Edit Your Life: A Handbook for Living with Intention in a Messy World

by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

An inspiring guide to focusing on what matters most in life—and hitting delete on what doesn’t.

Life is noisier, messier, and more complicated than ever. In our quest to keep up, we can lose sight of what we care about most, and instead try to do it all—with mixed results.
In this beautiful call to examine and edit our lives, writer Elisabeth Sharp McKetta shares eight simple ways to cut through the clutter, drama, and overwhelm of modern life to live with more intention and joy. Inspired by her own experiments with reprioritizing, tiny house living, and finding the right balance of work and family time, Edit Your Life brings together personal narrative and practical takeaway, with inspiring results.
Whether you’re pivoting, downsizing, relocating, or just ready to have more time and energy for the people and activities you love most, this engaging and practical guide will bring you on a journey of exploration and reflection—and point you toward the life you truly want to live.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Audiobook

224 pages, Hardcover

Published March 14, 2023

About the author

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta is a novelist, poet, biographer, teacher, and a mother of two. With a PhD on the intersections between fairy tales and autobiography, as well as a seven-year streak of writing weekly poems for strangers, she teaches writing for Harvard Extension School and Oxford Department for Continuing Education. She has authored ten books and co-edited one anthology. Her poetry and short work have been published widely, including in The Poetry Review and Real Simple; her work with myth and memoir has been spotlighted in Harvard Magazine. Her TEDx talk, “Edit Your Life like a Poem,” led to a personal growth guide to be published by Penguin Random House. Elisabeth lives with her sea-swimmer husband and her children.

Reviews

[Mariana de los Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

La portada de este libro me llamó la atención simplemente por el hecho de pensar que nuevamente el concepto de 'edición' se puede aplicar a métodos de crear/organizar una vida o el personaje de nuestra propia serie. Me gustó escucharlo en la voz de Isa Alonso y me quedo con ciertos ejercicios que ofrece la autora, Elisabeth Sharp, y con su experiencia como editora de libros aplicada a la organización.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m biased, because Dr. McKetta was one of my professors, and is currently one of my writing mentors. But when you read this book, you’ll feel that she is your teacher too.

McKetta’s advice is instructive without making assumptions. This is no self-help book; she doesn’t prescribe blanket strategies for living a better life. Instead, she presents the reader with her own theory of editing, her own principles that have and continue to bring her peace. Clearly, it’s working, because anyone that knows her knows that she blossoms. In Edit Your Life, she knows that the stories she gives are her own. She also knows that her own stories may just provide a model for how to implement these principles—she very much wants the reader to develop their own rituals around the life edit.

This book compelled me to edit my life. It’s also given me wherewithal to know when I’m un-editing my life, when I’m taking from the green instead of adding to it (a Mcketta expression). I feel that I can actually sustain the practices that she’s suggesting. Only a writer like her could make such an impression.

[Margaret Carmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not normally a self-help book reader, but this is a great addition to anyone's shelf.

Edit Your Life is a short guide to learning how to examine your own life, lean into what you're good at and build your life around what matters to you instead of what feels like should be important. She goes through multiple steps, guiding the reader examining their own life, editing it and then enjoying it, despite the ups and downs. Each chapter is laced with examples of how McKetta's family made changes to rebuild their routines by moving into a tiny home and how she structures her days around changes of seasons and what simply feels good, leaving room for obligations to be met and healthy relationships along the way. There are writing prompts in each section to help you take stock of your own priorities and focus your thinking.

My favorite bits of wisdom here was the importance of offering people choices in how you can help, instead of just leaping into something without considering their needs. I find myself doing this frequently with my partner and it helps our dynamic considerably. I also loved how she talked about the importance of not getting overly locked into planning every day to allow for spontaneity, while also finding ways to structure and plan for your life in general. I find people are often leaning hard into no planning or TOO MUCH PLANNING (I'm the latter type) and this gives a genuinely useful framework for building the steps for a life you want, while also not sucking all the fun and joy out of it.

The one thing about these books though that I can't help but always criticize is they tend to be built around this idea that people have support systems in their life. You can choose and choose and choose and edit and edit and edit your life all you want, but at the end of the day if you're parenting solo or with an unsupportive or unavailable partner or without any family or friend support, raising children and keeping your house and all of these other things is not as seamlessly malleable as this book suggests. I always find myself wanting to read this type of survival guide written by someone who is at their absolute breaking point with few options, as opposed to people with all of these options, even if they might not realize it exactly.

