The Lazy Girl's Guide to Life: 100+ Ways to Hack Your Look, Love, and Work By Doing (Almost) Nothing!

by Jennifer Byrne

This collection of humorous life hacks features 100 easy, low-commitment solutions to the everyday problems of the twenty-something woman.

Do you have a lot to do but can’t seem to bring yourself to do it? The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Life can teach you how to get things done with as little effort as possible. Learn to simplify your beauty routine, keep up with your friendships, hack the dating game, and get by in the corporate world with these easy, low-commitment suggestions. You’ll find over 100 solutions to your most common problems,

-Smoothing out frosting on store-bought cupcakes so they look homemade
-Hiding dirty dishes in a soapy sink before company arrives
-Washing and styling bangs (only) to avoid the limp hair look
-Faking it as a food blogger to snag a dinner reservation
-Reading the plot summary online before a book club meeting

With lazy girl–approved hacks that range from humorous advice to quick fixes, you’ll be able to find a temporary solution to simplify your life in no time!

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2017

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers several tips for the lazy girls. It addresses personal and professional needs. Byrne uses a satirical tone to reach out to her lazy readers.

This work was light and funny, though I wish there was a better balance between fun and useful tips. The concept was excellent, but the implementation left something to be desired.

[maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

if you’re considering taking any of my reviews seriously, please let it be this one. do not, i repeat, do NOT read this book.

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ladies and Gentlemen this has to be one of the worst books I have ever read. Think if Troom Troom and Buzzfeed had a baby who liked to lie and make crap up to get out of trouble.... that is this book. Hacks that are not hacks, just lies and bad advice masked as a "great tip". Encouraging readers to lie, to deceive, to literally fake having a period to get off work early. I can't deal with the frustration of this book. Its items like these that set women back in progress in society. No one acts like this but here it is. O/10 one of the worst books I have ever read in my whole life

[Lindsey Lawntea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am the self-diagnosed Queen of Lazy. If it takes more than five minutes, I lose all interest. I practice the "5 things" daily rule to keep my house and car from resembling the public dump. I keep dry shampoo and baby wipes on deck for "no-shower days" and have on the rare occasion used Febreze to "refresh" clothing instead of doing laundry. Sometimes I cancel plans because the thought of getting ready and leaving the house is overwhelming. That's why I was hopeful that The Lazy Girl's Guide to Life would contain useful hacks. Unfortunately, it was mostly about being icky and fake rather than savvy with your time and energy. If the author had stuck to the tips about how to rush-clean your house in five minutes before guests show up or look like you just showered on days that self-care is a NO, this book would have been helpful. No one wants to read pages of fat-shaming, ghosting and fake-friending people, lying to your friends, faking orgasms, or the literal quote "most women without makeup look genuinely sick." EW.

A true lazy girl understands that just cutting the crap and being honest about what you like (instead of harboring guilty pleasures and having to hide all evidence of your reality-show-watching to be "accepted" by your friends) and what your boundaries are ("I'm not really feeling up to a social event right now, but thanks for the invite to your party!") saves all the time in the world. And if your "friends" can't deal with that, then the ultimate lazy hack is to just stop being friends with people who make you feel like you need to pretend to be someone else. Most of these "scenarios" aren't about being lazy, they're about being self-centered and uncaring about other people's feelings and needs.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

[Lindsay Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

*I received a free election copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

The Lazy Girl's Guide to Life promised 'humorous life hacks' to help out the twenty-something woman crowd. Honestly, it felt like a lot of them fell flat on being helpful. If you consider it more as a book of joke ways to help you through the day, then it may be more favourable. I took it at face value as more of a honest, address the problem and help you to solve it sort of book. Most of the solutions I didn't find would be very feasible or honest (like the synopsis says, getting reservations by pretending to be a food blogger).

Some were personally cringe-worthy: When addressing the problem of wanting to play hookie, she advocates using the "female-problem" excuse, especially to a male boss, and then proceeds to belittle men. That's not my style (some women really do need that time, and some men really aren't bothered).

Perhaps for a different scale of 'lazy girl' or someone in their earlier twenties, this would be more relevant.

