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Teen Progress Journal Bundle
How to manage mindfulness: exercises and tools to handle stress, get motivated and find your focus is a great resource. for teens or anyone, really!
Teen progress journal bundle includes 3 books:
☑ How to Master Mindfulness
☑ Set up for Success
☑ Progress Over Perfection.
Teen progress journal bundle includes 3 books:
☑ How to Master Mindfulness
☑ Set up for Success
☑ Progress Over Perfection.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 14, 2023
tl;dr 2.5/5 stars. A set of mindfulness and productivity themed booklets bundled together that I picked up from Five Below. In general they're okay, but not something I'd say you need to go out of your way to get. Plenty of online resources or other books have the same content, and many go much deeper or are more helpful/better written. But for a teen? Maybe?? It's only 5$, haha.
Not tl;dr:
I picked up this booklet set from Five Below. I wasn't sure what to expect with them, including not knowing it was aimed at teens, haha, but I figured 5$ was a safe enough bet to be worth the chance. Since it came with three unique booklets, I'll review them individually, then as a set as a whole:
How to Master Mindfulness: 3/5
Starting off, I noticed a few English mistakes. I'm not sure if English isn't the author's native language, but another pass-over from a beta reviewer or editor could've caught them. Otherwise the introduction is very welcoming, which can help you get looser and in the mood.
The book is effectively just questions and activities in relation to anxiety, gratitude, mindfulness, and goal setting. It leaves lots of writing space, which is great for those who want everything in one place, it's basically a mindfulness journal, but it's less great for people like me who hate writing in books and wish that space was taken up with more text x'D
It does feel a bit young, so had Goodreads not labeled this for teens, I would've figured it out pretty quick, haha. The questions lean more juvenile, not to say that's bad, obviously the target market is teens, but don't expect deep hard-hitting thought-provoking questions or particularly unique techniques. I think the exercises can still be a nice introduction to the topic though, and can work alongside therapy work as well.
I do see the value in this booklet, and I think my teenage self could've really benefited from having it. (Super glad to see how much more mental health positivity and resources there are nowadays for the younger generations.) That said, I think my main gripe is lack of content. It's not a bad start, so I suppose it works nicely as an introduction to mindfulness, but I would've loved a little more, especially since this booklet is only 47 pages, and the other two in this set have 10-20 more pages. (With a lot less empty space too.)
Set Up for Success 4/5
This one reads more for all-ages, not teen-specific. It describes itself as "an interactive productivity goal planner", which I think is a fair description. Much of the content is discussing tips and advice on productivity, along with getting you to answer questions, analyze your goals, as well as help you try to figure out what you really want in life. It includes info on your core values, beliefs, power questions, life vision, wish list, etc. I think there is a good variety as far as the activities go in this book, though as I explain in my nit-pick below, I think there could've been more.
It definitely gives you enough to get started with the topic of goal setting. The author combines their knowledge from other related books they've read, and drops little pieces here and there of what they found valuable from those books.
The back of the book then contains several pages for writing in your goals, having daily organizational spreads, etc. The actual 'journal' part of the book.
A nit-pick of mine, which I have with a lot of productivity advice people, is the lack of touching on the topics of mental health and breaks. More and more, I've noticed advice and tips & tricks people give in this field always lean towards getting the most output possible, no matter the cost, which can be your mental or physical health. I think this book had potential with it, in getting you to analyze what you want in life, but without the reminders of keeping ones health in mind, we can easily lean towards the more Capitalist answers to such questions. I think emphasizing the importance of time off, breaks, vacations, and relaxation cannot be overlooked. Having questions or activities related to relaxation could've been a huge asset to this book imo. ESPECIALLY since this book set is aimed at teens, they could really use this reminder as early as possible.
