Work Smarter / Will Collins

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Non-Fiction

Approximate word count: 5-6,000 words

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

See book description.

Description:

“I was a failed entrepreneur for most of my life, someone who usually surfs the internet randomly, which turned out bad for my personal and business life. Dreams of fame and fortune were harbored, of the prestige of being a successful entrepreneur that everyone knew and respected.

None of that happened.

Until a few years ago that was.

I discovered resources that turned me from struggling entrepreneur into a successful and focused one.

In ‘work smarter’ you'll discover the best productivity hacks and tools.

These apps are all recommended by daily entrepreneurs who have used it to achieve success.”

Appraisal:

I like the concept of this short book. The author interviewed about 25 successful entrepreneurs about the tools they use to manage their work and he found many used the same productivity apps which he discusses to help the reader Work Smarter. The book is short on purpose. As the author puts it:

This book is straight to the point. I didn’t see the point in drowning you into [sic] unnecessary details.

That quote segues nicely into the first of many complaints I had. The book was full of typos, grammar errors, and convoluted sentences. It was bad. In fact, it was atrocious. The number of these kinds of errors in this work of less than 6,000 words was two to three times what I’d find unacceptable in an 80,000 word novel. (Personally I’d find the frequency of errors here unacceptable in a Facebook comment.) These ran the gamut from the minor (the example above) to significant (one app was called Dashlane twice, then Dashboard two more times). All affected the readability.

My second complaint is with structure. The first major section has the heading “Necessary” and presumably lists the apps that are most likely to be of value to most people. The two apps listed are discussed briefly in this section, but then keep popping up in other sections that cover other apps with functionality that overlaps these two. It left me wondering why they were necessary if the other apps accomplished the same thing or, if the “necessary apps” were the best, why list the others?

Some apps were explained reasonably well, even if just in a short paragraph or two, in keeping with the theme of not wasting your time. Others left me wondering. For example, one app listed is Google Hangout. The entire explanation is “Google hangout is the replacement for Google talk.” If you’re unfamiliar with either app, is that going to inspire you to dig deeper?

Last, one important piece of information was missing in the section for many apps, where do you go for more information or to obtain the app? If an app that runs on a smartphone (what platform an app is aimed at isn’t always clear), then you might reasonably surmise you can find out more and purchase them from the Google Play store for android devices and Apple’s app store for iOS devices. But for desktop or laptop computer apps, you’re left to your own devices.

The one saving grace which I’ve rewarded by giving a sympathy star in addition to the minimum of one is that Work Smart did point me to a couple apps I hadn’t heard of that appeared worth checking out. Let’s hope Google knows about them.

Format/Typo Issues:

Numerous typos, grammar issues, and convoluted sentences.

Rating: ** Two Stars