Getting organized in the Google Era

by Douglas C. Merrill, James A. Martin

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 What's more, he says, many of the ways in which our society is structured are outdated, imposing additional chaos that makes us feel stressed, scattered, and disorganized.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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Productivity, Business, Self Help, Technology, Psychology, How To

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gist: Only remember what you have to. Put things that you can't remember where you'll be able to find them again. Rely heavily on search, repetition and (gasp) email.

(Yes, network administrator, this book suggests you keep all emails ever sent or received that may be of any use to you in the future whatsoever. Ha!)

Didn't love the formatting for this book. Thought it would be easier to skim, but in the end, I was glad I read it so thoroughly.

Got all excited about Things, the task management system suggested, but you have to be a Mac/iPhone/iPad user to take full advantage, and since I'm a Mac/Windows/Droid user, it's out of the question for me. Maybe I'll finally try Remember the Milk...

So, Google has a wild card option??? It's a ~. How did I not know this? I have looked at Google's advanced search page only about a gazillion times.

And you can type "search term" -whatyoudon'twant to do a NOT search??? Must go and play now. Goodbye.

Update: Google Health & MobileMe mentioned are being discontinued as of July 2011.

Favorite Quotes:

The savvier you become at search, the better and faster you can filter out what's not important so you can focus on what is.

Attention is a survival mechanism.

[F]inding ways to embed facts into stories is essential to becoming better organized...To recall a fact, it helps to try and remember what you were doing when your mind first noted that fact - in other words, to recall a story that gives the fact context.

[I]t's important to surround yourself with people who have different decision-making styles, along with diverse knowledge, skill sets and life experiences.

[Your] goals will help you filter out what factors are unimportant, which in turn makes it easier to reach a decision.

But in an area of widespread, inexpensive communication, knowledge simply spreads too rapidly for it to hold power for long. SO there's no point in trying to cram a ton of it into your head. A much better strategy is to have a system for storing and organizing knowledge, so you can access or recall it when you need it...

Knowledge is not power. The sharing of knowledge is power.

Be flexible about how you achieve your goals.

Ideally, you should try to store all your various scraps of digital information you accumulate in one place.

[Mimi Hasan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is what you’ll have to read when you fail to reserve anything good at the library in advance and you’re stuck with something that hasn’t been checked out in probably six years to read on the first day of your vacation.

Spoiler alert! Email everything to your own gmail address!

[Blog on Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man-machine. The paperless office. Information overload. Yes, the time has arrived. The future is now. Yet with all the world’s information at the tip of our fingers, how does one keep this plethora of info from overtaking our daily existence? What if you could hire someone to consult you on organizing all this data into a manageable state?

Enter Douglas C. Merrill. As the top information officer for Google, Merrill knows a thing or two about what he’s talking about, including many key concepts designed to help you organize and more efficiently use the information on your computer and the internet. In “Getting Organized in the Google Era,” the author explains things like how to use Google, not just to organize the web, but as a search tool for your email, your computer data and more. The book shows how to make use of less obvious Google functions like it’s hidden calculators, metric converters, foreign-language translators, currency convertors, shipping tracking tools and more (movie showtimes, anyone?). He profiles addition tools around apps like Google Docs, G-mail, Outlook, and Google’s contextual calendar system to make managing more information, logical, smooth and efficient.

Interestingly, Merrill admits that digitizing all one’s information may not always be the best solution in every situation as a middle section of the book is devoted to demonstrating why even Google will not eliminate the need for paper anytime soon. (He explains why some tasks are still better to be handled the old-fashioned way.) Finally, Merrill devotes space to the discussion of the benefits of the omnipresent concept of cloud computing and when and how it can be useful to the reader.

Overall, Merrill’s book is full of useful suggestions that can save the reader far more time than it takes to implement the ideas in the book. His background at the source of many of these concepts makes this volume worth the read.

[Priscilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it is a right-brain look at a left-brain subject. It is a light, simple, postmodern-like explanation of organization, especially as it relates to technology. Many reviews I have read were disappointed in this book for the same reason I liked it.

While Merrill largely focuses on technology - and Google - this is also a book about organization in general. I enjoyed the opportunity to look at organization from a postmodern perspective while learning many advantages technology (Google especially) offers us. I use Google search and found Chapter 6: "How to Master the Art of Search" very helpful. (But I admit, didn't know that if you enter the word "time" and then the name of a city in the world, Google gave you the current time - in large type. I needed to know that and use it often.)

Techies will already know much of what Marrill shared, but I think even they would benefit from this book if they read it with the purpose of learning how to help those of us who are not techies.

[Jenny M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good at diagnosing the problem, weak on the solution. His prescription: keep everything online and Google as needed, except when there are superior Apple apps. Lotta help there.