Otherwise it seemed pretty decent, gave me some things to think about, and I definitely wrote down some notes to remember for the future. :)
Progress Over Perfection 1.5/5
Maybe I'm too old or out-of-touch, but the writing style here felt more "trying to be hip and relatable" than actually felt 'hip and relatable'. Sentences like, "But much like cups of coffee or shades of lipstick, not all goals are created equal." ??? Felt too much like filler than substance, which made this already very short booklet (60 pages) feel padded. While the first booklet definitely read like it was aimed at teens, it felt more talking to them, than trying to appeal to them. Every paragraph here has at least one, "How do you do fellow kids?" meme moment. That just made this book a lot more annoying to read.
I'm also not big on this book speaking in gendered terms to the readers. Especially if this book is aimed at teens nowadays, whom many vary in their personal identities and are also more socially/politically aware, it felt out of place. The constant, "You go girl!" comments could've been left out, or at least balanced with other gendered/non-gendered comments.
(Side note, but just a bit gross to see Tony Robbins's name mentioned in this book. I guess it's not yet mainstream knowledge that he's a massive abusive misogynist and horrible person all around.)
All that said, the advice here on productivity, organization, goal setting, routines, etc. isn't really new or written in a way that brings anything unique to the table. Though that doesn't make it /bad/, just...a collection of information that I already know. It also doesn't help that the booklet just seems to dump lots of random advice, and it doesn't really flow. There's also a point where the author mentions to reference pages 91-101 for more information on a topic...but the booklet ends at page 64. The previous booklet I read referenced page numbers too, but all were accurate, and I've thus far had no signs of these being a shortened copies of longer books. So not sure what's going on there. There are editing mistakes here and there as well, misspelled words, or missing text: "[...] writing your to-do list the evening befo".
I definitely enjoyed the previous two booklets from this set much more. If someone is new to all of this, like a teenager might be, I could see them getting more out of this than I did. I still wish the writing had been tightened, things cleaned up, and fluff replaced with either worksheets like the previous books, or more actual information/insights. I did appreciate the mention of resting though, so at least it had that going for it.
--
Overall these books are okay. The "Set Up for Success" one being the strongest of the bunch for me. But if you look up worksheets about anxiety, goal-setting, organization, calendars, etc., you'll know doubt find plenty of free (or cheap) pintables that work just as well, or perhaps better. Similar with other books or videos on the topics. It was just five bucks for the bundle, so it wasn't a total waste, but I don't think I'd recommend them regardless. Had I known what to expect going in, I wouldn't have bought them.
Not tl;dr:
I picked up this booklet set from Five Below. I wasn't sure what to expect with them, including not knowing it was aimed at teens, haha, but I figured 5$ was a safe enough bet to be worth the chance. Since it came with three unique booklets, I'll review them individually, then as a set as a whole:
How to Master Mindfulness: 3/5
Starting off, I noticed a few English mistakes. I'm not sure if English isn't the author's native language, but another pass-over from a beta reviewer or editor could've caught them. Otherwise the introduction is very welcoming, which can help you get looser and in the mood.
The book is effectively just questions and activities in relation to anxiety, gratitude, mindfulness, and goal setting. It leaves lots of writing space, which is great for those who want everything in one place, it's basically a mindfulness journal, but it's less great for people like me who hate writing in books and wish that space was taken up with more text x'D
It does feel a bit young, so had Goodreads not labeled this for teens, I would've figured it out pretty quick, haha. The questions lean more juvenile, not to say that's bad, obviously the target market is teens, but don't expect deep hard-hitting thought-provoking questions or particularly unique techniques. I think the exercises can still be a nice introduction to the topic though, and can work alongside therapy work as well.
I do see the value in this booklet, and I think my teenage self could've really benefited from having it. (Super glad to see how much more mental health positivity and resources there are nowadays for the younger generations.) That said, I think my main gripe is lack of content. It's not a bad start, so I suppose it works nicely as an introduction to mindfulness, but I would've loved a little more, especially since this booklet is only 47 pages, and the other two in this set have 10-20 more pages. (With a lot less empty space too.)
