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Summary: Perpetual clutter... now I see the light...
Review: While I am still young, I have lived most of my life in a perpetual state of disorganization. For the first time in my life, I feel that I have a grip on my life. This book does not teach useless organization tips, it teaches you how to be organized from within--- a completely new concept to me. Julie Morgenstern's book is for those who seriously want to become organized, not for those who are looking for a quick way to fight clutter temporarily. Her methods are long term, and lasting. Julie makes clear and precise arguments as to why someone needs help for organization. Her arguments allow you to understand what is holding you back, and exactly what you need to do to resolve the issues that are interrupting your organization. I will give an update in about a year to let you know how the program works, but thus far, it's been a life saver. I will get Julie's Time Management book soon.
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Summary: It sure worked for me!
Review: I had great difficulty with this book, which I loved nonetheless, and found immensely useful. I guess the reason I had such a hard time is because Jule's approach is so authentic and so correct, and for me, so difficult. It's not that I'm not introspective. I am! It's just that it's hard for me to confront the reasons for my disorganizedness, and even more difficult to determine what my goals might be. What I had hoped for was a quick nostrum, a summary of stuff to do or buy right away, like in the last 3 pages of Alan Lakein's "How to get control of your time and your life." Here are one hundred concrete suggestions, since you don't have time to read the whole book. What I got instead from Julie Morgenstern was the need to analyze. Filled with fear, I skipped straight to chapter 5, "How to get it done," and found one of the most successful acronyms I've ever encountered: SPACE. It stands for Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize and Equalize. Note the order. Important! You DON'T start by throwing things away or buying containers. You sort, seeing what you have. Thanks, Julie! Now, knowing I don't have to begin by throwing things away, getting organized is not so threatening after all. I know this is not a very complete review, it doesn't even come close to doing justice to this excellent book, which I haven't even finished working through yet. But I hope you'll find it helpful anyway. But if you have further questions you can always go look at Julie Morgenstern's website, juliemorgenstern dot com, which is quite generous in its helpful detail.
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Summary: Finally! Organizing ideas that work with your personality!
Review: Most articles and books on getting organized offer great solutions but ignore the problems that got you there. This book gets to the heart of the psychological "quirks" and common mistakes each of us make and helps you work with those quirks to find solutions that are just right for you. For each area you want organized, she asks you "what's working", "what's not working", "what items are essential", and "why do you want to get organized" and "what's causing the problems". She offers plans to "strategize" and "attack" while listing common pitfalls and insider tips. She also provides estimates for how long it may take for each attack step (sort, purge, assign a home, containerize, equalize), which really helped me set expectations for getting the mess under control and maintaining it. The "what questions to ask before buying that next organizing container, gizmo or gadget" section is a real money-saver! Bottom line - You'll learn how to design an organizing plan based on your goals, your natural habits, and your psychological needs. Read this book, design and execute your plan, and get ready to feel liberated and empowered!
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Summary: BEST PURCHASE I EVER MADE!!!
Review: I spotted an online class for "Organizing" and decided to try it. The required reading was Julie Morgenstern's book "Organizing From The Inside Out" (also on video and CD)& her Time Management book. I purchased them all. They are extremely well written & very helpful. Ms. Morgenstern was right! I actually find myself enjoying organizing. The amount of clutter that my family had accumulated was overwhelming. By reading her books & watching her video I have been able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Her books have been a life changing experience for me.
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Summary: Worked for me!
Review: I bought this audio CD edition, an abridgement. I've battled against clutter and disorganization forever, and this book sparked a nearly total victory. I have mountains of incoming material of varying priority, much of which can't be acted on immediately but can't be discarded either, plus much material which needs to be archived. I've admired colleagues who mastered similar challenges, and always wanted to emulate them. Now, I'm one of them. The methods in this book took me perhaps 100 hours to implement, and finishing off the project required a 15-hour marathon do-or-die effort. But the benefits are lasting several months later. While some tweaking will surely be necessary, this book certainly was useful in turning my situation around. The main issue is not whether you plan to learn the techniques in the book, but whether you are willing to invest the time to apply them. But the book helped me to create a plan of attack sufficiently compelling to get me willing to do the deed. I'm much better off, after reading this book, than before.
Rating:
Summary: Worked great for me!
