NetGalley Review | Joy At Work by Marie Kondo

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo & Scott Sorenshein

Published: April 7, 2020

Publisher: Little Brown, Spark

Pages: 256

Received: from publisher via NetGalley

Find Online: Goodreads

Marie Kondo, author of the worldwide #1 bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and organizational psychologist Scott Sonenshein team up to bring joy to work.

The workplace is a magnet for clutter and mess. Who hasn't felt drained by wasteful meetings, disorganized papers, endless emails, and unnecessary tasks? These are the modern-day hazards of working, and they can slowly drain the joy from work, limit our chances of career progress, and undermine our well-being.

There is another way.

In Joy at Work, bestselling author and Netflix star Marie Kondo and Rice University business professor Scott Sonenshein offer stories, studies, and strategies to help you eliminate clutter and make space for work that really matters.

Using the world-renowned KonMari Method and cutting-edge research, Joy at Work will help you overcome the challenges of workplace mess and enjoy the productivity, success, and happiness that comes with a tidy desk and mind. 

Okay this is an extremely early review, but I just needed to get my thoughts down ASAP. I have gone through a lot of changes are work recently and am in a new role. I had been preparing for this role by reading books on leadership and coaching, but hadn't found anything about organizing my work. This came at the perfect time for me. I need to make sure I am organized as I am learning quite a lot of new processes at work and need to make sure I am maximizing my time every day. I want to ensure I create a routine, an organized space and ensure that I am happy at work every day and not stressed out. This book goes over a lot of topics that are more than just tidying up clutter. It speaks about organization of clutter (both physical and virtual), using time wisely, decision-making, networking and how to spark joy in your career. I fee like it can help someone with some work/life balance as well.

So first thing I realized is that Marie is right about sorting items by categories which included things that spark joy, things that are functional and things that lead to future joy. It's honestly so simple when you think of it this way. And I am using these criteria when setting up my new workspace, getting myself into a new routine and organizing my digital data on my work computer.

One of the most exciting things I read about was making your job more joyful, allowing yourself to say no, and adding a daily joy to yourself outside of work! I realize that blogging is a thing that I truly enjoy and have been making the effort to find time a few times a week to indulge in it. It makes me happy to put content together and I've added in being more present on Instagram as a new thing that brings me joy.

I could go on and on about this book, but honestly, if you are looking for a little help in your work life. If you need to get organized or figure out balance at work then this book might just have what you need to focus on what needs to be done.

I read this via a NetGalley eARC, but plan to buy myself a copy so that I can annotate it and have it handy as I navigate my way through my new managerial role at work. Perhaps once my order comes in, I will post an Instagram photo of it with my annotations!

Have you read anything by Marie Kondo? Are you planning to read Joy at Work? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.