[Phyllis Searles · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a 5 years old book now...but still good info. I enjoyed it. Learned a few things. Definitely worth the read. You can skip around reading sections and chapters; that was helpful

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a couple of things working against this book, but overall it was well written and I enjoyed it. First thing, it was written back in 2010 and I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I read it then, instead of coming to it 7 years later. Most of the tools and innovations lauded in the book are now pretty common-place among services and apps. Google is no longer the only service that offers these wonderful things. But it did get me to think about the available tools and use a few things differently. For instance, I already use Google Docs as a back up for all personal documents. I back up my pictures to the Google picture tool on the cloud. And I already have a personal calendar in Outlook (msn.com) that I use on my phone & computer to track family birthdays and pay days and such. But now I also created a 2nd calendar just for keeping track of my work hours (which change daily) and I've shared that calendar with my husband. Now he doesn't have to text me every single day to ask what time I'll be home (translation=what time will we be eating dinner)? He just opens the calendar app on his phone and he can see what my scheduled work hours are that day.

Also, Mr. Merrill has a system that he recommends for keeping track of passwords. He picks a lyric to a song and emails himself a clue, i.e. "Ain't Misbehaving." Then he'll take the first letter from each word in a line of lyrics. "I'm through with flirtin' It's just you I'm thinkin' of" would be ItWfIjYiTo, alternating caps and lower case. He recommends changing all passwords every 6 months, which is kind of an industry standard. However, I've recently started using a free online service called LastPass, and I'm quite happy with it. Passwords are encrypted adding an extra layer of protection.

The second thing that detracted from my enjoyment of the book was that the author/reader had a slight accent. It was just enough to continually distract me as I was listening. He pronounces most vowel sounds as long vowels. Turning "again" into "a gain" or "been" into "bean." It was ironic that he speaks about interruptions and distractions that take you out of your flow and he explains that this continual stops and starts are mentally fatiguing and make you exhausted. However, his long vowels have that exact effect, distractions that make me focus on how he's speaking, not on what he's saying.

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw this in a recent recommendation list and thought it would be a handy guide to Google tools; I should have looked at the publication date and realized how long ago (in tech terms) this was published. I quickly skimmed through and realized there was nothing particularly useful or innovative for me (apparently, this was around when Google Docs first came out!). Plus, there was way too much Silicon-Valley-type thinking for me ("who needs 9-to-5, you should work only on a schedule that works for you but also you should keep up on your email during vacations") as I'm very lucky to be in a different work situation where 9-to-5 works great for my company. Getting stuff out of your head ASAP is a great idea, but you should just go read Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen for the heart of that philosophy. And then maybe come back to this book or something like it for applying the principle to technology (as the Getting Things Done book happened even earlier in the digital era).

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

一本讓我加速放棄outlook的書.
雖然有點受不到作者在第一部分的碎碎唸, 但後面幾個章節還蠻實用的.

[Licinia Barrueco Kaliher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though outdated did find new tools. And learned more about the author

[Flo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good suggestions.

[JANE]

23 May 2022

[Alain Burrese · Rating 4 out of 5]

“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” by Douglas C. Merrill, former Chief Information Officer of Google, is an interesting look at using technology to organize things a bit differently than the traditional way organization has always been taught. The author explains why, and then provides the tools and way to do it. I liked some of the ideas quite a bit, and others I might have to become a little more of a “techie” to fully embrace. The author did have a chapter that discussed the benefits of using paper for some things, which made me glad, since I sure have not gone paperless.

As a former Google CIO, Merrill obviously embraces Google technology, and recommends it for various reasons. However, not everything is Google oriented. He uses and recommends other programs and sources as well.

The first few chapters discuss organization and goals a bit differently than I've seen before and I felt the author made sense and some very good points. The next chapters on how to organize presented a new concept for most organization books, and that is the search function we have on computers. It doesn't matter how things are organized if you can use the search function and find what you need. After all, why do we organize? So we can find things when we need it. Merrill teaches that if you know how to search effectively, you can find what you need, and that is the key to new organization. Again, I did like that he put a chapter in here that discusses the uses of paper, but I'm still not entirely convinced on all of the computer and paperless applications. (But for those who are more paperless, this book provides great examples and will reinforce your choices to work in the cloud.) There is a long section on why the author believes Gmail is the best way to go for e-mail.

The final part includes chapters that deal with stress and brain overload, as well as dealing with the unexpected. And finally a chapter on putting it all together and recommended tools by the author (many by Google, but many others too.)

The book is easy to read and understand, and each chapter ends with summary points of the key takeaways from the chapter.

