Customer Reviews

Organizing from the Right Side of the Brain: A Creative Approach to Getting Organized

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I'll admit it. I've read practically every title on being more organized and all of them are now sitting on a bookshelf where they'll rest forever without a single idea being implemented. They just didn't make sense to me.

So, of course, I was skeptical when I read a review about this book in one of the many monthly creativity e-newsletters I receive each month. But being the bookhound that I am, I decided to give it a read. And I'm glad I did. Lee Silber has packed this book full of useful tips and tricks for us right-brained folks. He understands that for us, organizing has been about as much as fun as a trip to the dentist. He offers sound advice on piling (no, it's not a dirty word) and filing. He understands our propensity for procrastination and, instead of chiding us for it, offers help to make organizing and staying on top of our responsibilities fun. I'm now in an organizing zone, where I handle each piece of correspondence for my small business in a manner that's natural for me but that gets done. A very liberating feeling indeed to know that I can be myself and still be organized.

If you're a creative-type and want to be more organized in all aspects of your life, this is THE book for you.

I've read a LOT of advice on organizing, but none of it quite fit what *I* needed. Until now! Lee Silber's past books were helpful and great, but this one completes the cycle!

First off, what a relief to know it is ok to PILE THINGS UP. I feel completely freed from the previous linear models of organization that have fretted me for years. Within 24 hours of reading Lee's book I was motivated to start the process of redoing my office (slowly and in stages so as not to get frustrated and quit). I have already made major headway in my filing system and feel about 100 times better about myself and my work. I still have a long way to go, but I know this book will help me get to a place where I can really change my organizational patterns, negative patterns that have held me back in my creative work. I juggle a lot of things...teaching as an adjunct, writing, grad school, projects....and I already know that this system will save me tons of time spent looking for things or trying to upkeep systems of organization that dont really work for ME.

This is a MUST READ for anyone who has trouble with organizing!

This is a fantastic book and interesting read. You will not want to put this down. Finally someone who understands the creative mind and does not try to put a square peg into a round hole. Thank you Lee for being such a positive, upbeat, motivational author and writing real suggestions that are easy to implement in our lives! I liked this book so much I bought 3 of his other books: Time Management, Money Management and Self Promotion. This book is well worth reading and I began implementing organizational suggestions from the book into my life and it has made a huge difference! This is a fast read with creative organizational suggestions you can begin utilizing the day you start reading the book. I have read many organizational books and this is the only one I'd recommend highly!

When I learned I am OK being a pile maker, I was stunned, pleased and relieved. I have been told by friends and kin alike that I am very organized in what I produce, but a look at my workspace fails to create that impression. Now, I can live on in bliss knowing that my piles are OK as a means to an end.

Do I miss paying bills? I never do. Do I have a spreadsheet or any kind of document to aid me in this process? I do not. I pile the statement stubs by date (due first stuff atop the pile) and look at it daily. When I see a due date within three days for online payments or seven days for mail-in payments, I act.

When I receive statements I pile them in chronological order and flip the pile once or twice a month to actually file them. This keeps piles at a low level and helps me to know where to find something when i file it. I also keep track of orders pending, shipments undelivered, etc. Once I receive an order I verify it then file the order away. If I've sent something, I keep tracking the parcel or envelope until its delivery, then I file away the shipping receipt.

This is the tip of the iceberg as to jow I've benefitted from this awesome book, but I hope you get the idea that there are many more tips for organizing well. I will give a copy of this book to other right-brainers I know (for what I paid to prove value) and tell them all the best benefit is in following the steps once can improve self esteem. I have truely benefitted in that area most of all, but I am now stress-free organizationally.

Jim W, Castro Valley, CA

This book is filled with useful tools to help all sorts of creative types get their mess under control. But I find a deeper message, and though I am not sure the author intended this, it is there. If you are a creative, right-brained thinking individual, this book will encourage you to ask the question, "How do others see me?" If you are disorganized, have a cluttered environment with stuff falling out of variuos piles from all sorts of directions, then people do not see you as creative and imaginative, they see you as someone who can't make it through a normal day. This book encourages those of us who live in the right of the brain to take a look at how others see us and to make sure the image we want to present; positive, creative, and full of ideas, is the one we indeed communicate to the outside world.

