GMAT Strategy

Hi,

I am taking my GMAT end of May'12. I had started my preparation after buying the Manhattan GMAT 8 Strategy Guides ( 5 Quant and 3 Verbal).

I started with the 1st guide Number Properties. It's giving me an excellent foundation to understand and practice the basics and concepts.At the same time; its too detailed and the information is too much!

My problem is the following:

After seeing the contents of the 8 strategy guides; I feel that I need to invest almost my full time for the next 2-3 months; to complete the Manhattan 8 strategy guides.

I don't have so much time on hand since I am also working and have 2kids. I can invest daily 2 hrs on a week day and 5hrs on weekends.

In line with this :

1) Can you please advice how I should use the Manhattan GMAT 8 strategy guides so that I can focus better and optimize my preparation time.

2) My main problem is that : I feel that the content of Manhattan GMAT 8 strategy guides are too detail oriented and I am very overwhelmed. If I count all the pages in the 5 quant guides it comes to ~840 pages. Plus we also have 3 verbal guides in addition. I don't think I can complete reading such huge content.

3) Did I make a mistake by buying Manhattan GMAT 8 strategy guides? Are there any better single reference books(that gives good foundation and less content)for quant and verbal?

Please give your guidance and valuable inputs on how I should re-orient my preparation using the
Manhattan GMAT 8 strategy guides. At the same time I don't want to cut corners during my preparation.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Best Regards,
Bharath S