When the weather’s nice, it can be hard to stay indoors working on your business, when you’d rather be outdoors having fun! Fortunately, there’s an activity that will let you do both at the same time, and since May is officially Get Caught Reading month, it seems like the perfect time to share with you a few of my book recommendations.
Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
One of the things I like about this book is that it suggests various ways of organizing each area in the home. This can be very helpful when working with clients with different personalities and lifestyles than your own. It also includes time estimates for various organizing projects. Although this will naturally vary depending on the situation, it’s a useful guideline when you’re quoting on a job, especially when you’re new and haven’t worked with enough clients to come up with your own estimate. In addition, there are a number of handy lists, such as suggested categories for household files.
Time Management for Unmanageable People by Ann McGee-Cooper with Duane Trammell
This book is fun, and so is McGee-Cooper’s approach to time management. She encourages the reader to make important information stand out on his or her calendar by using highly visual cues such as colors, pictures, symbols, or stickers, and to reduce stress by incorporating play time into daily life. With self-assessments, helpful hints, time-related quotes, and humorous illustrations, even left-brained professional organizers are sure to enjoy reading this book and to find some ideas for fine-tuning their own time management systems as well as those of their clients.
LifeTypes by Sandra Krebs Hirsh and Jean Kummerow
Although not technically a book about organizing, this has been one of my most valuable resources, so much so that when I lent out my copy and didn’t get it back, I ordered another one. It provides an excellent introduction to the subject of personality type and has sections describing the organizing and work styles of each of the 16 personality types. It’s a great tool for understanding how other people tick!
What’s your favorite organizing or business book?
What men don’t tell women about business – Chris Flett
Tribes – Seth Godin
ADD Friendly ways to organize your life – Kohlberg & Nadeau
Buried in Treasures – David Tolin
Making Time work for you – Harold Taylor
Thanks for sharing, Jacki! The only one on your list that I’ve read is Harold Taylor‘s Making Time Work for You, which is definitely a good one.
Although we are not professional organizers, we do take on a lot of tasks to free up the time of small business owners. I am very intrigued by the Life Types read and am looking forward to what I can gather from it to help my interaction with clients. Thank you for the fantastic blog and wealth of information.
Jennifer, another book you might find useful is The Art of Speed Reading People by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. It helps you identify other people’s personality types, and gives tips for communicating successfully with each type.
There are so many good organizing books! I’ve listed some of my favorites here: http://www.squidoo.com/organize
Jeri, that’s fantastic – thank you so much for sharing your list!