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Productivity Journal Review: The Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change

By Amazon, Inspiration, Life, Reviews, Shopping, The Web, ThinkingNo Comments

The Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change is a journal aimed at boosting your productivity.

It focuses on single-tasking rather than multi-tasking and doing the most important task of the day first. It also uses The Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is working on a task for 25 minutes without distraction or procrastination and then taking a 5 minute break.

Here are some images of the Productivity Planner:

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The Productivity Planner cover.
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Weekly Task Planning.
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Daily Planning.
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Weekly Notes.

Like any productivity journal the Productivity Planner has Pros and Cons. Here they are:

Pros Cons
  • Its design is smart and business-like.
  • It’s compact and light to carry.
  • It’s dateless, meaning you can start using it at any time.
  • It prioritises tasks into: Most Important, Secondary and Additional.
  • It has Weekly Planning/Review sections.
  • It has a place for Notes on each day and a full Weekly Notes page.
  • Every daily page has an Inspirational Quote and a Productivity Score (1-10).
  • It has circles next to tasks to measure time. You set a Target and then record the Actual, helping you to allocate a more realistic amount of time for tasks.
  • It has a bookmark ribbon and an elasticated closure.
  • It is really designed for business use. It only has a 5 day week.
  • There’s no Done boxes to tick tasks off on the daily pages.
  • The planner only has 6 months worth of pages in it. Meaning you would need to buy two for 1 year.
  • It is expensive for a journal, being priced at £20+.
  • There’s no short term, medium term or long term goal setting pages.
  • There’s no monthly or yearly view pages.
  • It is black and white throughout.
  • There isn’t anywhere to record rewards for completing tasks. I find rewards really motivating.
  • There’s no way to organise tasks into groups, e.g. Personal, Business, Health, Family/Friends, etc.

The Productivity Planner is available to buy on Amazon.

In my next Productivity Journal Review I will be reviewing the far superior Inspire Now Journal by Inspire Now Daily, which I absolutely love.

Write soon,

Antony

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Thursday 21 September 2017

Book Review: The Jungle Book (CollinsClassics Edition) by Rudyard Kipling

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
the-jungle-book-collins-classics-rudyard-kipling-book-cover
View on Amazon.co.uk
 The Jungle Book is the story of man-cub Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle.

Shere Khan, the stripped tiger, was Mowgli’s reason for ending up in the jungle in the first place. And as Mowgli grows, Shere Khan makes himself Mowgli’s nemesis.

Mowgli is taught The Law of The Jungle by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. At one point Mowgli is taken by monkeys in the canopy above. Baloo and Bagheera rescue him with the help of Kaa the Python.

The Jungle Book has probably become a classic because it taps into our curiosity of wildlife and our desire to learn about foreign and exotic lands. Kipling brilliantly crosses the worlds of animal and human with main character Mowgli.

Kipling uses anthropomorphism, giving all animal characters human traits, emotions and intentions. The Jungle Book was written in 1894 and as such some of the language has dated and some of the description is unclear.

The Jungle Book would probably be called a novella today, in terms of word count. The CollinsClassics Edition I read contained four other Kipling short stories.

The Jungle Book is well worth a read, although the reader will probably only want to read it once. The Jungle Book is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Sunday 17 September 2017

Book Review: The Radleys by Matt Haig

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
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View on Amazon.co.uk
 The Radleys consisting of husband and wife, Peter and Helen, and their two children Clara and Rowan on the surface appear to be an ordinary middle class family in the village of Bishopthorpe.

But there is some odd things about The Radleys. Like the fact they don’t like sunlight, are all dangerously allergic to garlic and always appear to be unwell.

Then when Clara gets attacked at a party, something inside of her comes alive and she ends up killing a boy.

Life for The Radleys is about to get complicated. The two blood abstainer parents must decide how they feel about abstaining, each other and what to do about the situation that is unfolding before them. They have to deal with Peter’s older brother, Will, who turns up on from Manchester.

Will is a non-abstainer that Peter and Helen haven’t seen for seventeen years and their children have never met.

Helen also has to protect Peter and the children from finding out what went on between her and Will all those years ago.

Clara and Rowan are let in on the family’s secret, must deal with being lied to all their lives and work out how to go forward with this life changing truth.

While all this is going on, the Unnamed Predator Unit, a secret nationwide Unit run by Greater Manchester Police has set its sights on Will and is planning to take him down. They feel that his blood lust is out of control.

The Radleys is imaginative, captivating and addictive. Anyone who likes reading stories about vampires or reading in the fantasy genre will enjoy this book.

Everything about The Radleys is superb. The characters are interesting and pull the reader in. The plot makes the reader like a drug addict, desperate for their next fix. The pacing is quick and chapters are short. The description is brilliant, enabling the reader to imagine everything in perfect detail.

The Radleys is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Wednesday 30 August 2017

Book Review: Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Reviews2 Comments
forever-is-the-worst-long-time-camille-pagan-book-cover
View on Amazon.co.uk
 Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan is one man’s story of his life, his love and his loss.

James’ life is pretty ordinary until he meets Rob’s (his best friend) girlfriend Lou. James and Lou have an instant attraction.

The more James learns about Lou, the more fascinated he becomes and the more her wants to know. To James everything about Lou is perfect (even her imperfections) and he comes to love her.

Then James and Lou do the unthinkable and they set out on journey that is filled with love and loss.

The story is told from James’ perspective, his voice engaging and likeable, but is a little longwinded at times.

This first person perspective is good for the story, which is essentially about the ups and downs of his life set over seventeen years.

Use of this perspective made James’ voice, actions and motivations come across clearly. But for the same reason, left the reader feeling that other characters were lacking at times. Pagan could have improved the novel by switching to some of the other character’s perspectives.

The plot moved along at a reasonable pace. But because it was about James’ ordinary life, that mostly lacked anything extraordinary, it felt like not a lot happened. It also felt like reading a biography of someone who is a complete stranger and has done nothing to attract the reader’s interest.

The last few chapters are likely to elicit an emotional response from readers, which is a credit to Pagan’s writing.

The description and dialogue were excellent throughout. The idea was all right, but more thought and imagination could have been inputted into the story. I really wanted to like Forever is the Worst Long Time, but it just wasn’t for me. Perhaps because it was a story told by a mediocre main character.

Forever is the Worst Long Time is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Wednesday 16 August 2017
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