I'm definitely going to refer back to this in the years to come and it helped me frame some good ideas for thinking about my day to day life.

[Kate M. Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elisabeth was my professor at Harvard Extension School. I always loved her optimistic and refreshing perspective on writing and life, and I was thrilled to see her apply it to the concept of life editing.

Essentially, she explains the idea of editing your life as though it is a piece of writing, by considering how it is and how you want it to be. She provides practical, as well as more imaginative, tips for pivoting towards the life you want and letting go of what no longer serves you.

As with all self help books, the content isn’t 100% new. But what is new and special is Elisabeth’s unique perspective, the vulnerability she shows by sharing her own life edits and mistakes, and the kind, positive, and enthusiastic voice that shines through in every word.

Reading this book feels like having a cup of coffee with an old friend, who knows you dearly and just wants you to have the best life possible.

Recommended for fans of self help and especially for writers, as it is written a bit through that lens.

[Melissa]

First book of 2024 and my first DNF of the year. Unfortunately, I'm not finding much that I haven't read or heard elsewhere. It feels self-explanatory, indulgent, and privileged.

The premise is that you can take the principles of editing (i.e., written work) and apply them to eliminating what is extraneous, unimportant or unfulfilling in your life. An intriguing idea, but the author goes on to discuss how she examined her life as a busy working-from-home mom of two (go on a reflective retreat!) and identified solutions to obstacles in the way of living more meaningfully. One of their solutions--moving their family of 4 to their 275 sq. ft backyard shed and renting out their large home--isn't practical or realistic for most people without support systems or resources. While I appreciate that the author encourages adapting these concepts and strategies in ways that accommodate one's actual life (instead of a three-day solo retreat, maybe house-sit for a friend or take a few hours in the afternoon), I can tell that, for me, this will be a frustrating and unsatisfying read.

[Naturalbri (Bri Wignall) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am definitely in the realm of not having enough time, everything from my house to my mind becoming cluttered and just feeling flustered that there is way too much going on for what little time I have in the day. This book takes a look at everything we know is becoming too much, just overwhelming and then stopping to focus on how we can take all of that mess, that brain frying clutter and just tame it. How can we calm the storm and give ourselves more of a chance to go through the day smooth and allow ourselves to enjoy a bit more. I really found the book informative, interesting a real pleasure to read. It gave me hints and tips to look at areas in my life and find a way to take back control from the mess. I really liked it and enjoyed reading the book. It is one I definitely recommend.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta is a cultivator of a flourishing life. Like diverse plants in a garden, areas of life need attention in varied ways and changing seasons. From work to play, solitude to socializing, mundane tasks to wild creativity, life can be edited to balance the soil, fortify roots, and promote luscious growth. As I read this book, I went through two highlighters, began making much-needed edits in several areas of my life, and texted countless passages to friends and family. This is not a book to put on the shelf, but one to keep close as life continues to evolve. (For audiobook lovers, McKetta reads in her encouraging, joyful voice and makes you feel like you're talking over coffee with a best friend.)

[Ari Yii · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro que me ayudó mucho a tomar perspectiva de lo que hago en el día a día y como estoy diseñando mi vida.

Es una obra que me ha ayudado a tomar decisión y acción para transformar mis prioridades y darme espacios sagrados para mí y mis proyectos.

En definitiva todos tenemos que aprender a editar nuestra vida, porque es un proceso e incluso un juego constante que puede ser tan interesante como queramos.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. I enjoy books about organization and this was enjoyable to read. It made me reflect on my own life and made me realize that I had done a major edit of my own life five years ago and that my life had greatly benefited from that.

[Yana Orekhova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely and heartwarming.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

good and fun, a good entry I think into self imrpvement books and this being writer by a writer and reading it as a writer really feels like it resonates a lot

[Lily Heron · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely read, interesting throughout and really beautifully written.

[Rachel Nazareth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really had high expectations for this book.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, it has some really practical things that you can do to enhance your life. It really gets you thinking about what is important and what you want to do going forward.

I really enjoyed reading about Elisabeth's 'shed' and the habits that her and her family have. I found this helpful to see the 'exercises' in reality and it is helpful to give you a guide on how to do them.

I think my initial instant takeaways from the book were looking at my superpower and coming up with a daily minimum. I will definitely be referring back to the book and be completing all of the tasks within it.