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Getting Organized in the Google Era: How to Get Stuff out of Your Head, Find It When You Need It, and Get It Done Right [Hardcover]

Douglas Merrill , James A. Martin
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)


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Book Description

March 16, 2010
Whether it's a faulty memory, a tendency to multitask, or difficulty managing our time, every one of us has limitations conspiring to keep us from being organized. But, as organizational guru and former Google CIO Douglas C. Merrill points out, it isn't our fault. Our brains simply aren't designed to deal with the pressures and competing demands on our attention in today's fast-paced, information-saturated, digital world. What's more, he says, many of the ways in which our society is structured are outdated, imposing additional chaos that makes us feel stressed, scattered, and disorganized.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Luckily, we have a myriad of amazing new digital tools and technologies at our fingertips to help us manage the strains on our brains and on our lives; the trick is knowing when and how to use them. This is why Merrill, who helped spearhead Google's effort to "organize the world's information," offers a wealth of tips and strategies for how to use these new tools to become more organized, efficient, and successful than ever.

But if you're looking for traditional, rigid, one-size-fits-all strategies for organization, this isn't the book for you. Instead, Merrill draws on his intimate knowledge of how the brain works to help us develop fresh, innovative, and flexible systems of organization tailored to our individual goals, constraints, and lifestyles.
    
From how to harness the amazing power of search, to how to get the most out of cloud computing, to techniques for filtering through the enormous avalanche of information that assaults us at every turn, to tips for minimizing distractions and better integrating work and life, Getting Organized in the Google Era is chock-full of practical, invaluable, and often counterintuitive advice for anyone who wants to be more organized and productive–and less stressed--in our 21st-century world.


Editorial Reviews

Review

Getting Organized in the Google Era breaks new ground…guiding you to solutions that honor your unique personality.   Smart, non-judgmental and filled with practical advice.
-Julie Morgenstern, NY Times bestselling author of Organizing from the Inside Out and Never Check Email in the Morning.
 
“Douglas Merrill has worked a near-miracle: In short, simple steps, he shows how to become powerful and confident in a world of too much info and too little time. This isn’t just the book I wished I’d written, it’s the book I need to give to people I care about.”
-Quentin Hardy, Forbes Magazine.
 
This book has been a terrific resource for a messy-desked, attention-challenged thinker of random thoughts like me!  Thanks to Douglas Merrill, I now use digital tools to find almost everything and my transition from paper to digital is no longer awkward.  This is a marvelous book, with tremendous ideas on every page. 
-Susan Scott, NY Times bestselling author of Fierce Conversations, Achieving Success at Work & in Life – One Conversation at a Time, and Fierce Leadership, A Bold Alternative to the Worst “Best” Practices of Business Today.
 
“Perhaps only Douglas Merrill could take us from Frederick Winslow Taylor to cloud computing to getting organized in one helpful read. This is the book to help you stay ahead of your own avalanche of information so that it's always accessible and useful to you.” 
- Dave Girouard, President of Enterprise Group, Google, Inc.

About the Author

DOUGLAS C MERRILL is the Founder & CEO of ZestCash - a financial services technology company committed to serving the underbanked - and was previously Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Google. Prior to Google, Douglas was a Senior Vice President at Charles Schwab and Co. and an information scientist at the RAND Corporation. He has a Ph.D. in cognitive science from Princeton University.

 

JAMES A MARTIN is a PC World technology blogger, whose articles have appeared in many publications and on web sites including Washingtonpost.com.

 


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Business (March 16, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385528175
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385528177
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #704,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Useful March 22, 2010
Format:Hardcover
For someone who has been striving to go paperless, this is a helpful book. The information on using specific applications is the best aspect of the book, although it takes awhile for this part of the book to start. I found the most useful part of the book did not start until chapter 8. The early part of the book feels padded with personal stories and vague generalizations about organization and memory.

It is mainly , though not totally, Google-centric, which is not surprising from a former high-ranking Google employee.The author does state that his recommendations of Google apps is because he truly feels they are the best and in a helpful epilogue, Stuff We Love, some other companies' products are evaluated. There is also a 21- point recap of principles that summarize the whole book.

The part of the book I found tedious was the author's heavy reliance on personal anecdotes, and I especially disliked the use of story of the illness and death of the author's girlfriend to illustrate organizational principles . He could have presented this information without resorting to this. Overall, the personal anecdotes detract rather than enhance the book, and the sprinkling of song lyrics throughout the text adds nothing and feels like the author is trying too hard. But if you skip the personal stuff, this is a useful book.
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54 of 61 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars There's way better out there... April 8, 2010
Format:Hardcover
First, in full disclosure I am a GTD nut, I follow David Allen's system pretty rigorously. That said, I do read most books I can find on organization simply because it is an interesting hobby of mine, and a lot of my acquaintances come to me for advice on getting organized.