Offices and the way we do things, as well as the amount of information we deal with, as changed with all of our technological advanced. It only makes sense that there should be new ways to organize all we deal with. This book provides guidance and tools to help you get organized in this new technology filled, or “Google” era.

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has some good advice, some dated advice, and some interesting bits.

The Good

-- Generally, save everything to the cloud and use search to find. Seems pretty reasonable, except for the safety concerns for information. This is also addressed by saving things like passwords to your email in a kind of code you can interpret. Still seems a bit dangerous to me...
-- Email yourself things. If you can't type, use a service converting phone messages to text which is emailed back to you. Sounds interesting...
-- Make sure your emergency info is available to those who might need it.
-- There's still a place for paper in the Googled world.


The Dated

-- Apple MobileMe service recommended (since discontinued)
-- Google Desktop search recommended (since discontinued). This was the main tool for desktop search, and Google's dropping it pointed out a weakness in the suggestions -- any vendor can drop a program for any reason at any time and leave you high and dry.
-- Google Reader recommended (since discontinued)
-- I don't recall discussion of tools such as Evernote, which would fit in very well with his objectives, aside from not being from Google. It would be interesting to know if this was because the book preceded Evernote's rise, or if it was considered and ignored.
-- The first 20% of the book is a discussion of short term vs. long term memory and the history of time-motion studies. This is the author's justification for the need for organizational tools and practices. If you know what those things are, this is just fluff and you can skip the first fifth of the book without ill effect.


The Interesting

-- The author purchased Boris Karloff's home and set about to do some work on it. I don't know why, but this struck me as the most interesting part of the book, probably just for the odd juxtaposition of Google exec and horror movie star.
-- The author's story of the health issues his loved ones faced was poignant and provides a reason behind some of the suggestions.


Overall, not bad for a quick read, and although the tool recommendations have become obsolete, the practices and the reasons to do things to organize are still valid and useful.

[Richard Gombert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love:
GMail hacks. I need to try more of these.
I still miss Google Health and Google Reader.

Like:
Go with what you know.

Dislike:
Author focuses on trying to off-load too much (I think) from our brains. There is all sorts of information out there that you can not tell if it is relevant or will be relevant. Put more stuff in your brain, get more incites.

Hate:
Too much Apple focus. Yes it is what the author uses the most. Apple products are solid working products, and I recommend them all the time to non-techies (because they are really hard to break), but I want to test/experiment with everything (though I keep at least one system pristine to do my work on).

One of my biggest issues is finding adequate time to test new organizational tools and apps. How long do I test to see if it truly offers me a new feature that I can use or solves an issue with the tools I am currently using.

I strongly agree that Google Calendar is the best. Each member of my family has a separate google calendar. My wife and IO then have a joint calendar (birthdays and anniversaries). We can each link to that. I used to be able to link my work calendar to my personal one. We link appropriate school, community and organizational calendars to our personal calendars, and then link each others.

It's great!

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dry subject made more interesting because of the writer's style. Douglas Merrill was the chief information officer for Google and he does push Google as a way of keeping organized. He tells entertaining stories with humor, and he uses song phrases in sidebars to illustrate his points.

He explains what "clouds" are. I think I understand it's a way to keep records on the internet where you can access them from any computer, apple or microsoft. I still don't feel secure with the idea, even though I've discovered Google.docs and love it. One of my uses is to keep a list of books I want to read, which now average about 75 items. I have a Mac computer, and I can work on a Microsoft computer, save it, come home and continue to work on it.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I might buy. It's a handbook for using online organizational tools, but more than that. The author has a PhD in cognitive psychology and was the CIO of Google. The first part of the book talks about our brains and how we think and how we want to organize things, which is not in keeping with all the ways we've been forced to organize things. No wonder we have so much difficulty with it. No wonder there are so many books on how to get organized. He doesn't tell the reader what to use in the "Google Era," but tells you what he finds useful and why. He calls these tools "scaffolding." And Google applications don't always rank at the top for him. I had to return this book to the library but hope to check it out again (or buy it) when I have the time to implement his ideas.

[Nupur Vanderlick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed reading this book quite a bit. Merrill's casual writing style coupled with organizational challenges in his life make this a very warm and forgiving book to read. He describes how certain tools can be used for certain organizational needs. The main tenet that struck to me was his insistence on NOT maintaining an empty inbox but to search for mail that we needed by placing tags. He offers about 12 organizing principles which challenge the usual assumptions of organization. Having served as the Chief Information Officer at Google, Inc. it is expected that he would endorse mostly Google products but with good reason. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to use the internet to help organize their life.

[Lynne Spreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this book at first, and I still think he could have skipped part one, in which he attempts to describe the ways humans behave. The meat of this book is in learning about the new(ish) digital ways to be organized. Some of them are simple, but you might not have thought of them, like using your email as a filing system. I really liked the section in the back of the book where he talks about products he likes, loves, or dislikes, based on function. This was a really good primer on taking advantage of new technologies to simplify your life in the digital era. If not for Part 1 I think I would have given this book four stars.

[Bologna_frog · Rating 2 out of 5]

looks cheesy. I expect I will already know a lot this.

Okay, not cheesy. This guy was really successful.

But his suggestions lack good explanations to make them easily applicable. Suggestions are quite general.

His Tips and Tricks are too specific. Technology will make them not useful.

File information so you can retrieve it quickly. Use Gmail and Google Documents.
-use filters in Gmail to sort info

Highlight different categories of information.
-On paper: many highlighters
-Gmail: filters and labels

REVIEW weekly what is important
-meeting notes
-spending?
-educational stuff?
-JOB stuff if you are looking for a job

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh...not that good. I was intrigued by his neuroscience background and the promise of insight into how to use digital tools/gadgets productively. The book delivered neither. Just very basic tips combined with a lot of stuff about gmail, etc., I already knew. It could be very useful if you don't know much about gmail or aren't used to using many online tools, but if you're the average young-ish person, you likely won't find many life-altering insights. And as far as the promise of cognitive insights from a neuroscientist, here's as deep as it gets: don't multitask and avoid frequent mental context shifts. There you go.

[VerJean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I could have used the time actually ORGANIZING something instead of reading a lot of words to give tips - some already well-known, a few interesting insights or phrased in a more compelling way, and some that are already outdated by the constant changes in our internet and Google world.
Could have been much more concise and outlined to be, indeed, helpful.
Interesting guy, but wasn't sure if his humor was worth the time it took to read through.
Maybe he as author and me as reader could have spent our time doing something more productive than dwelling on a "How to".
However, unless a book is impossible . . .I'm determined to FINISH it.
Some will find it helpful. Just wasn't for me.

[Peyton Stafford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Douglas Merrill was Google's first CIO, assigned with the task of making Google's technology align with the way our brains work, and of developing it from there. His book is a practical guide to understanding and implementing brain research-based organizational and coping methods in our information overload world.

I should add that, if you are a GTD fan and are already using G-Mail and other high tech organizational tools, such as GTDInbox, Xobni, etc., then you won't find much new in the book.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but it just doesn't do it for me. The author's thoughts are not as clearly organized as you'd hope for considering this is a book about organization. The tips for organizing your life digitally are not much help if you already use email, online calendars, searching, and cloud storage for at least some of your organization. It is written with a pleasant, easy-to-read style, so it wasn't a difficult read. I felt it lacked the substance of other organizing books out there, unfortunately. Oh well.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read. Briefly covers limitations of mind and personality, and then he goes over different things he has learned through his experience to become better organized. I enjoyed how he broke things down in to quick snippets that you can copy and rewrite to meet your own needs. Not ground breaking, but a good starting point to look at your own life and make decisions regarding your best method of organizing your work and life.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the information in this book I already knew and/or use, BUT there was some info that was new and made me think of my digital organization in a different way. This book would be very useful to non-techy people. I don't really agree completely with saving every email that has ever come through my inbox. I prefer to put emails into my google folders, which is still searchable. But using email to keep notes, etc... not so much for me.

[Adam G. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Imagine a world where information can be gleaned from a text box on a simple web page. Now imagine a world where such a concept is enough for a shitty self-help book. Most of the ideas revolve around "you should put things in the cloud because it's easier to organize" and "search means you don't really need to organize."

If you've never used Google, this may be moderately useful. It sure is a neat website.

[Jock Mcclees · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have rated it higher if I had read it instead of listened to it on CD. You really should read it and stop and try some of the things on the computer. Also, I don't know if there are updates, but at least one of the things suggested is no longer supported. Generally though, he has some good ideas in general for organizing and simplifying your life. He also has good ideas on technology to use to help.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I'll start by saying that I'm already a big fan of Google and even own a Chromebook laptop which I love, so I use Google Docs and Gmail a lot. I learned a lot about features in Gmail and some great Google search tips. I listened to it on audiobook, read by the author. I do have to say that his pronunciation of some words like project, again, and against with long vowel sounds was irritating.

[Kelly Harmon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The opening few chapters of this book are fascinating, telling about how the brain works and why common practices and social norms work against our being organized.

But there's very little meat in this book for anyone looking for "true" solutions. Merrill presents many options, and offers pros and cons, but doesn't offer any concrete advice.

If you're looking for a book to figure out why you might be disorganized, or on setting goals for yourself, this might be it.