The Spirit of Getting Organized: 12 Skills to Find Meaning and Power in Your Stuff

By Pamela Kristan

Book Overview

On one level, The Spirit of Getting Organized is about sorting papers and using file folders. But, there's more to life than a neat office. After years in the field of professional organizing, Pamela... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590030249
• ISBN13: 9781590030240
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Red Wheel
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 3.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The thoughtful organizer's book

This book stands way apart from the usual how-to on the subject. If you need advice no deeper than "buy a broom," go for the oversimplified approach of other books on the subject. But if you appreciate the deeper side of disorganization and clutter and how that keeps you stuck, this one's for you. The author's role is that of a gentle and encouraging coach who advocates slowing down, cultivating awareness, and finding meaning in what is essentially an overwhelming, dreadful task. It's also a well-written, well-organized read. The Spirit of Getting Organized gave me the courage and practical advice to start and keep going. For example, using objective observation skills in looking at your mess, setting up active staging areas, and giving deeper consideration to how and where to begin. The subject of "shedding" digs deeper than the chuck-it-if-you-haven't-worn-it-in-a-year rule. It's hard to jump right in and purge like crazy if you have no understanding of why you're hanging on in the first place. Very helpful to me was the discussion on how and when best to "gracefully disengage" from the work. Knowing when to set a project aside avoids guilt and burn-out that will keep you from finishing. I refer to the book often like an understanding and encouraging friend to keep myself on track. This one's never going in the "purge" pile.

Understanding your mess and yourself!

Kristan offers guidance - with no judgment - about how to understand why we have trouble getting organized and what to do about it. This book works for the collector of huge amounts of junk to the occassionally-my-desk-gets-too-messy and I don't know where to start person. There are how-to's for filing and sorting and making decisions about stuff. On a more involved level, Kristan helps one prioritize and feel less stressed managing a life or job that requires constant multi-tasking. On the deepest level she offers spiritual or philosophical perspective on the relationship between us and our stuff.I don't usually read how-to or self-help books, but this was a real find and has something for everyone.

An approach that works

I never thought the "why" of why I was disorganized was that important, but after I took a course with Pam Kristen and became better organized after it, I realized "why" actually matters. And what's more, recognizing "why" is key to getting organized. I began to see specific examples of "why" and "how" working together. For example, my desk was always cluttered with stacks. Why? I had no idea; I just wanted it cleaned up. But, after exploring "why" I began to see that the clutter serves a purpose. Yup, a purpose: If I can't find the memo from the client-from-hell, I don't actually have to write back! How handy. Now, I just bite the bullet, write back (or decide not to) and move on. Another example, I had stacks of invitations, lists, etc. piled high because I couldn't decide about those invitations and list items. Again this realization of "why" made it possible for me to "do." Now, I decide on the first or second view of the invitation/list/etc. or I throw it out. Again, the pile shrinks.

Love this book!

I found the book to be a really nice blend of inspirational and practical techniques. She provides lots of worksheets that I found to be quite helpful. This is the first book I read that made me look at organizing my stuff as an interesting job rather than some drudgery to make myself trudge through. Ms. Kristan occasionally veers off into New Age psycho-babble, but not enough to de-rail the usefulness of her book for non-New Agers like me.Her approach is to look at our piles of clutter as a rich source of material to figure out who we really are and what will make us happy. Sort of like a personal archaeology project. Very inspirational and fun!

The Spirit of Getting Organized: 12 Skills to Find Meaning

This is a wonderful book! It gives you a different approach to dealing with "your stuff". The format of the book is easy to follow. It doesn't need to be approached in a linear manner but is set up so that you can move to the areas that are the most important to you. Finally, organization information that doesn't leave me feeling guilty or owning a new bunch of containers that just gather dust!