Organizing for the Creative Person : Right-Brain Styles for Conquering Clutter, Mastering Time, and Reaching YourGoals

Rating:
Summary: If you're right-brained, this book works
Review: I have read this book about twice now and I believe the authors completely understand right-brained (RB) people and wrote the book in a way that works well for RB's. My belief is that the people that gave this less of a review were perhaps not as much in the RB mode as they suspected. The book uses diagrams, formatting, summaries, examples and specific advice very well, making it easy for us RBs to understand why we're different and how to make the most of it.

Rating:
Summary: If you're right-brained, this book works
Review: I have read this book about twice now and I believe the authors completely understand right-brained (RB) people and wrote the book in a way that works well for RB's. My belief is that the people that gave this less of a review were perhaps not as much in the RB mode as they suspected. The book uses diagrams, formatting, summaries, examples and specific advice very well, making it easy for us RBs to understand why we're different and how to make the most of it.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't stop laughing and/or being grateful !!!
Review: I read this book while on jury duty. We spent a lot of time in the hall on hard benches. I regularly startled my fellow jurors by slapping my open hand on the wooden bench, and laughing out loud. Yes, I am now diagnosed a "creative/right brainer" -- especially when it comes to organizing. I have a shelf of books on this topic; I have hired professionals; I have two assistants, and only now realize why none of them understands me. THEY ARE ALL LEFT-BRAIN ANALYICAL ORGANIZERS! I found dozens of useful tips and suggestions. The biggest thing I was left with is this: THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH ME. All other organizing books are written for left-brain thinkers. Thanks to Dorothy and Dolores for finally writing a book for me. Get it, keep it, and tell all your friends who need this. You know who they are.

Rating:
Summary: Not very impressive
Review: Quite disappointed, actually. I found the book to be repetitive on a lot of topics ("Same mopwater ~ different bucket"). The book did not offer any solid way of organizing my studio, office, nor home. I found it to be a book on accepting the way you are as being "different ~ and that's OK". I didn't need a self-help book on "loving myself"...I needed concrete ideas of what to do with the abundance of stuff in the studio. I do not want to simply put a cloth over my mess and ask my family to put up with my "right-brain" a little longer.
I am a professional artist and I find I am far more organized than this book could ever hope to make me. I could never put up with some of the "few" organizing styles in this book and I consider myself the right-brained creative type.
In conclusion, I would highly recommend the book "Confessions of an Organized Homemaker" as an alternative. I've read it before (borrowed from a friend) and was thoroughly impressed, motivated, and inspired. "Confessions" gave the reader actual means of putting away your things in an organized & convenient fashion. I will be ordering "Confessions" this week.

Rating:
Summary: A comfort and a guiding hand for creative types.
Review: This book is a comfort and a guiding hand for us "creative types." It first grants permission to be the way we are, which is a relief, and is the first step toward taking control of our surroundings. Excellent insights into the idiosynchrasies of the right-brainer, and practical suggestions for handling many organizational problems which interfere with the creative process. Helps cure that overwhelmed feeling and get you going. Worth its weight in gold!

Rating:
Summary: For the creative person who feels hopelessly disorganized.
Review: This book is a life-saver for a creative person who can't find things, always feels overwhelmed, and has never been able to "get organized." The authors explain how creative people, who frequently are right-brain dominant, perceive and organize their world differently from left-brain dominant people. In other words, you're not necessarily *dis*organized, but you are *differently* organized. Just understanding the difference takes a huge load off your mind. Then they proceed to give very useful and practical advice for how to get and stay organized--*your* way

Rating:
Summary: Hope for the organizationally challenged
Review: This is a wonderful book that hones right into the heart of the causes of the organizational challenges of many creative people. I thought I was a hopeless case until I read this book. It gave me so much hope and helped me to identify the way my thinking style affected my disorganization. It helped me to find new ways to overcome my lack of order and I am now much more confident and organized.

It's rather amusing that the few negative customer reviews actually prove one of the major points of this book: That left brain people have little understanding of the difficulties experienced by creative people, and, because of their analytical (and therefore judgmental) inclinations, they tend to be critical and think that there should be only hard and fast organizing rules, rather than methods that can be molded to individual needs.

This book is a classic, on book shelves for over ten years, and is the organizing "bible" of creative people. Because I personally know a professional organizer, I know that it was chosen by the National Association of Professional Organizers as a study guide for it's members and it is still regularly recommended by many professional organizers to their clients.

My recommendation: If you are the creative type and experience on-going organizational problems, buy this book! You will see yourself on every page. It changed my life, and it could change yours!



Rating:
Summary: Too cutesy for my taste
Review: This tape gives you solid, realistic and workable methods to easing yourself into the habit of being organized. It really helped me get motivated to do all the stuff I hate to do.

Rating:
Summary: An Alternative to The Closet
Review: We've maintained lots of closets over the years. Closets with drawers, closets with hanging space, closets with shevles. But somehow, they just never worked for us. And we never understood why, until we read this book. Not only does the book explain why (because the seemingly simple act of opening a door is actually a most signifcant block for a right-brained person), but the book also provides the complete solution, in words and in drawings. Fortunately, we picked up a copy of this book as we built our new house in Israel. We had originally scheduled a meeting with our carpenter to design our bedroom, which would have been one more futile attempt to design a series of closets which we would never use. Instead, inspired by the drawing on page 137 of the ideal right-brained bedroom, we cancelled the meeting with the carpenter, and built the bedroom according to the book's open-shelving "multiple doorknob" approach. Not only did we save plenty of money, but we ended up with an organizational system which we both use and enjoy. And although the authors warn that the doorknob system may be "socially unacceptable", we have both had great fun and received enthusiastic responses showing off the bedroom to our (many) right-brained friends!

Rating:
Summary: Not Very Creative
Review: What an incredible disappointment!! I have to agree with the point of view of one other reader...this book has absolutely nothing new to tell anyone about organizing... the writers try to pretend there is a different spin to their method, but it just ain't true! I read the book hoping that someone would give me some refreshing ideas that would enable me to throw away my daytimer forever. Imagine my suprise when we get down to the nitty-gritty and up pops the picture of a daytimer-type organizer page, as well as other materials taught at Franklin Covey seminars!! Hey, if that had worked I would not have picked up this book! Bottom line I got from the book: creative people have to learn to stop and focus some of the time. Consider yourself right-brained in a left-brained world and do the best you can. There is nothing new under the sun!