[book rec] ah-HAH!

[permetaform]

Okay, so I don't rec books very often, but dude. dude.

To give context for the flailing: I've recently (read: in the past month or so) had conversations with several different people about the inability to concentrate/focus/get-things-done/organized.

I so very sympathize, because it took the longest fucking time trying to figure out what worked for me and a lot of trial and error. Alot of it was because I frankly hate being tied to time and the fact that I'm a pattern thinker rather than a linear one. And one of the consequences of being a pattern thinker is that when I explain things I don't tend to do it in a very coherent way, so it's hard for me to explain exactly *how* I'm organizing things. Especially since it's a system that superficially looks no different from any other system.

BUT! I found a book! It was completely by random today while browsing my local B&N and I got curious at the title. And when I skimmed through it I went, "huh." And then read it from cover to cover, giggling and being sorta stunned all at once, because most of the stuff they mention I already do. It's methods that I've found works for me, but someone actually wrote it all down! It's this:

Organizing for the Creative Person: Right-Brain Styles for Conquering Clutter, Mastering Time, and Reaching Your Goals
(ebay link, Powell's link, Powell's link to another book that's similar)

Which, y'know, was like a moment of "oh DUH" when I realized that their methods was what I was doing with my folders and lists and post-its. For the longest while I just felt kinda stupid having to do the things I did because I for the life of me cannot get "organized" in the traditional sense. I felt like I was constantly fighting my brain, which should've been able to handle these simple stupid day-to-day shit by normal methods. (...which, gah, yes. I keep forgetting sometimes, that I'm not and probably never will be normal and that "user default settings" will never work right for me.)

It's like...like whoa, there's a name for this! That...that I'm not just, like, incompetent when I depend on these things to keep me organized. Which, honestly? whoa.

Comments

[metamorphogenic.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for this! I'm pretty much a basket case when it comes to being organized, so much so that I haven't even been able to manage staying up to date with my LJ... so any shred of assistance in this area is pure GOLD I tell ya.

I've tried making lists, post-its, and so on, but apparently I'm too disorganized to even do those things consistently. So instead I've been trying to re-develop my freakishly good memory (that I had as a child) - with varying results. So far I think the major factor that has saved my ass is that I am a Mac user. *ducks and awaits flames*

[permetaform]

see, the thing about lists that I've discovered is that there's actually a wrong way to write lists. Or at least, certain ways of writing lists for me just makes me run away from doing anything at all, I have to keep my lists no longer than about five items, but I have several lists (of different catagories) on each to-do sheet.

Part of the lists, too, is that they have to be pretty. And part of it is the thrill when I can actually throw the list *away* because after all the crossing out's, the list's become ugly...it's the constant push-pull between my aesthetics and my goals. Because, like, I have to *want* to be organized, but it's easier for me to want things to be pretty than to want to be organized. So I make it so that to make things pretty is to be organized. =)

[metamorphogenic.livejournal.com]

See, now this concept makes TOTAL sense to me. I ALWAYS care more about things being pretty than, well, organized. I think you may have just hit upon a guiding principle here.

[permetaform]

::grins and bows::

It...was sorta like a survival tactic, because I'm SO right-brained that I wasn't getting anything done. So I fixed it, the best I could.