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Organizing from the Inside Out - Book Review |
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Book Reviews -
Home and Finances
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Written by Jennifer Thompson
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 Organizing
from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern
There are plenty
of books and personal coaches out there with tons of ideas for getting
organized. What makes Organizing
from the Inside Out different is that it works with your
habits instead of prescribing a generic plan for you to follow. As taken
from the back cover:
"The beauty
of JulieÌs system, honed during her many years as a professional
organizer, is that it enables you to design a unique organizing plan
based on your individual goals, natural habits and psychological needs
Ò a plan that will work with your personality rather than against
it."
ItÌs
true. When I read this book, I realized that this wasnÌt just flashy
advertising designed to sell more books. This book is different.
This book is for people who fall into one of these categories (pg. 4):
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YouÌve struggled your whole life to get organized, and have never
quite succeeded.
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You used to be organized, but lost your grip somewhere along the way.
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You feel basically organized, but are constantly looking for ways
to improve your skills and systems.
This book
does more than just offer tips and tricks. You will learn Ò
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How to identify the roadblocks in your path to organizing success,
examine and confront those issues, and put them behind you at last
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A foolproof method for customizing your space to reflect who you are
and what is important to you
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What questions to ask before buying that next organizing container,
gizmo, or gadget. (pg. 5)
The book is
broken into four parts: Laying the Foundation, Secrets
of a Professional Organizer, Applying What YouÌve
Learned, and Tackling Time and Technology.
Part One, Laying the Foundation, is all about taking a
new look at the task of organizing and coming at it from a whole
new perspective. This is the section that outlines JulieÌs
philosophies on creating an organizational system that will work
for you. There are many systems that work, but they arenÌt
any good if they donÌt work for you.
Part Two, Secrets of a Professional Organizer, is where
you assess yourself and your needs and come up with a plan. ItÌs
important to do this before actually taking action. IÌm sure
weÌve all at one point or another gone out and bought new
crates, folders and other organizing devices without doing much
thought beforehand, only to be disappointed when a month later
weÌre still drowning in clutter. Read part two and learn
how to avoid that!
Part Three, Applying What YouÌve Learned, is all about
putting your plans into action. She addresses a wide variety of
work and living spaces, from cubicle workstations to garages to
bedrooms.
Part Four, Tackling Time and Technology, talks about organizing
time. She goes into the pros and cons of various planners, calendars
and high-tech gadgets that are all supposed to make us more organized
and efficient.
I guarantee that after reading Organizing
from the Inside Out you will have a whole new understanding
of what it takes to get organized and stay organized by finding
a system that works with you instead of against you.
Copyright
2002
This review is available for reprint.
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