Customer Reviews

Organizing for Your Brain Type: Finding Your Own Solution to Managing Time, Paper, and Stuff

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the reviews say the book consists of looking at how we organize our life using 4 brains types. There is the Prioritizing type, the Maintaining type, the Innovating type, and Harmonizing type. Overall I found the book well written and enjoyed how the author looked at how each brain type functions overall. She talks about ways each brain type can: use a calendar more effectively, use storage space, deal with paperwork, organize your home and office space, and organize your environment. Also, at the end of each brain type chapter, she gives a nice bullet point summary of key points so that you don't have to go back and re-read in detail.

My only problem with the book was the testing method in helping to find your brain type. The test was 50 questions (too long) and many of the questions where things I had problems relating to. For example some questions asked:

You are reminded about going to the opera when:
1. Check your planner a day in advance
2. Notice post-its over the house
3. Friends shows up at door step
4. Your Palm Pilot's alarm goes off 15 before you are to leave

While Typing, you notice your dog is looking at you with those huge hungry eyes you:
1. Tell him you feed him at the same time
2. Your dog never looks hungry there food on the floor all the times
3. Throw him your half-eaten doughnut form breakfast this morning
4. Tell him to lie down and wait until you are done

You normally try to avoid conversations that:
1. Involve the future
2. That go into great detail
3. That deal with figures
4. That is too touch-feely


For me these questions (and some others) depend on situations. I may talk touch-feely at one time, and depending on the day or my mood, I might feed the dog now or wait. The test would have been more effective had it dealt with typical situations. My guess is she was trying to offer something different than the other books out there on organization that gives tests using every day situations, but her test did not work for me. Also, by her own admission, she says some of the test questions "seemed a little over the top" and what I found was because some of the questions were over the top, I scored in a different brain type category (Prioritizing style) when after reading the other brain types, I am clearly a Maintaining type.

My only suggestion would be is to take the test, but make sure you read the other types to see if they don't fit you better. The the book is arranged in a way that you can scan the other brain types easily. Overall the book is very good and offers good tips and info.

Like so many people, I have read plenty of organizing books. I try to implement the recommended systems, but, if I even get the system in place, I can't sustain an uncluttered environment.

In Lanna Nakone's book, I learned that traditional systems of organizing only work for people who are already natural organizers. Only by understanding the way your own brain works, can you begin to implement organizational systems that will last for you. Read this book first, then you can sift through other organizers' advice and select what will ultimately work for you.

Raleigh area residents can find free support using Ms. Nakone's system at http://declutter.meetup.com/107.

I am very busy, so I do not have a lot of spare time to read. I liked how this book was concise and practical, and yet still fun to read. It is organized well so that I could quickly get the information I needed to help get myself organized, and then go back later and read about other types.

I especially liked the section which showed how people with other brain types viewed people with my type; it was uncanny!

I liked it enough to order two more copies for friends.

I found the ideas in the beginning of this book to be interesting -- and obvious. Of course everyone is not the same and needs different organizing techniques. It is a nice idea to have different ways of organizing in one book, geared towards the different ways people think.

However -- the quiz to figure out what "type" you are had some flaws. The answers are exaggerated to make it easy to select "your" answer, but some of the questions are things that aren't relevant (to me), and some of the answers didn't fit me at all. Once one type became clear, I found I fit around half of the qualities for that type.

Given the point that we are not all one type, I would have expected more information on how each person may have more than one style. This was not addressed at all.

While this books has some new ideas, I found most of them fell in the category "You are different, you don't have to do things like <them>." There are different suggestions for each Style, but I found them too general.

In addition, there is a "sensory" quiz, to let you know if you are a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic person. I found this interesting as well, but did not get conclusive results on the quiz. The suggestions for the sensory preference within each style were, again, interesting.

All in all, I will use some of the ideas that I read in this book, in particular, some of the ideas behind why my "style" likes and dislikes certain things. I will mix that in to all of the other information I have read about organization and hopefully continue to develop something effective for me. I would not recommend purchasing this book, though, at least not without a dry run at the library. In addition to feeling it was incomplete, the writing style was sometimes irritating, with stories that weren't always on topic. I also think the author is of the "Harmonizing Style", as the way she wrote that chapter is markedly different from the others. Although she says each style is just the way certain people do things, no one style is better than any other, the treatment of Priorizing Style people isn't as kind in the end chapter about working with different styles.

One of the best organizing books for a chronically messy person! Actually, I'm not messy...I just do things differently. Easy to understand, easy to follow.

I laughed and smiled a lot when reading this book. I felt like somebody finally understood me. I am a self-employed financial planner with 2 full-time staff. I got by when I was the only person working here. Now I have staff who are completely different. What once was workable (not great but workable) for me was frustrating for everybody. I have made significant changes in my office and in my organizational structure based on the book's recommendations. The book has paid for itself at least a 1000 times over and the benefits will keep on coming. The best part of this book was learning to "translate" my "brain type" needs to my staff and their needs to me.

Finally, someone gets it. Not everyone "organizes" the same way, because we don't think or operate the same way. Everyone needs a friend like Martha Stewart, but there are few of us who can organize our homes and offices the way she does. It takes too much energy, and you can't find anything because it's just not how you think. "Being organized means it takes less than 5 minutes to find what you're looking for." YES!!!

One of the best parts of this book is at the back, where she makes suggestions for how different people can live and work together.

I had borrowed this book from the library, initially, but loved it so much I had to find a copy of my own.

The book, Organizing Your Brain Type, is an excellent resource for any work situation involving collaboration. We did a book study and a follow-up using activities to help us understand the personalities of those in our office and how we can work together more effectively. Great idea.

As a creative, organizationally-challenged person, I found the advice in this book simple to implement, effective, and very practical.

You take a quiz to determine your personality type of about 50 questions, and then the advice is tailored for your personality assessment.

After many years of being frustrated by working "against" my personality type with all kinds of systems, it is a relief to have effective coaching that works "with your strengths.

The style is down-to-earth, and it won't take more than a couple of hours for you to take advantage of this excellent coaching. I wish I'd read this 30 years ago.

RECOMMENDED.

It helped me think a bit "outside the box" in regards to organizing with my spouse in mind. I had many "Aha!" moments.