CrazyBusy

Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Handling Your Fast-Paced Life

By: Edward M. Hallowell M.D.

Narrated by: Edward M. Hallowell M.D.

Look at what's happened to the usual how-are-you exchange. It used to go like this: "How are you?" "Fine." Now it often goes like this: "How are you?" "Busy." Or "Too busy." Or simply "Crazy."

Without intending for it to happen or knowing how, when, or why it got started, many people now find that they live in a rush they never wanted. If you feel busier than you've ever been and wonder how this happened and how you can keep up the pace much longer, you are hardly alone.

Crazy? Maybe not. Dysfunctional? Yes, indeed. We all have more to do than ever before, and less time to do it. In this highly listenable audiobook, the foremost expert on ADD, Ed Hallowell, explores the society-wide phenomenon of culturally induced ADD.

Being busy may very well keep you from doing what matters most, or it may lead you to do things you deem unwise (like getting angry, for example). Being busy is a problem for almost all of us. This audiobook is about both the opportunity and the problem, where this peculiar life comes from and how to turn it to your advantage. Offering solutions to this difficult, complex problem that might work for you, most importantly, CrazyBusy may prompt you to create solutions of your own.

©2006 Edward Hallowell (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The roadmap Hallowell offers is helpful." (Publishers Weekly)

Great book for focusing on what is important

I have read many books on time management, self-improvement, project management, etc. None of them address today's world of overstimulation and reaction to things such TV, E-mail, and advertising. This book suggests ways to be able to focus on what is really important and be more in charge of your life rather than just reacting to other influences. An excellent book

Redundant Cliches

At two hours and five minutes (two-thirds of the way through the book) there still isn't any content. Just new jargon, "GemmelSchmertz"; multiple cliches, "the busier you are the busier you get"; and common maxims, "it's important to prioritize, to do what's important to you."

No new insights

I got a lot from Hallowell's earlier works on ADD, but this one was a real snore. It's okay for people who know all this but are somehow seeking affirmation, maybe some justification for dumping their overbooked schedules. But it simply wasn't anything new or practicable, and whenever the doctor inserted little vignettes of his personal life, I came to like him less and less.