Smarter Living: Work - Nest - Invest - Relate - Thrive

by Karen Barrow, Tim Herrera, Karron Skog

Smart, actionable advice and life tips on how to improve your career, your home, your finances, your relationships, and your health for a happier life -- all from the popular Smarter Living section of the New York Times .

Launched in the summer of 2016, the New York Times Smarter Living section was created with the mission to help readers live better lives by publishing stories that have fallen between the news desks. Since then, the section has produced more than 250 pieces offering useful advice on a wide range of topics -- including career and finance, love and relationships, health and wellness, and more -- that have been read by more than 22 million unique readers. Smarter Living collects these very popular pieces into one handy guide, creating a trusted source that will appeal to those just starting out as well those looking for new approaches to life's problems.
The book identifies 5 key areas for building a better Work, Nest, Invest, Relate, and Thrive. Each area contains advice curated from the column on topics such as the Art of the Out of Office Reply, the Annual Home Checklist, What to Do When You're Bad at Money, How to Maintain Friendships, and How to Be Better About Stress. Each entry breaks down these sometimes overwhelming topics into manageable tasks through clear and concise guidance, easy-to-follow lists, and informative sidebars.
Thoughtfully designed with bright, four-color illustrations similar to those found in the section, Smarter Living will be a perennial reference on how to create a healthy and happy life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health

224 pages, Hardcover

Published December 3, 2019

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smarter Living is the advice section of The New York Times and this book is a collection of those articles divided into five sections - Work, Nest, Invest, Relate, and Thrive. Each article within the sections is relatively short and covers a specific topic. Regardless of your job or stage of life you should be able to find several articles that are helpful. There were several articles in each section that I learned something or got something out of it. But, there was one article in the Nest section that I very much disagreed with. The article is "Eight, Cheap, Landlord-Friendly Ways to Upgrade Your Rental." As a landlord I would be VERY unhappy if any of my tenants did some of the suggested things - install new cabinet handles, upgrade the lighting, swap out the faucet, replace the toilet (WTF why would you do that?!). We had a tenant change out light fixtures without asking and while she did put back our original lighting when she moved out that is something that could cause an electrical fire if not done properly. Same with changing a toilet if you don't know what you're doing you could really do some damage. I understand you might not like every detail of a rental, but maybe let that motivate you to save up for your own place instead of making huge changes to a house that is not yours. I was so mad after I read that article! Overall though I did like this book. It's a quick read with lots of great tips and ideas that could make your life better.

[Cathleen Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

These short articles contain some interesting information but I struggled with a lot of it.
"Four Easy (ish) Steps Towards Happiness..." "Forgive Yourself. This one is really simple."
WHAT?? Really simple. Ask anyone who has been in therapy how easy it is to forgive self and others. The research referenced in the articles made note of whether a study was done on men, women or both: but only a couple of times. Anyhooo. I didn't hate it but I am glad it was a library borrow, not purchase.

[Tess Malone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really compelling assemblage of all the best Smarter Living columns categorized by finance, health, work, relationships, etc. The organization and clean but fun design makes this well worth actually purchasing. Props to the editors for making the tone seamless and readable with losing the unique voice of some contributors.

[Greg Stoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the column in the New York Times, but for some reason reading a big collection of these felt like a slog. (it took me almost 3 months, on and off, to get through it!) There's definitely some good stuff in here, though. It also probably hurt that during a global pandemic is not a time that I'm particularly interested in self-improvement :-/

[Sarah Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun, light read for little breaks from screens. Most sections could easily be read in under 5 minutes and implemented immediately. Some of the health information was outdated and leaned toward diet culture, but overall it was a good light read.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like the People magazine edition of the New York Times. Yeah...some useful and interesting stuff, wrapped up in an easily digestible package.

[Dan Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of common sense.

[Gregg Puluka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun read! A collection of well written articles on many life topics all of which are worthy of your time. A fun book to have nearby to read in pleasurable chunks

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit general but overall useful. Have you rolled over your old 401k from an old job?

[Ara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary of essential things. Another adulting 101 book to recommend.

[Anna Sutton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that would be soooo life changing for 18-22 year old me but is just common sense at this point?

Sleep = good?!
Invest > spend?!
Sugar = bad???

Groundbreaking.

[Helen Geng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read January 2022

NYPL book