Enjoyable to a point. My copy was from NetGalley which is incredibly generous but there was a red number on every line. Found it very difficult to read comfortably. However the messaging was simple and doable. Thanks for the copy.

Definitely not written for someone who works in a busy law office. It really isn’t practical in the real world. Not for me.

This book has been helpful to help me refresh and reorganise my work life, especially with the change to working from home.. in the working world that is changing it gives insight and helpful tips on how to manage your office work. If you enjoyed Marie Kondo’s books on tidying up your home, this is a great addition. With insight from an occupational psychologist and using real life examples to show the theory in practice,, in an way that is enjoyable to read. I would recommend for anyone needing to get their work office, work space or home office back to being a productive space rather than a cluttered place.

Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for granting my wish for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein. I've voluntarily read and reviewed this copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

After becoming absolutely obsessed with 'Tidying Up With Marie Kondo' on Netflix, I knew I had to get my hands on Joy at Work: Organizing your Professional Life. With books like these there are always points that'll work for you and some that won't. In this case, I have to say that I wrote down some great advice points that I'll definitely will try to apply to my own work.

I work in HR so that means dealing with lots of emails, documents, dossiers, checklists and a wide variation of tasks. While reading Joy at Work, I had a lot of 'aha!' moments, where I thought: this is me or this happens to me all the time. I also found that while I'm not really a clutterer (I might have just made up this word), there are definitely some points in this book that can be really helpful to just help your brain to calm down. Because this:

"Clutter overwhelms the brain. The more stuff we have around us, the more overloaded the brain becomes. This makes it harder for us to recognize, experience and savor those things that are most important to us."

The professional workspace nowadays is a lot more demanding, onerous and complex than decades ago. A typical office worker now not only has a physical workspace but a digital one as well. Keeping these spaces tidy have proved to be daunting for many.

Thankfully, help is at hand from Marie Kondo’s new book Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life, which she co-authors with Scott Sonenshein, an organizational psychologist and business school professor at Rice University, USA.

The book offers readers more than 200 pages of practical advice about the benefits of tidying your physical and digital workspace and how to make meetings and networking less tedious and more effective. All these are based on Kondo’s so-called KonMari Method of tidying up, which, she explains, has two distinct features: it’s not only simple but effective and it uses a unique selection criterion—choosing what sparks joy. In short, the principles of home tidying is just as applicable to the office workspace.

But Kondo is quick to add that “not everything at work can be evaluated on the basis of whether it sparks joy. There are company rules to follow, superiors who make decisions that affect our work, and coworkers with whom we collaborate. Nor is tidying our physical workspace enough to make our jobs go smoothly.” It’s only when one has put every aspect of one’s work life in order, including emails, digital data, work-related tasks, and meetings, one can truly experience joy in work.

With this aim in focus, Kondo and Sonenshein separately contribute chapters that tackle every area of work that needs tidying: physical workspace, digital workspace, time, decisions, network, meetings and teams.

As a self-help book, Joy at Work has quite a lot going for it.

First off, it dishes out generous doses of doable advice often backed up by research findings (mostly in Sonenhein’s chapters), but perhaps too verbose in some places, I feel. Also much of the advice, especially on time and meeting management, isn’t really groundbreaking as it has previously been covered in other self-help books. But perhaps what’s unique about the authors’ advice is that it comes from the tidying angle.

Secondly, even though research findings are cited throughout the book, the authors do remarkably well in weaving them into the book without sounding technical. And I do like the conversational prose style.

Thirdly, anecdotal success stories from people is what makes self-help books helpful. This book is no exception as such stories abound within its pages.

That having said, I won’t say that Joy at Work sparks joy in me. At first, I was quite excited when I was told that the publisher has gifted me with a free copy of the book. I mean, who won’t want a free book from a best-selling author and Netflix star? The deal-breaker for me is the very basis of Kondo’s tidying philosophy: keep only those things that spark joy.

I certainly have no problem in finding joy in my belongings. I’m sure many do with their belongings. The problem I have is in treating things as if they are animate and alive, having their own energy, a belief which Kondo espouses in her books. It seems to me that this ‘energy’ is what sparks joy. This is not a belief I hold. And when you toss out an object when it no longer sparks joy, Kondo says, you should thank the object for having been a part of your life before binning it. Why is this a problem? It’s good to be thankful and be grateful for being blessed with good things. The problem comes when we thank objects or creation, rather than our Creator.

Nevertheless I did enjoy reading the book somewhat and I’m grateful to Bluebird, the publisher, and NetGalley for gifting me with this ARC eBook in exchange for an honest review.

The perfect book for Marie Kondo fans that want to incorporate her principles and method to the workplace. This book is about how to put in order the physical and the non-physical (digital data, time, decision-making, networks) aspects of your work. She uses examples from her clients to make her message clear and give us ideas on how to practically organise our own work life.
I took very thorough notes of her husband's method on self-reflection with specific questions (why I work/what do I hope to achieve/my ideal work life) every 2 weeks that I tend to use.
I respect Marie Kondo and her work. I find her delightful and very kind.

