BOOK REVIEW: Digital Age Contributes to Information Overload
'Getting Organized in the Google Era' Can Help
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
It's not your imagination: you really are getting overwhelmed with information with each passing day. The era of the DayTimer is long past -- not that paper organizers were all that great. Remember how we all started out with the best of intentions in the pen and paper age -- and how we fell off the information organizing wagon so quickly?
It's much worse today in an era when we are drowning in information, with an astounding rate of increase.
Former Google chief information officer Douglas C. Merrill and his co-author James A. Martin point out in "Getting Organized in the Google Era: How to Get Stuff Out of Your Head, Find It When You Need It, and Get It Done Right" (Broadway Books, 272 pages, $23.00) that the Internet has created enough information to fill almost 40,000 Libraries of Congress! That's the biggest library in the nation, probably in the world.
Whether it's a faulty memory, a tendency to multitask, or difficulty managing our time, every one of us has limitations conspiring to keep us from being organized. But, as organizational guru Merrill points out in this really useful book, it isn't our fault.
Our brains simply aren't designed to deal with the pressures and competing demands on our attention in today's fast-paced, information-saturated, digital world. What's more, he says, many of the ways in which our society is structured are outdated, imposing additional chaos that makes us feel stressed, scattered, and disorganized.
Merrill has struggled to overcome the limitations of his dyslexia, so he knows firsthand what difficulties facing the rest of us. He helped spearhead Google's effort to "organize the world's information," and offer a wealth of tips and strategies -- many of them utilizing Google products -- to use these new tools to become more organized, efficient, and successful than ever.
If you pick up this book looking for traditional, rigid, one-size-fits-all strategies for organization, you're barking up the wrong dead tree. Merrill, who has a Ph.D. in cognition science from Princeton University, draws on his intimate knowledge of how the brain works to help us develop fresh, innovative, and flexible systems of organization tailored to our individual goals, constraints, and lifestyles.
Take me for example -- PLEASE! I use Hotmail and Gmail, more and more using the latter, after concentrating on Hotmail for the past 10 years. This is a good sign for Merrill. He doesn't like Hotmail, which has many limitations and forces us to use folders that aren't the best way to organize information. He prefers Gmail, even though he's worked since 2008 as president of digital and the COO of new music for EMI Recorded Music. His background also includes stints at the RAND Corp. and Charles Schwab and Co.
In addition to Gmail, Merrill likes Google Docs, a program I've been meaning to try for a long time. Maybe after reading this book, I'll take the plunge. I already use Mozillla's Firefox Browser on all three of my computers -- my iMac, my Toshiba Satellite laptop and my Acer netbook. That's another good sign.
And, of course, I use Google for searches and regularly turn to Google News. I also Google myself to see if my writing is being picked up. (The answer is yes! I'm a Dr Pepper fan and Google loves me; does that mean I'm a Google, too?)
Speaking of the versatility of Google, a friend sent me the following -- using my Gmail address:
Google as found in The Extreme Seacher's Internet Handbook ...
In Google's search window, you can:
1. Perform calculations. To figure out what 15 % off a $78 shirt amounts to, just enter "78 x .15" into the search window, click the SEARCH button, and the answer will show up at the top of the results page. No clicking on a second link required.
2. Convert measurements. How many cups are there in a liter? Simply type "cups in liter." You also can find out currency conversions ("15 dollars in euros"). Be sure to include the quotation marks!
3. Track airline flights. Find out if your flight is on time by entering your airline and flight number.
4. Locate packages. Hunt down an MIA delivery by entering "track" plus the tracking number for a direct link to the status page.
5. Look up addresses. Type in a person's home phone number and, if he/she is listed, Google will turn up the mailing address.
6. Find movie show times. Type "movies" puls your city or ZIP code to see theaters and show times for the next three days.
7. Listen to songs. Thanks to a Google partnership with music site lala.com, you can type the title of a song and its artist and a playable file will appear at the tops of the results page.
The above excerpt points out a salient point in Merrill's 21-principles scheme of things: Get the "stuff out of your head as quickly as possible." He says our short-term memories can hang on to between five and nine things at a time. If you try to remember more than that at once, something will be dropped.
I was glad to see that Merrill recommends hanging on to paper documents for many things, including financial statements. I have both from the three banks my wife and I use and appreciate the duplication.
So, bottom line, can I recommend "Getting Organized in the Google Era"? Yes, without reservation. The book is crammed with tons of practical, invaluable, and often counterintuitive advice for anyone who wants to be more organized and productive–and less stressed--in our 21st-century world.
Publisher's web sites: www.broadwaybusinessbooks.com and www.crownpublishing.com
Author's web site: DouglasCMerrill.com