Set Up for Success 4/5
This one reads more for all-ages, not teen-specific. It describes itself as "an interactive productivity goal planner", which I think is a fair description. Much of the content is discussing tips and advice on productivity, along with getting you to answer questions, analyze your goals, as well as help you try to figure out what you really want in life. It includes info on your core values, beliefs, power questions, life vision, wish list, etc. I think there is a good variety as far as the activities go in this book, though as I explain in my nit-pick below, I think there could've been more.
It definitely gives you enough to get started with the topic of goal setting. The author combines their knowledge from other related books they've read, and drops little pieces here and there of what they found valuable from those books.
The back of the book then contains several pages for writing in your goals, having daily organizational spreads, etc. The actual 'journal' part of the book.
A nit-pick of mine, which I have with a lot of productivity advice people, is the lack of touching on the topics of mental health and breaks. More and more, I've noticed advice and tips & tricks people give in this field always lean towards getting the most output possible, no matter the cost, which can be your mental or physical health. I think this book had potential with it, in getting you to analyze what you want in life, but without the reminders of keeping ones health in mind, we can easily lean towards the more Capitalist answers to such questions. I think emphasizing the importance of time off, breaks, vacations, and relaxation cannot be overlooked. Having questions or activities related to relaxation could've been a huge asset to this book imo. ESPECIALLY since this book set is aimed at teens, they could really use this reminder as early as possible.
Otherwise it seemed pretty decent, gave me some things to think about, and I definitely wrote down some notes to remember for the future. :)
Progress Over Perfection 1.5/5
Maybe I'm too old or out-of-touch, but the writing style here felt more "trying to be hip and relatable" than actually felt 'hip and relatable'. Sentences like, "But much like cups of coffee or shades of lipstick, not all goals are created equal." ??? Felt too much like filler than substance, which made this already very short booklet (60 pages) feel padded. While the first booklet definitely read like it was aimed at teens, it felt more talking to them, than trying to appeal to them. Every paragraph here has at least one, "How do you do fellow kids?" meme moment. That just made this book a lot more annoying to read.
I'm also not big on this book speaking in gendered terms to the readers. Especially if this book is aimed at teens nowadays, whom many vary in their personal identities and are also more socially/politically aware, it felt out of place. The constant, "You go girl!" comments could've been left out, or at least balanced with other gendered/non-gendered comments.
(Side note, but just a bit gross to see Tony Robbins's name mentioned in this book. I guess it's not yet mainstream knowledge that he's a massive abusive misogynist and horrible person all around.)
All that said, the advice here on productivity, organization, goal setting, routines, etc. isn't really new or written in a way that brings anything unique to the table. Though that doesn't make it /bad/, just...a collection of information that I already know. It also doesn't help that the booklet just seems to dump lots of random advice, and it doesn't really flow. There's also a point where the author mentions to reference pages 91-101 for more information on a topic...but the booklet ends at page 64. The previous booklet I read referenced page numbers too, but all were accurate, and I've thus far had no signs of these being a shortened copies of longer books. So not sure what's going on there. There are editing mistakes here and there as well, misspelled words, or missing text: "[...] writing your to-do list the evening befo".
I definitely enjoyed the previous two booklets from this set much more. If someone is new to all of this, like a teenager might be, I could see them getting more out of this than I did. I still wish the writing had been tightened, things cleaned up, and fluff replaced with either worksheets like the previous books, or more actual information/insights. I did appreciate the mention of resting though, so at least it had that going for it.
--
Overall these books are okay. The "Set Up for Success" one being the strongest of the bunch for me. But if you look up worksheets about anxiety, goal-setting, organization, calendars, etc., you'll know doubt find plenty of free (or cheap) pintables that work just as well, or perhaps better. Similar with other books or videos on the topics. It was just five bucks for the bundle, so it wasn't a total waste, but I don't think I'd recommend them regardless. Had I known what to expect going in, I wouldn't have bought them.
December 31, 2024
This is a bundle of three very short books. They were all okay? I would not exactly recommend them specifically as the topics covered can be easily found on most self-help sites or books. I think they could be a nice set for a teenager who feels a bit lost in life though.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews