Getting Organized in the Google Era - by Douglas Merrill & James A Martin (Paperback)

About the Book

Organizational guru and former Google CIO Merrill, who helped spearhead Google's effort to "organize the world's information," offers a wealth of tips and strategies for how to use these new tools to become more organized, efficient, and successful than ever.

Book Synopsis

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 and former Google CIO Douglas C. Merrill points out, 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 What's more, he says, many of the ways in which our society is structured are outdated, imposing additional chaos that makes us feel stressed, scattered, and disorganized.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Luckily, we have a myriad of amazing new digital tools and technologies at our fingertips to help us manage the strains on our brains and on our lives; the trick is knowing when and how to use them. This is why Merrill, who helped spearhead Google's effort to "organize the world's information," offers a wealth of tips and strategies for how to use these new tools to become more organized, efficient, and successful than ever.

But if you're looking for traditional, rigid, one-size-fits-all strategies for organization, this isn't the book for you. Instead, Merrill 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.

From how to harness the amazing power of search, to how to get the most out of cloud computing, to techniques for filtering through the enormous avalanche of information that assaults us at every turn, to tips for minimizing distractions and better integrating work and life, Getting Organized in the Google Era is chock-full 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.

Review Quotes

Getting Organized in the Google Era breaks new ground...guiding you to solutions that honor your unique personality. Smart, non-judgmental and filled with practical advice.
-Julie Morgenstern, NY Times bestselling author of Organizing from the Inside Out and Never Check Email in the Morning.

"Douglas Merrill has worked a near-miracle: In short, simple steps, he shows how to become powerful and confident in a world of too much info and too little time. This isn't just the book I wished I'd written, it's the book I need to give to people I care about."
-Quentin Hardy, Forbes Magazine.

This book has been a terrific resource for a messy-desked, attention-challenged thinker of random thoughts like me! Thanks to Douglas Merrill, I now use digital tools to find almost everything and my transition from paper to digital is no longer awkward. This is a marvelous book, with tremendous ideas on every page.
-Susan Scott, NY Times bestselling author of Fierce Conversations, Achieving Success at Work & in Life - One Conversation at a Time, and Fierce Leadership, A Bold Alternative to the Worst "Best" Practices of Business Today.

"Perhaps only Douglas Merrill could take us from Frederick Winslow Taylor to cloud computing to getting organized in one helpful read. This is the book to help you stay ahead of your own avalanche of information so that it's always accessible and useful to you."
- Dave Girouard, President of Enterprise Group, Google, Inc.

About the Author

DOUGLAS C MERRILL is the Founder & CEO of ZestCash - a financial services technology company committed to serving the underbanked - and was previously Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Google. Prior to Google, Douglas was a Senior Vice President at Charles Schwab and Co. and an information scientist at the RAND Corporation. He has a Ph.D. in cognitive science from Princeton University.

JAMES A MARTIN is a PC World technology blogger, whose articles have appeared in many publications and on web sites including Washingtonpost.com.