[Kristi Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read all my reviews at: https://brainfartsandbooks.wordpress.com

This book started off really good with tips on what to do if you don’t have time to wash your hair, how to de-puff your puffy eyes, how to put makeup on to make your skin look better. Then it took a turn for the worst. Get abs by getting a shock treatment instead of going to the gym? Huh? Your friend calls you but you don’t want to talk so make up excuses? Umm, maybe just don’t answer the phone? Oh, and to make your place smell clean instead of cleaning it? Go buy a battery-operated fan connected to a spray bottle and fill it with air freshener. Yikes!!! For REAL??? And there are certain parts of the book with a good amount of man-bashing and football-bashing. Coming from a family with three boys who play/played football, we love football in our house. I enjoyed some of the tips in this book but when it came down to it, it felt like the author ran out of good content and just started making things up.

Thank you to Netgalley, Jennifer Byrne, and Adams Media for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Eve L-A Witherington · Rating 5 out of 5]

The solution to your lazy procrastination days is here in a book filled with ways to get you doing your tasks and having them done asap. From your hair, make-up, exercise, dealing with people in any way at there's a friendly paragraph of advice set to help you out and feel less at sea with your issues!
This book speaks to us like a girl friend would do in giving us secrets and advice with the language being humorous and full of heart to push us forward and get that stuff done!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty amusing and fun. I’m not necessarily going to use any of the advice in it (and some of the things she suggests, I already do), but it was a good way to feel kinship with other “lazy girls” out there.

There are little tidbits throughout the book that are clearly meant to be jokes about the lengths lazy people will go to to do as little work as possible, and I’m only a little bit embarrassed to say that 99% of them applied to me. But I already know I’m lazy, so they made me laugh.

[Lovely Loveday · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found this self help book to be very in helpful. I really like that there a solutions to the everyday problems a lot of women face. This book is a must have to any teenage girl or young women who is looking for the type of advice that an older sister or best friends would share. Overall, a must read for any women who wants to save time and energy with these easy ways to simplify your life.

[Tiffany W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall: 3.5/5
Cover: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Usefulness: 3/5
Appealing: 4/5

There are some pretty useful tips, but honestly, most of them are not like, SUPER helpful. However, if you are looking for humorous life hacks to get through a tough day, then it definitely worths a try.

*I received an ARC copy from NetGalley.

[Davianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever life hacks accompanied by witty humor, this book has life hacks for all of us lazy girls. While I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped it did have some useful lazy girl hacks. I kind of felt that this had a more sarcastic life hacks vibe. I recommend for lazy girls ages 18 and up. 3 stars

[Angela jansson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had hoped this would be a light, fun, comical read, but some of the suggestions in the book weren't for people who were "lazy" but seemed downright disrespectful and rude.
There's a different between maximizing time, and completely disrespecting people.

[Zee Monodee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slowly but surely went downhill after an initial great start when dishonesty and lying and plain being a b*tch was what this book advised to do. Want to read it as satire? Go ahead. Want to find real tips that will not make a douchebag of you? Don't look here.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few noted bandaid solutions here. Personally I am a little more proactive than reactive.

Cute with a tongue in cheek narrative.

[Lesa Parnham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was looking for something funny, why did I pick this after David Sedaris (what was I thinking) Some cute parts, Sending to my 24 yr old, she might think it is cute...

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mainly skimmed through this book but I found most of the hacks to be bad and stupid. I really did not like the author's tone which seemed to be a little condescending in several parts.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice idea, but very few new ideas or even "hacks" as advertised.

[Taylar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought this on sale. Very dated at this point. Maybe for a young girl this would be okay.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been better as a blog or something (not a book)- it was too hard to sit down and read through more than a couple of pages at a time. However, the writing, itself, is funny and well-done!

[Ava · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book like actually sucked. I would rather get hit in the shins with a razor scooter than read this again.

[Jezzeri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hacks to look presentable: use dry shampoo

[enyanyo · Rating 2 out of 5]

You Know You’re a Lazy Girl When . . . You feel relieved when your friends cancel plans because it means you can put on your pajamas and spend the night at home on the couch.

To be honest, I read this just to clear up my Netgalley pile. There were no groundbreaking tips here but it made for a quick read.
Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Pug · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a lazy girl, of course I was excited to read this book. While there were a handful of possibly useful tips, many of them were too complicated or preposterous or just plain stupid to bother with. And though personable and somewhat entertaining, the author at times tried too hard to be funny.

[Angelique · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lazy Girls's Guide to Life bu Jennifer Byrne is a Fun easy read full of Life hacks .. not all of them are new but it is good to be reminded at times