Book Review: Joy at Work by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein

Regardless if you purchase the book or borrow it from the library, one of the best ways to support your favorite authors is to review their books on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein

After I completed my personal KonMari tidying event two years ago at home, I started to incorporate the KonMari method into work. I found significant improvements in all aspects of work.

“Clutter also adversely affects health. According to a study by scientists at UCLA, being surrounded by too many things increases cortisol levels, a primary stress hormone. Chronically high level of cortisol can make use more susceptible to depression, insomnia, and other mental disordered as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes.”

Joy at Work

The Joy at Work walks the reader through the traditional KonMari tidying event. It focuses on typical office clutter rather than clothes and kitchen gadgets. Marie included clarification on the number of books one should own. Please note that the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and the Marie Kondo Netflix series never stated the number of books one should own.

“Research finds that the more time you spend on email, the lower your productivity and the higher your stress levels.”

Joy at Work

One of the largest struggles that I have found at work is email. This book focuses on how disruptive email could be during the workday. It was noted that a single email interruption will take you 26 minutes to get back to the project you were working on prior to checking that single email.

Overall I found this book to have great insights, research, and suggestions to improve just about all work environments. If you are frustrated with the clutter or how your workday goes or just looking to improve your day, this is the book for you.