The issues I have with the book:

1. Distracting format. I don't really need song lyrics in little blurbs to help me connect with the text better. Some of these lyrics are obscure and it is unclear how they relate to the text.

2. Way too much personal content. Look, it sounds like the author has lived through some harrowing experiences in his relationships, and that if he had been better organized, some of the pain would have been lessened. I sympathize. But the way he goes into detail seems very indulgent. I didn't pick up the book to hear about your sad stories, I wanted to hear what the former CIO of Google had to say about getting organized. Instead I get all this personal history. That's probably my biggest problem with the book.

3. The author is way to narrow minded about non-cloud based applications. For example, he is not a big fan of Outlook because it is usually hooked into Exchange, server space is expensive, and so you cannot keep years worth of data on the server. Um, why not archive your files and access your data that way? I get that the cloud will eventually be an ideal place to keep all of our stuff so that you can have everything instantly accessible and search-able, but as of now, the interoperability of the various applications just isn't where it needs to be for this to realistically work for most people.
Check out the book "Total Recall" for more on this.

4. The author is way too idealistic. The author points out a ton of perceived social problems (5 day work week, summer vacations for the kids?), no solutions, but then suggests we organize ourselves toward the ideal, even though the ideal doesn't really exist for most people. Most people work for a company that uses Exchange or Domino, and so there is a clear distinction between work and personal for most people. The author would argue that there shouldn't be; perhaps. But to insist that your systems must eradicate that line may not be realistic for most people whose primary tools they will have to use at work with company resources. How about we start with what's true now instead of using some idealized vision of the world as a launching point?

Bottom line: this book adds very little to the conversation that is unique or interesting to getting organized. Borrow it from the library if you still want to have a go.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed Messages March 25, 2010
Format:Hardcover
It's strange how a book about how to un-clutter your mind so that you can work with greater focus and efficiency is overrun with distracting sidebars and pop-up song lyrics.
The book itself is distracting to the reader. There is useful information in here for the technophobe and technophile alike (however, I assume that everything in here will be old news to someone who is already a tech-head). If you are willing to have the book open in your lap and your hands on your keyboard, you may feel emboldened to try a variety of internet based applications that can help you arrange and organize information that you are getting on the web. Through the book I was introduced to a variety of apps that I didn't know existed, and that hold out some promise. The net result, however, is that if you are someone who doesn't organically use systems and tools to organize yourself, you will find that the only thing this book has helped you to un-clutter is your wallet - of $23.00.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the top book I read
This is one of the best books I ever read. Not only in getting me understand what is going on organzing work-life hours but also getting to know what people with disabilities are... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jurij Kobal
1.0 out of 5 stars A long sales pitch... little new information
Was he just trying to get you to buy from his new music business?

The good: Read a 5 star review

The bad: The author mentions he currently is the CEO of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by michael
2.0 out of 5 stars strictly okay
It is a book that has some nice tips on organizing your schedule, especially if you have easy access to a computer/laptop. Read more
Published 18 months ago by marvin
2.0 out of 5 stars Maddeningly shallow
This book does contain some useful tips for self-organizing and for taking advantage of digital tools and 'the Cloud', but they are largely obscured by the author's annoying,... Read more
Published on February 11, 2011 by Common Tater
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on why and how to move to the cloud
Seldom do I read every page of a book, but I just did. I devoured every page of Getting Organized in the Google Era, an excellent book written by Douglas C. Read more
Published on February 8, 2011 by Duane Hallock
1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly Executed
Yes, the author's experience gave the book instant credibility. Unfortunately his work in the first four chapters was so vapid that I felt I was punishing myself by proceeding, so... Read more
Published on January 5, 2011 by Carter L. Schelling
2.0 out of 5 stars Not overly useful
Filled with personal anecdotes with few tips to garner from it, aside from using Gmail as a personal repository for information (a la Evernote). Read more
Published on November 13, 2010 by Richard J. Elgie Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Get organized -- now !
This is a very interesting and practical book. I have recommended this to several friends. The beginning chapters about how the brain works (or doesn't) help figure out how to... Read more
Published on October 22, 2010 by Rebecca Yannitell
1.0 out of 5 stars VERY disappointing
I ignored the other negative reviews and spent thirteen bucks on this loser. I deeply regret the purchase. Read more
Published on September 15, 2010 by Dan
4.0 out of 5 stars Getting Organized in the Google Era - Douglas C. Merrill (Broadway...
Man-machine. The paperless office. Information overload. Yes, the time has arrived. The future is now. Read more
Published on August 10, 2010 by BlogOnBooks
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