Review: I bought the audio CD edition, an abridgement. I've battled against clutter and disorganization forever, and this book sparked a nearly total victory. I have mountains of incoming material of varying priority, much of which can't be acted on immediately but can't be discarded either, plus much material which needs to be archived. I've admired colleagues who mastered similar challenges, and always wanted to emulate them. Now, I'm one of them. The methods in this book took me perhaps 100 hours to implement, and finishing off the project required a 15-hour marathon do-or-die effort. But the benefits are lasting several months later. While some tweaking will surely be necessary, this book certainly was useful in turning my situation around. The main issue is not whether you plan to learn the techniques in the book, but whether you are willing to invest the time to apply them. But the book helped me to create a plan of attack sufficiently compelling to get me willing to do the deed. I'm much better off, after reading this book, than before.
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Summary: Excellent
Review: This book more than lived up to the expectations set by other reviewers on Amazon.com. Like any book about personal change, it requires a small amount of discipline to actually get started and put the principles into use. However, the problem is usually not a lack of willpower; it's a lack of clear understanding of HOW to organized. That gap is more than filled by this powerhouse book. Common technical errors and psychological barriers to getting organized are laid out; the book then presents a foolproof framework for any organizing project. Most cool - the fundamentals are all within the first 80 pages. The rest of the chapters are hints for specific kinds of organizing projects like closets, kitchens, offices, etc. If you want to transform your understanding of how to get organized, just read the first couple of sections - more than once. Highly recommended!
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Summary: WHAT I DISCOVER ON THE INSIDE
Review: To those folks that gave this book only one star: Yes, this book is filled with common-sense-nothing-new information. Most books are. BUT, these bits of detail are not the focus or point of the book. Where this book made a difference is in tackling the issues and motivation behind organizing. Here is my experience with ORGANIZING FROM THE INSIDE OUT: I read the exercises and though I had it, but then decided... "OK, I'll do it just like she says, even though it sounds silly." So, one afternoon I went off to a coffee house determined not to return home until I had answered her list of questions. Was I surprised! Only when faced with a blank page did the truth pop out of my pen, to reveal my core feelings on organizing. For me it turned out that because I move about every two years... One part of me was saying "get organized" but, another part of me (quietly in the background) was saying "what difference does it make, you will just move anyway." It may sound silly, but it was a big discovery for me. It is said that the quality of ones questions determines the quality of the answers. In this case, a question gave me an answer, that then allowed me to form better goals. Back to the folks that saw this book as a list of things to buy... maybe you haven't braved the journey of looking within yourself yet. About suggesting stuff to buy... Ms. Morgenstern states that you shouldn't buy things until you know what your organizational goals and challenges are. For me, it turned out that my goal was NOT to provide a sense of order to the things I had - - - Instead my "organization" goal was stated as, "eliminate everything that will not fit into - or might hold me back from - the new life I imagine for myself." Aside from that... ORGANIZING FROM THE INSIDE OUT is a well pleasantly written book. While I greatly enjoyed the fact that this book was free of the type of hype that might get one on daytime television - possibly that same feature is how others missed the gems to be found within.
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Summary: Best Book on Organization!
Review: This book was tremendously helpful to me because it didn't offer just tips and tricks but instead explained why I might be so disorganized and described methods that many of us disorganized people like to try - and more importantly, why those methods fail and we remain disorganized. I used to try organizing a drawer or two, or even an entire room, thinking I was being smart about it. I now know why that doesn't work and never will. I needed a plan (I needed to Strategize and Analyze) and the book taught me how to do that. I read the reviewer who suggested the positive reviews were fake and I can say, mine is certainly true and real, and after reading her review I wondered if in fact it was her review that was fake. While I appreciated the tips and tricks that were in the later parts of the book (which the one-star "fake?" reviewer commented on), what I found MOST useful were the earlier chapters that described why my prior attempts at organization didn't (and wouldn't) work. I have read several books on organization, and this was the best I've read because it got to the heart of the matter and wasn't merely filled with tips and tricks.
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Summary: Living Your Life To The Fullest!
Review: Want to live your life to the fullest? - start by clearing out all the old stuff that is dragging you down. This book recommends an easy and comprehensive method to clearing out and organizing your house and office. It advocates looking at how you operate and organize your environment to support you, instead of trying to make you fit into a supposedly better way of living. i.e. if you scatter your shoes as soon as you walk in the door, just put a shoe rack in the entrance. Simple, but much more efficient than making yourself wrong for leaving your shoes scattered by your front door! This way of looking at yourself is very profound and has a lot of meaning for me. I previously read "WORKING ON YOURSELF DOESN'T WORK" by Ariel and Shya Kane which advocates looking at life and at yourself with a non judgmental awareness, and shows how to live your life to the fullest. Following this book, I have become incredibly much more satisfied and productive in all areas of my life. And now thanks to "Organizing from the Inside Out" more organized, and thus even more satisfied and productive! A pretty cool way to start the New Year!
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