![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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:
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.
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.
Tags:
no subject
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*
no subject
Thanks for the rec, from a left-handed disaster area.
no subject
Alot of it (the orgainizing) was actually getting over myself with the not being able to be "normally organized" and some of it was realizing that I wanted my space to be pretty. So I organized and then stuck ugly posted notes in one or two places and it encouraged me to cross shit off the list so that I could remove the post-it.
no subject
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. =)
no subject
I've been doing sooo much thinking about concentration/getting-things-done strategies lately. It's so weird - Some days one strategy works, the next day a strategy that's just the opposite is what I need.
mmmm bookie book
no subject
Re: mmmm bookie book
Put up the powell's link =)
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
::huggleSQUISH::
no subject
no subject
no subject
Re: mmmm bookie book
no subject
no subject
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.
Re: mmmm bookie book
I ordered so many books today:
Fiction fodder:
City (Smallville)
The Chronicles of Riddick
Life tools:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Organizing from the Right Side of the Brain: A Creative Approach to Ge
for us for George:
When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness
ficiton Mom wants me to read:
The Fifth Child
by Dr. Drew:
When Painkillers Become Dangerous: What Everyone Needs to Know about O
Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again
no subject
I think I managed to trick myself into cleaning up Nana's place like that. Our family are (myself included) hoarders, it was chock full of stuff/rubbish from the 50's onward. I just started with trying to get one corner in the kitchen looking neat and pretty. It kinda spiralled from there into the rest of the kitchen, pulling up rotten carpets and emptying cupboards full of dissolved clothes.
I could only manage one section at a time though, If I had tried it all at once or tried to get a constant flow of cleaning going would have killed me.
I have no idea why the bits of paper on my desk are such hard things for me to get rid of now!
no subject
I'm not sure why I never thought of multiple lists, actually. That'd sidestep the problem where every item on the list has equivalent weight, and I feel just as accomplished reading that new comic as I do finishing some project. (Great for my self-esteem! Not so good for my reliability and work ethic.)
no subject