Time Management for the Creative Person: Right-Brain Strategies for Stopping Procrastination, Getting Control of the Clock and Calendar, and Freeing U

by Lee Silber

Creative folks often know all too well that the muse doesn't always strike when you want it to, or when the deadline for your next brilliant project is creeping up on you like an ill-fitting turtleneck. Originality doesn't follow a time clock, even when you have to. While conventional time management books offer tons of instruction for using time wisely, they are traditionally organized in a linear fashion, which just isn't helpful for the right-brain...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609800906
• ISBN13: 9780609800904
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Crown Currency
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic for people who cringe at the words "time management"

If typical time-management advice leaves you cold, this book offers a refreshingly different perspective, and tons of practical ideas that are based on creative and abstract thinking, not linear, robotic instructions. This is for those of us who are usually 5 minutes late, who search the house for a slip of paper with vital information, and who find day-planners to be tedious and inconvenient. And this book never makes you feel guilty or inadequate for not following traditional advice on "productivity." This book proposes that organization and time management strategies should be personalized and comfortable. They should be empowering, not restrictive, and make your life more relaxed, not more stressful. Until reading this book, I had not considered that this was possible. I have adopted many of the author's ideas and specific suggestions, and I have continued using them for over a year since I first read it. I've increased my freelance earnings, created a workspace I love to work in, and reduced the stress in my life. If you cringe at most time-management books, please read this one.

Must Have For Creatives!

Forget it. You aren't going to convince me. I am well known for completing an awful lot of stuff fairly quickly but I still always have much to learn about time management and organization. Lee Silber's Time Management for the Creative Person is a treasure trove of little tricks, hints and exercises to get you on the organized straight and narrow. Stop denying you have a problem and go look through your closets. Or ask your best friend. They will tell you. Seriously, from the badly rattled to the mildy behind schedule this book helps all kinds of creative people to become inspired to set goals from themselves in an organized and timely fashion, and with Silber's usual sense of humor and fun. A quote used in the book: "A lot of frustrated artists are people who didn't take the opportunity when it was presented." - Jimmy Buffett. Don't miss out on the opportunity of this book.

For All Right Brain/Creative People Who WANT to be on time

Before I got this book I was five minutes late to practically everything, and was chronically overdue on deadlines. I tried to file, spent $$ on a file cabinet, which sat empty while various things sat on top of it. I have a daily planner, which really works (when I remember to use it). If this sounds like you, you might really benefit from this book.I got this book as a companion to the much more left-brained Julie Morgenstern's Organizing from the Inside Out. They are, for me, the perfect companions. Morgenstern helps me to figure out why things aren't working, but Silber is better (for me) at helping me to figure out how I can make my life more efficient and productive.Silber's approach is based on some very useful quizzes, which help you to see the weaknesses and incompatibilities in your own organizational strategy. This enables you to create your own personalized, individual time management plan. I would estimate that the chapter "Timing is Everything" saves me about 2 hours of needless wandering around a week (grocery shopping on Tuesday or Wednesday really works). Tickler files (both daily and monthly) have transformed my life: I no longer lose bills, important pieces of paper, or track of things I want to do.If other time management systems have failed you, give this one a try. It really works for me!

Finally, One Of Us Speaks Out!

As a full-bore right-brainer for my whole life, I have struggled with trying to fit accompishment into a linear society. I've also spent almost 9 years as an advertising creative, and have often gotten burned with not being able to manage my time well enough to meet deadlines. For the first time, I'm inderstanding that in order for me to be efficient and successful, I don't have to try to fit into someone elses mold. I can use what makes me a good creative and still handle a myriad of things as well as the proverbial "Franklin Planner' types. As much of a problem solver that I am, I never really thought that time management could be the domain of a right-brainer. I figured that what makes me creative is also prevented me from being able to plan, goal set and accomplish. This book (this will sound very trite) has given me new hope that I can get my busy life on track and nail the successes one by one. Thanks Lee!

A book for the creative type that is amusing & HELPFULL!

If a friend hadn't given me this book and said "READ THIS!" I would have been skeptical. As a creative person who considers herself organized, I didn't think that this book would speak to me - but I was mistaken! and what a pleasant surprise! One of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time (and how often do you hear that in a description of a "self help" book) - I've read it twice! . Since the author is also a creative type, his writing is extremely "user friendly" which is one of the reasons this book is so enjoyable. I found the layout of the book extremely useful. Lee Silber understands that creative types/the right brain thinkers do not like to necessarily do things in a specified (linear/left brain) order - therefor the book is organized in such a way that you can jump in at any chapter and skip around at your own pace. I also enjoyed the fact that certain ideas are mentioned more than once (another good thing for those of us with a short attention span!). By repeating specific ideas throughout, it makes it possible for them to actually sink in! (you can't be organized if you can't even remember how or where to start). When reading through the book, you actually begin to feel that the author is in your workspace, taking it all in - with his specific right-on-target suggestions of how to free up the clutter as well as your time - which he reminds us is the one of the most valuable things in your life (the time, not the clutter! ) It doesn't matter what type of creative person you are, his ideas are applicable to all people of varying creative tendencies. This book will help you get to the point where you will be able to spend more time on the creative things in your life. I highly recommend this book !