Most organizing books can't help implying that clutter and all-around personal messiness is a sign of moral weakness or a character defect. So no matter how well-intentioned the reader is when they start the book, they can't help feeling that there's something wrong with them for needing help organizing themselves in the first place. What's refreshing about this book is that Silber suggests the opposite--that right-brained messy people are more creative, fun and engaged than the uptight left-brained people who usually make them feel so completely inadequate. It's a relief not to be judged and found morally wanting simply for being messy.

Silber's a good-natured writer who comes up with a lot of ingenious ideas for creative people to keep their lives from going out of control; he suggests using lots of post-it notes, putting things on bulletin boards or hanging them on hooks (over the door hooks are the best, in my experience). A lot of his ideas would be great for kids--maybe he could write a book just for them. They would appreciate his sense of humor and nonjudgmental attitude.

Mr. Silber's book is practical, innovative, and inspriring. This book is for those of us who read most organization and time-management books with a pangs of guilt or dread. This book is for you if you secretly know that your piles of paper can be as good as any other filing system, or if you know you could get rid of boxes of stuff if the motivation was explained in a way that made sense to you. This book makes your "piling system" feel good (and look better) and frames the whole concept of organization and cleaning in a way that will make you realize that you don't need the TLC Clean Sweep crew to hold your hand through the process - you'll actually want to do it, know where to start, and feel proud of yourself for making the effort.

Mr. Silber offers clear, practical ways of getting organized, and ideas that are inspiring to those of us who don't naturally follow linear logic and order. He never makes the reader feel inadequate or lazy, yet still inspires the reader to be more organized _on_ their_own_terms_ and in ways that feel natural and worthwhile for a creative person. Creativity and organization don't have to be mutually exclusive, and this book is a witty, innovative, enjoyable tour of how to prove that to be true in your own life.

Since reading this book 3 months ago, I've tripled my freelance income, secured a gallery showing of my art, and saved thousands in taxes, all by being more organized. I am more confident and less stressed, I love my workspace, and I no longer appologize for my work style to colleagues b/c the differences in our working styles are no longer an issue. I am very skeptical of most books that offer solutions to perpetual problems. Lee Silber's books offer specific, realistic ideas to improve your functioning, while always celebrating the quirks and advantages of right-brained thinking.

FINALLY I AM FREE AT LAST! This is the definitive book for real world organizing.

FINALLY. Someone who understands me. The left side of me craves organization but the dominant creative side of me consistently struggles with organization. I thought there was something wrong with me because I couldn't be as organized as the left brained people in my life. A friend let me borrow this book and I can't believe the change it has brought to me and my family. I can't thank Lee enough for sharing this information with the Right Brained world.

My whole life, I've been embarrassed by the "messiness" that I seem to create around me. Even though I feel and work better in a clean, uncluttered place, I find it a constant struggle to keep even the smallest spot on the counter or desktop free and clear.

I've tried lists, purchased virtually every organizing tool out there, and have even considered hiring a "professional organizer" (if only I could afford one!). And always, I've failed. I always thought it was something wrong with ME.

Then I happened upon this book, and read it cover to cover. It was like someone turned on the lights in a musty closet! I"ve always been creative, at least according to all the people who know me. Finally I understood why none of the "traditional" organizing tools (for example, filing cabinets for all my work projects) just didn't work for me!

Most importantly, this book offered concrete suggestions on how to organize in a way that seems almost effortless to me! And it was fun to read, too.

After many many years of feeling somehow "wrong", this book showed me that there was nothing "wrong" with me at all. Rather, I had just been going about a basic task in a way that made sense for many other people, but simply didn't make sense to the way my brain works.

Everyone who is creative and has trouble keeping their lives uncluttered should read this book!