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

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Contents

How Right-Brainers Can Be Organized in a Left-Brain World

Overcoming the Obstacles Stopping You from Being More Organized

The First Step to Being More Organized Is Believing Its Possible

A Plan to Tackle Your Biggest Organizing Challenges

Lessons Learned and Adapted from Organized People

Putting Paper in Its Placethe Right-Brain Way

Clutter Control for the Person Who Has Everything

How to Find What You Need When You Need It

Quick Fixes for Any Mess You Get Yourself Into

How to Maintain Your New and Improved Way of Life

To all the creative right-brain people who never seem to get organized in a way their neatnik left-brain counterparts can understandits your time to shine.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many times its easier to sort your stuff than it is your thoughts. Since I should lead by example, I organized my thank-yous in alphabetical order beginning with my wife, Andrea. Not only is she first on this list, she is the most important person in my lifeeven if this book did take up all of my time for months and months. Annette, my mom, who took me to the library as a kid and encouraged me to readand write. Betty Edwards, for writing the first real right-brain book (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain) that opened the door for people like me. Carolyn Chu, my editor. She is my without whom this would not be possible person. THANK YOU for everything! Harvey, my dad, who taught me how to be in my right mind and what it really means to be a pack rat. Jessica Matthes, for taking my sketches and bringing them to life. Scott Kramer, a friend (and magazine editor) who helped cut this book down to size. Toni Lopopolo, my literary agent for the past ten years. She does the deals and gets things done behind the scenes. Finally, I would like to thank you, the reader. If it werent for right-brainers like you, this world would be a very dull place. Stay true to yourselves and remember: right-brainers rule!

When I asked others for organizing ideas I was overwhelmed by the response. I want to personally thank each and every person who contributed an idea or insight into organizing the right-brain way (whether they made it into the book or not). John Aliano, Tera Allison, Carla Bange, Dr. Robert Black, Sunshine Blake, Jill Baldwin Bodonsky, Felicia Borges, Andrew Chapman, Diana Costello, Sue Cotch, Sher Denton, Marion Dickes, Michelle Downey, Paulette Ensign, Edith Fine, Andrea Glass, Mark Golik, Evelyn Gray, Shannon Grissom, Kevin Hall, Becky Hawley, Anna-Marie Hawthorne, Janis Isaman, Paula Jhong, Judith Josephson, Marie Kinnaman, Antoinette Kuritz, Peter Lloyd, Laura Love, Jacqueline Marcell, Seretta Martin, Jennifer Matlock, Mike Metz, Howard Meyer, Julie Morgenstern, Seth Odam, Kristine Porter, Nicole Pugh, Leslie Ray, Eileen Roth, Jennifer Shore, Kathy Stamps, Jennifer Stults, Kitty Torres, Eleanor Traubman, and Sue Viders.

INTRODUCTION

The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.

Russell Baker

Are people critical of the piles of paper on your desk? Do they gibe you with comments like, A messy desk is the sign of a messy mind? Does it drive those around you nuts that you wait until the last minute to get something doneand that goes for every one of the several projects you are currently working on? Does your computer hard drive look like the top of your deskthings all over the place with no rhyme or reason?

Let me guess. Youve already read a book or two on being organized. You found them boring, confusing, and frustratingnot to mention unrealistic. So you took a Get Organized seminar. They told you to put everything away and to throw out anything you havent used in a year. Yeah, right. You even bought some cool containers and other organizing products thinking that these tools would help you get organized once and for all. Now they just clutter up your space and serve as a painful reminder of yet another attempt to get organized gone awry.

Literally hundreds of thousands of people out there are dealing with these and similar problems. Good peoplecreative, innovative, imaginative people who simply find it hard to get organized. People like youand me. Sadly, there are no little elves who will magically clean up and organize the clutter in your life. That doesnt mean you cant be organized. With a right-brain approach, it will feel right and fit your style. Youll wake up each morning excited by how your environment reflects who you are and how it is organized in a creative way that works the way you do. This is what you have been waiting forto finally organize everything in your life. Im here to tell you, its possible!

Im on your side. Im not going to make you clean off your desk or tell you that you cant continue to pile your papers. If you want to write notes to yourself on paper scraps, thats okay, too. Im serious. Want proof? I wrote this books opening sentences on a napkin while performing on stage with my band (between songs) and then later piled them with my other notes. I sat behind my drums wondering if having our gear neater and more organized would make us play any better. The answer wasNo! (Nothing would, ha, ha, ha.) However, I also knew that without some organization, we wouldnt have landed the gig in the first place, let alone had a set list or the equipment connected correctly. There has to be a balance between being overly organized and being able to find what you need when you need itdespite what it may look like to others. Sometimes what we do and create is more important than the environment we live and work in. Some overly organized people insist that organizing is everything. Theyll spend a sunny Saturday color-coding their sock drawer while the rest of us are out living life. Some sense of organization is healthy and helpful, but it should not rule your life. This book balances the need to get organized with your desire for freedom.

If you expect to hear the same old virtues of filing every piece of paper, forget it. Piling isnt a problem when it works. Ill show you how to do it effectively. Irritating people who are forced to find things in your mess, getting a poor work review for failing to follow through, or losing your good credit because you dont pay billsthose are problems. Working on several projects at once is not a problemand often leads to inspiration for right-brainers. Taking on too much and failing to meet your deadlines can be a problem. So well find ways you can juggle without dropping the ball. You can hang onto your clutter if you have the room. I would never make you part with your prized possessions. The problem is when everything is out and in the way. There are several solutions for making the most of your space and safely storing (and finding again) the things that dont deserve prime positions in your home and office. Hooray! In this book you will find that you dont have to fight your natural tendencies. Instead, we will work with them to get organized in a way that makes sense and sticks.

You dont have to change who you are to become an organized person, and Ill prove it. We (right-brainers) can be just as organized as our left-brain counterparts (maybe more so), but we prefer to do it in our own unique waywith a little savoir faire. Were knocked for being disorganized, undisciplined, and messy; yet we get things done and have fun doing it. Organizing actually comes naturally to us, but not organizing that anybody else might recognize as such. Admittedly, we can be distracted, impatient, sloppy, and offbeat. We loathe routine, abhor structure and rules, rarely write things down, take a wait-and-see approach more often than not, like everything out where we can see it, and have difficulty making and sticking to decisions. Were also oblivious to time, dont mind being surrounded by clutter, and tend to lose things more often than others. Its easy to understand why getting organized (in the classic sense) is such a tough sell for real right-brainers.