How to Get Organized Without Resorting to Arson: A Step-By-Step Guide to Clearing Your Desk Without Panic or the Use of Open Flame

I've read quite a few books on organizing. After awhile, they all come out about the same in advice, each with their unique point of view and maybe a couple of "wow" moments. This book though, had something different to offer. Liz Franklin addresses disorganization - not as an issue of laziness or bad habits but of not organizing ourselves how we work naturally. We each are different in personality, so why do we need to organize our spaces the same? We don't. This is something that I've personally learned over the years - but never saw it written in concrete terms before reading this. Though my desk was already organized (I'm a spatial), it helped me to show and help others how they could organize themselves to fit their personality. There was also application in the back, with pictures of ways that helped different personality types. The book is packed full of helpful and thoughtful things yet it's easy to understand. It's also down to earth so that you can actually start carrying out what you've learned without the "inspiration high" many self-help books give. Though I enjoyed this book, there was one drawback. I wish there had been more applications as to how to carry this out. I wish this book would have been longer! All in all, this is one of the best books on organizing an office that I've come across yet. It's helped to define the real causes of disorganization and frees you to be who you are, and organized at the same time. I hope someday soon she'll come out with a book on how to organize a home!

Wow, did I love this book! I've seen a lot of organizing books, but this one was full of ideas and suggestions I hadn't seen before. They were very, very easy to implement quickly and cheaply. I particularly loved her suggestions on labelling files in way that's actually meaningful to you - labels and folders that make you WANT to do the work inside rather than avoid it. That was a huge change in my way of thinking. I'm also an out-of-sight-out-of-mind person, and I liked her suggestions on using simple clear/translucent containers (as opposed to all kinds of 'specialty' single-use containers that just add to my clutter). A must-read, particularly for creative types.

It's been my Bible since I took a look at it in a bookstore...and couldn't put it down. Now I carry it around with me. Or it sits in clear site, so that if I slow down or space out, I can pick up where I left off and keep tweaking my life to work better. It's more than just "how to straighten up your office" although it does that more compassionately and with more humor than any book or person I've seen. Since the eighties I've used the services of members of National Organizations of Organizers, and read various books, listened to tapes, but this book is the one that finally WORKS for me, maybe because my nervous system isn't wired like most organizers, and Liz Franklin takes this into account. Besides, have you ever met an organizer who's FUNNY? I recommended this book to my boss, who, although has a lot of heart and is a great guy to work for, is even more disorganized than me. And I recommend it unequivocally to anyone. What happens as you start to give yourself the space and time to do what works for YOU, not for an organizer, all sorts of other wonderful things unfold in your life. Try it. I was surprised.

For those of you who may not have known me in my "other life,"I used to be quite disorganized . . . in fact, I once wanted to enter HOME OFFICE COMPUTING'S "Most Disorganized Office" contest,but couldn't find the application for three years because it was buried on my desk. (True story!)So when I saw HOW TO GET ORGANIZED WITHOUT RESORTINGTO ARSON by Liz Franklin, a self-described Cultural Anthropologist, I just had to read it if just for the title . . . and I'm glad that I did . . . the book delivers on its promise.Franklin uses humor to get her points across, yet she alsoprovides a lot of very concrete advice . . . in addition, she doesn't tell you what you have to do, and she recognizes thefact that everybody is different.And any author who manages to incorporate one of my favorite stories into her writing has definitely managed tocatch my attention . . . she writes: Albert Einstein once went to dinner with a friend and a new acquaintance. Over dinner, the new acquaintance asked Einstein for his phone number. "Sure," said Al. He got up, left the table, and walked back toward the phones. "Where is he going?" asked the acquaintance. "I don't know," said the friend, with a puzzled look on his face.Einstein came back and handed the man a slip of paper with hisphone number on it. "My God, you're Einstein!" said the guy. "Why do you have to look up your own phone number?" Einstein said, "Why should I keep in my mind the little things I can find anywhere?"There were several other memorable passages; among them: * Paper flow starts at hand level. It comes into your office via people'shands. You open the mail with your hands, you take it from the fax,printer, or copier with your hands, you scribble notes with your hands,clip interesting things out of the paper with your hands, and input toyour computer with your hands.Why all the emphasis on hands? So you'll remember this importantsecret of organizing: paper always lands on the first available hand-height surface. And what do we find at hand height? Furniture. Paperlands, and stops, wherever there is a convenient piece of furniture.Preferably a flat piece of furniture, but almost any hand-height furniture will do.* Sit back in your chair, crumple some scratch paper, and let it dropfrom your hand. That's where your trash can belongs. If its newlocation interferes with your traffic pattern, of course you can makeadjustments. Just be sure it's easy to toss trash from your chair tothe can without bending, leaning or stretching all day long.* Put this sign on your Central Headquarters box: "DO NOT DISTURB!WET PAINT!" I'm not kidding! If you don't protect your stuff now, you won't find it later. And for some reason, this is a sign that getspeople's attention. Who cares it they laugh-at least you'll haveachieved your objective: to keep them out of your stuff.

This is so refreshing! It's a totally different approach to finding your own personal organizing methods rather than using the traditional one-fits-all ways. I am already using Liz's hints as they apply to my personal style, and have noticed a definite reduction in the stress level, dealing with office matters. I can recommend this book to anyone who is ready to end the customary confusion of tracking their paperwork, their hobby, their lists, their calendar --- whatever. She's got it down cold.