The Yankee Way to Simplify Your Life is a quirky, witty and pragmatic guide to the sort of life simplification we all dream about. Jay Heinrichs and the Editors of Yankee magazine show us precisely how we can begin to pare down our lives and practice a little old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity to manage our time and lead a simpler, more productive life. The early New Englanders knew how and when to be satisfied. Rarely feeling sorry for themselves, they had a clear sense of place and how they fit into it. As Heinrichs, notes, we can benefit from their sensible attitudes, practicing a little "Yankeefication," which we can accomplish without actually moving to rural New England. In The Yankee Way to Simplify Your Life, Heinrichs offers a variety of practical and unusual ways to begin practicing Yankee ingenuity. He shows us how we can:--convert desires into goals and transform negative experiences into the seeds of personal success (much like Daniel Webster, whose childhood rickets made his forehead protrude, giving him a prominent brow that many found godlike later in his life). --improve our weaknesses and develop strengths systematically (much like Benjamin Franklin, who decided elaborate charts would lead to moral perfection; of the thirteen virtues he charted, he only failed with "Chastity," though he ended "a better and a happier man" than he would have otherwise). Jay Heinrichs, with the collaboration of the editors of Yankee magazine, has pulled together a wry, sensible, and funny guide book for taking control of your life, making prudent judgments, and changing the way you approach life for more satisfaction and more fun. This is not a book of cute, homespun, nostalgic aphorisms. The author lives in the real world and understands that the rest of us do too. As a result, this is one of the more readable self-help books I've seen in many years. It's also deeply inspiring. With straightforward language and amusing illustrative stories throughout, you can't read Heinrichs's book without feeling that you can make some significant and helpful changes in the way you look at and live your life. The Yankee Way to Simplify Your Life is a quirky, witty and pragmatic guide to the sort of life simplification we all dream about. Helping us find the time to be with our loved ones, accomplish what we want to at work, and follow our life's passions and dreams, The Yankee Way to Simplify Your Life is a guide for everyone who wants to discover exactly when and how less can be more. -- Book Description "Yankee" and "simple" go well together for a reason: Many of our forebears led complex lives and made them look simple. Daniel Webster drew crowds of fifty thousand as the nation's top trial lawyer and diplomat-and still found time for a daily nap on a park bench across the street from the White House. Runaway apprentice Benjamin Franklin juggled a printing business, electricity experiments, best-selling books, and diplomacy-while fomenting American independence. And Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin and helped turn a nation against slavery-with six children underfoot. Like these notable Yankees, how can we spend less time on boring stuff that doesn't make us healthier, wealthier, or wiser, and find more time for what we love-playing with our kids, pursuing worthy work, reading, or (like Webster) napping? How can we foment independence (our own!)? We all have a little Yankee in us. This quirky, step-by-step guide helps you take the best of all things Yankee-ingenuity, thrift, idealism, and a generous dollop of individualism-and create a life that reflects the disciplines and comforts you value. Because when it comes right down to it, the simple life looks a lot like home-the way you've always dreamed it could be. Read this book and discover... -How great Yankees spent their mornings -Why Daniel Webster's father thought he was the laziest boy he'd ever seen -Why Mark Twain hated the telephone -Why Calvin Coolidge had a happy marriage -A man who actually sold coals to Newcastle...and much more And you'll also learn how to simplify your life-who said it couldn't be fun? Jay Heinrichs made the switch from city dweller to rural New Englander through a process he calls "Yankeefication." He is editor of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine and his articles have been published in national magazines. He and his family live in Etna, New Hampshire. (From Chapter 1): The Story of Jim and Bob Some years ago Jim bought a tiny island on a lake in New Hampshire and built a log cabin on it with his own hands. He paddled a canoe to his car when the lake wasn't frozen. When it was, he skated. (When the ice was thin, he took his chances, falling in every now and then. ) Inside his cabin were a gas refrigerator, a composting toilet, a wood stove, some wooden furniture, kerosene lamps, and some books. Many people would find Jim's life extremely complicated. He couldn't just pop around the corner for groceries. The tempera