This was.....mixed. I really liked some of the tips and tricks to simplify work and I think some bits will be useful. I was disappointed that this book was aimed at someone who had 100% control of their time and resources - I'd be shot if I got caught doing some of these things in my job...However, if you're in the right job (not a bookseller role, I guess) I can imagine that this would be really useful. I love Marie's books but I have to say this one I felt a bit let down by.

I was so disappointed with this book. I've read all of her other books and enjoyed them all but this was lacking. I think this book only works if your job is in an office. There was just the usual spark missing for me. I ended up skipping parts and was so close to not finishing it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed the concept and the book was very simply written, but I didn't find it as motivating as her other books. Maybe because a less personal area is tackled. It is strict in approach but some things have been covered in detail in other books. However I still think it is a really good idea and there will be many people out there in the workplace who will reap many benefits from this approach. Not everything is applicable to me but I will take away some of the ideas. It is a book that should be made available within the workplace to help with general productivity. Overall a good book with universal appeal.

A guilty pleasure of mine is watching or reading anything Marie Kondo - the Netflix series I was hooked on. I thought I was already quite good with decluttering my work space both physically and digitally and finding ways to spark joy at work... I was wrong! The book follows Marie Kondo's previous works, and follows the Konmari method & sparking joy theme. There are lots of various chapters started with clearing your physical workspace which provides lots of tips to create a desk / working environment which works for you. Reading some of the chapters and stories of Marie's clients, I could see where I'd go wrong in certain workspaces (for example, when I was teaching, my classroom desk was always messy and unorganised). The chapters then move onto decluttering your digital files from everything from e-mails, phone & social contacts, calendar and files. The best tip, which I applied straight way was clearing up my desktop - two folders, one for Photos and one for Files and a desktop background that sparked joy - it took me 5 minutes to sort my overcrowded desktop and I feel so much better for a quick desktop spring clean. The final chapters of the book focus on your work life sparking joy and covers everything from meetings, networking and the structure of your working day. I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone stuck in a rut with their job read this book!

Delightful! A strange one to be reading now, at a time when we're all working at home, but returning to Marie Kondo's world is deeply comforting.

As with all Marie Kondo’s books, this one gives a feeling of deep contentment as you read. Along with a co-author, she presents a fun and delightful guide to making work joyful through tidying.

Marie advocates for tidying and keeping your physical space orderly in order to promote overall wellbeing. It’s particularly relevant to the busy lives we all lead today, and the tips and ideas are carefully woven through real life examples from her own experiences.

You have to be ready to accept the vast information and system prescribed n this book. If you are not looking at tidying up in any aspect of your life especially Work/ professional life you will be overwhelmed with the data and just the mention of tidy up will make you cringe and close the book.

I would suggest you read this book only if you are seriously looking for a change in your professional life.

So I started reading Joy at Work while I was furloughed. I needed something work-related and what better way than to learn new habits that will improve working life?

At work, I like to think that I'm quite organised, although I have a feeling that others may think that I could improve. So with that in mind I was more than ready to delve into this book.

First off, let me say that some of these tips may come across as quite obvious. But when you look at your desk and your computer really ask yourself do you implement any of these points? Work is a stressful environment even when things are going well, so why not ease that stress and make life a little bit easier for yourself?

I felt quite proud of myself within the first couple of chapters. As the first point - tidy desk - is something that I do. As I have found that on occasions when my desk has become chaotic my work productivity decreases. But also there is a lot of focus on small things that can be done to improve work life and some that I am eager to try out. 

Perhaps the only negative for this book is that there is an assumption that you the worker manage your own time and are desk / computer based. Although there are some points in my opinion that can be adapted to other work sectors. 

For me Joy at Work, was an easy read, that I could pick up as and when I wanted. It also showed me that while I think I'm super organised at work, there is more that I can do. But at least I am already on the road to success and getting the right mindset.

I absolutely adore Marie Kondo and this collaboration with Scott Sonenshein was just wonderful. Joy at Work is a very interesting read for those who are looking to be more productive in their work life and Marie Kondo's 'Konmari' method provides an easy, thoughtful way to do so. I really enjoyed the parts of this book about digital minimalism which were a collaborative effort between the two authors and felt inspired to minimise my own digital life through this.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Marie Kondo's previous book and I used it in my life, so when I saw this book, I was excited.

I enjoyed this one too. She gives very practical tips to make your work environment more pleasurable and efficient. It's definitely useful and fun to read.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

It’ll be a huge hit as the KonMari brand is so established, however I feel the market will be heavily restricted by the subject area addressed. Personally I found the sections written by the co-author Scott Sonenshein to be of more practical use however I shouldn’t knock it until I’ve tried it, so the jury is out until I get around to tidying my desk.

Marie Kondo is a household name in the world of organizing, not least because of her netflix show and the success of her first book ‘The Life-changing magic of tidying up’. For her second book she teams up with organizational psychologist Scott Sonenshein to apply her principles to the world of work. If you liked her previous book, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well and vice versa. The book encourages the same minimalism in the workplace her former one did in the home and while it can be seen as a concise refresher of her methods for the interested, it doesn’t add anything new to the conversation. All in all, a pleasant but forgettable read for people who are familiar with her work and would like to get some ideas and inspiration.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an arc in exchange for an honest review!