variety of topics into such a short book, so I assume it doesn’t go into too much depth. I’m not sure if I would get a lot out of this book only because I already have such a huge collection of self-help books. It’s a PASS from me today, but if it were on special offer, then I would add it to my rapidly increasing to-be-read pile for future reference.

 

Habit Stacking – buy your copy.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Take a look at who else has taken part in the Friday Five Challenge:

 Rosie searches for the Twelfth Century – https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/searching-the-twelfth-century-for-the-empress-matilda-fridayfivechallenge/comment-page-1/#comment-17509

Cathy searches for a rising star – http://betweenthelinesbookblog.com/2015/11/20/fridayfivechallenge-buy-or-pass/

Liz digs up a picture book – https://lizannelloyd.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/fridayfivechallenge-9/comment-page-1/#comment-405

 

What is the Friday Five Challenge?

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

The Challenge is this… IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES…

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description of this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision)