The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success

How to Use Your Brain's Executive Skills to Keep Up, Stay Calm, and Get Organized at Work and at Home

By: Peg Dawson EdD, Richard Guare PhD

Narrated by: Randye Kaye

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Are you smart, scattered, and struggling? You're not alone. Cutting-edge research shows that today's 24/7 wired world and the growing demands of work and family life may simply max out the part of the brain that manages complex tasks. That's especially true for those lacking strong executive skills - the core brain-based abilities needed to maintain focus, meet deadlines, and stay cool under pressure.

In this essential guide, leading experts Peg Dawson and Richard Guare help you map your own executive skills profile and take effective steps to boost your organizational skills, time management, emotional control, and nine other essential capacities.

Please note: The audio refers to supplemental materials that are currently unavailable from the provider.

©2016 The Guilford Press (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This isn't just a good book, it's a great book!" (Russell A. Barkley, author of Taking Charge of Adult ADHD)

I really like the way it's organized

they explain for each of the different aspects of executive functioning, what we know about it what it looks like a case study what the people do about it and why they're approach works. All in all the way that it's broken down, is very helpful to me in understanding different levels and aspect of executive functioning. I learned quite a lot about my own processes.

Siri? Is that you?

The content of this book is wonderful. I bought the hardcopy originally and wanted to listen to it as well to reinforce the reading. It’s a tough listen. The emotionless reading of this book makes it a slog and it need not be. I often listened to this and thought of the response Siri gives when you ask her to recite the words to Bohemian Rhapsody. The words are there, but they are mechanical.

Peg Dawson incorporates research/ practical.

Dr. Dawson has figured out how to help students and adults improve their executive skill functioning in an organized and well thought-out system.

Very helpful on a practical level

This is a really great, comprehensive resource that helps you identify executive skill weaknesses and strengths in your kids and yourself. They have an executive functioning self assessment for you and your child/teen. You can download or print this off from http://www.smartbutscatteredkids.com/media/resources/print-articles/. Gives you skills to help yourself and your children become better with time management, emotional control, sustained attention, impulse control, planning prioritization and so much more. Really helpful.

Well thought out, detailed, but not over-technical.

I appreciated the way the different executive functions were presented, then strengthening exercise or methods given. This is a special gift to those of us with ADHD.

Helpful

It’s pretty well organized and helpful when it comes to figuring out your strengths and weaknesses outlined in the book. It’s definitely helpful in giving examples and ideas for how to deal with each weakness as well.

The only thing I hated was the repetitiveness of the later chapters going over the weaknesses and how to change them. After steps 1-3, the “what it looks like in practice” and “action plan” sections were both exactly the same thing in all the chapters and it was kind of annoying that it wasn’t unique for each one.

I only went through the later chapters of my own weaknesses, but I can’t imagine reading through the entire book, because of that.

Overall though I will be implementing some of the things I learned in the book, especially with in regards to working memory and flexibility which are my main two weakness points.

Where are the worksheets?

Would you listen to The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success again? Why?

Yes--this is a great book with good suggestions, but the constant reference to the downloadable worksheets is frustrating. As an Audible purchase, it seems like there's only half of the book available.

Worksheets are on website

Guilford.com or nyspta.org
Narrator is good but speaks kind slow. Otherwise a very helpful book

Improvement for life skills needed by everyone

This books highlights the main 12 skills that we use in everyday home and work life. It’s starts with a questionnaire that (if you are honest with yourself while completing the questionnaire) will tell you what skills are your strengths and which are your weaknesses. It also directs you to do one for work and one for home. Most of us react differently to situations at work than we would at home.

Let me start by saying that before reading this book, I thought I had a weakness in a few different skills. It turned out it was a completely different set of skills that were my weakness. Some skills are even embodied in others. A few are even split in two where a different set of skills are used for each. It was a complete eye-opening read for me. I learned a lot about myself (and other people) and why I was struggling in certain areas and was so good in other areas. So make sure you read/listen to every chapter. Even if you aren’t struggling with that particular skill, there are things to learn about it. You will also learn a lot about other people, be able to identify skills they might be struggling in and adjust how you react to them.

But with that being said, the book gave great explanation and lots of strategies and implementation steps to help create plans to improve in all the skills. There are action plan forms in the book that you can download from their website so you can print them as needed.

Each chapter is laid out in the same order and gives real world examples to connect the information provided in the chapter. There are lots of additional resources listed like books, websites and apps to assist with that skill.

The Smart But Scattered Guide to Success version is for adults. However, they have written other smart but scattered books specifically for school aged children and teens. I would have loved to have these books when I was raising my kids to be adults. A must for every family.

Online Forms are Not Online

Where are the forms? The websites the book refers to do not exist. It would probably be much easier to follow.
Also I’m reading this because I “Might Have A Serious Case Of ADHD”, (or so they say), but ironically I’m really having a tough time following the readers tone.