Best Organizing Tips from Our Book Reviews, Part 2
There are so many amazing books available to help guide us through the tough challenges that come with organizing our lives. We've gathered more great organizing tips to arm you with the knowledge you need to organize, declutter, and stay motivated. Be sure to read part one.
Worn Stories by Emily Spivak
We talk a lot about organizing closets and the relationship we have with our clothes (but I might fit back into it someday!). Worn Stories is a collection of short stories about the personal connections each person has to an item in their closet. Spivack helps us understand the connection between clothing and memories.
“John offered me his hiking boots. “Take’em,” he said before I could protest. “They don’t fit me. I got the ugliest blisters you ever seen. I’ll be better in sneakers.” What he meant, I realized, was that he’d reached his destination, and I hadn’t. There was farther for me to go, and I needed those boots more than him. He was right. I wore them for years.”
Pick Three by Randi Zuckerberg
This book is for anyone who is struggling to live a balanced life or find more balance in life. Zuckerberg helps us see that a lopsided life is perfectly fine, and that balance is more about choosing the priorities for each day than trying to create some magical balance for your whole life. It’s an inspiring way to shift your thinking and great motivation for the new year.
“In order to set myself up for success, I know I can realistically only do three things well every day. So, every day when I wake up I think to myself: Work. Sleep. Family. Friends. Fitness. Pick Three. I can pick a different three tomorrow, and a different three the following day. But today, I can only pick three.” – Randi Zuckerberg, Pick Three
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Cal Newport tackles a problem that we all face these days: too much screen time and not enough downtime. It’s more than just putting the phone down; it’s about being intentional with how you spend your time and allowing your mind to simply rest.
“The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.” ― Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
Atomic Habits by James Clear
James helps us shift our perspective from to-do lists that we work through to goals we accomplish because they align with our core values. By doing this small shift, it makes it more likely that we achieve the goals we set. He encourages small steps of progress because they really do add up in the long run. Whether or not you make New Year’s Resolutions, Atomic Habits can help you accomplish more, in more meaningful ways.
"Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound and turn into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years." – James Clear, Atomic Habits
The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
Do you ever feel like you are going through life without direction? Leo Babauta would say that you haven’t connected your goals to your MITs (Most Important Tasks). In other words, if you don’t have a GPS, how do you know where you are going? The Power of Less is a good read for anyone interested in significantly reducing their all-around clutter. Babauta is an evangelist for the Minimalism Revolution. He begins by explaining how we can eliminate the non-essentials in our lives and dives deep into minimizing our emails and photos, eventually reminding us to just say no! No is a complete sentence!
“Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty—it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know what those things are before you start simplifying.” ― Leo Babauta, The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential
Watch our book review on YouTube.
We’ve chosen to highlight these five books from our Maniacs Book club because they all speak to the core of the challenges we face. These authors help us get out of our own way when it comes to setting goals and achieving them – not just for the sake of setting goals but so that we’re moving forward with intention and purpose and aligning our efforts to our own priorities.
What book would you add to this list?