The Organized Mind

Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

By: Daniel Levitin

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin, read by Luke Daniels.

Modern society is in a state of information overload. Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin investigates how and why our brains are struggling to keep up with the demands of the digital age.

Why is email so addictive? Is multitasking really possible? And what do successful people keep in their junk drawers?

The Organized Mind debunks myth and presents one simple idea - storing information in the physical world instead of the mind - to revolutionize 21st-century living.

In a world where information is power, The Organized Mind holds the key to harnessing that information and making it work for you.

©2015 Daniel Levitin (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Excellent book

Initially I thought that it was a longer version of David Allen’s GTD methodology, but it was only one chapter. Other chapters had lots of parallels with other books, but in its entirety this book rocks. For me it was a revision of dozen other books and researches I’ve read. For someone who hasn’t read all those books - this one will be d trembly useful.

Highly recommend!

Roman
CEO, Splento

Great and relevant

A necessary subject these days! The narrator reads it as good as the author would! I intend to buy the book on paper, also!

A book to read - not to listen to

Would you try another book from Daniel Levitin and/or Luke Daniels?

No

Would you recommend The Organized Mind to your friends? Why or why not?

I might suggest they dip into it for 'headlines' but not as a cover to cover read. Would I like to sit next to a person at dinner with this kind of 'organised mind? No thank you!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Terrible reading really impacted my enjoyment (?) of the book. Rushed and with no natural spacing or helpful intonation. And also, you end up having to read out full url links and table contents. This simply does not work

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

When a book does have some useful data, having it on audio is really annoying as it is so much more difficult to go back and revisit or reference.

Irreplaceable

Loved this book and bought it paper before audio so it will always be a reminder and reference. It is true what he said at the end , somethings in our life we felt lost without were really unneeded and there are much better alternatives once we let go of them.

Amazingly helpful and enjoyable book!

Very well organized story, which will show you just that, how to organize your life. Amazing book!

Unnecessarily Long - Information overload

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

While this book has some interesting points it definitely doesn't keep your mind organised while listening to it. Some examples where explained in such excruciatingly detail that you aren't sure what kind of audience this book was aimed at.
I believe there is a part where for no less than 30 minutes you have to listen to how a filing cabinet could be organised. Followed by the narrator reading out twice a random set of 64 letters, just to explain how bits work.
Instead of 16 hours of information overload, it could have been 6 hours of straight forward talking.

Would you recommend The Organized Mind to your friends? Why or why not?

This might work as a book, but definitely not as an audiobook.

Way too long to provide usefulness

Sadly I couldn't wait to finish this book so I could move onto so thing with more precision & beneficial to my busy life.
Yes there were a few great nuggets to learn but most was common sense for me. Why spend an absolute age going on about different categories
No where near as good as 'the one thing' or essentialism
Just not for me & am sure I can find much more beneficial books consuming less time.

Good content - miss the additional data

Good content but like a lot of non-fiction in audio format it's devalued due to lack of access to tables and figures referred to.

Great insights amid a lot of information.

This was a great book and I'd recommend it to anyone. However, for myself, I was particularly interested in how to 'organise the mind to focus' but much of the book spoke about external organisation. I appreciate that external organisation helps with mind organisation, but If you're looking for applicable information, I took as many notes with short audio books such as 'how to build self discipline' as I did during the 16 hours I invested in this book. That being said, much of the information didn't relate to what I was looking for right now but was still very interesting. I'm sure others would pull valuable information from stuff I passed over. Still worth the read.

Very detailed & repetitive

Not what I was expecting.
Getting Things Done is a far more practical and engaging book.
I wouldn't recommend.

Ironic

I wonder if the author recognised or cared that a book intended to help people to focus and be more efficient drones on and on at length about trivia, reciting lists or spelling out complex passwords and fails to get to the point.

Spoiler alert: an entire chapter can be summarised as "A place for everything and everything in its place".

Spoiler alert 2: if you lose an item, ask yourself where you had it last.

If you need advice like this and have 15 hours to waste, you have bigger mountains to climb.

If there is any value in the written book (which I doubt) it has not carried to the audio version and is not helped by the dull narration.

Very interesting

Excellent book full of interesting and useful information. It labours its points at times but it's very good nonetheless.

Good but self indulgent

What did you like best about The Organized Mind? What did you like least?

This book has got some great insight but it is way too long.

Normally I would listen to the book and go back to chapters that interest me for some deeper learning. If I could see what chapters were of interest I would recommend dipping into these. I found the elements on brain chemistry and statistical analysis heavy going and was not sure what value it added to the narrative.

What did you like best about this story?

There is some great time management ideas here which I have implaemented 😃

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was good if a little dry

If this book were a film would you go see it?

As this is a business/self improvement text I would not go to see it unless I wanted a good snooze towards the end.

Any additional comments?

Audible please sort out your chapter indexing pure numbering is frustrating authors spend a great deal of time on naming their chapters so that the reader knows what to expect... The listener deserves this common courtesy.

Wonderfully insightful

Very deep and profound, I highly recommended that you give it your attention. If you listen to this, I believe you'll have a deeper understanding of the human brain, in relationship to being organised in your thinking.

Excellent book!

Highly recommend. Essential for both students and professionals. Should be a part of school and professional curriculum.