Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
    Unavailable
    The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
    Unavailable
    The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
    Audiobook16 hours

    The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

    Written by Daniel J. Levitin

    Narrated by Luke Daniels

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin shifts his keen insights from your brain on music to your brain in a sea of details.

    The information age is drowning us with an unprecedented deluge of data. At the same time, we're expected to make more-and faster-decisions about our lives than ever before. No wonder, then, that the average American reports frequently losing car keys or reading glasses, missing appointments, and feeling worn out by the effort required just to keep up.

    But somehow some people become quite accomplished at managing information flow. In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel-and how readers can use their methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and time.

    With lively, entertaining chapters on everything from the kitchen junk drawer to health care to executive office workflow, Levitin reveals how new research into the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory can be applied to the challenges of our daily lives. This Is Your Brain on Music showed how to better play and appreciate music through an understanding of how the brain works. The Organized Mind shows how to navigate the churning flood of information in the twenty-first century with the same neuroscientific perspective.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 19, 2014
    ISBN9780698162235
    Unavailable
    The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

    Related to The Organized Mind

    Related audiobooks

    Professional Skills For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Limited Energy

      Apr 19, 2021

      Limited Energy
      4 min read

    • Article

      Top of Mind

      Oct 23, 2018

      Top of Mind
      4 min read

    • Article

      San Francisco Is Smarter Than You Are: The city is a big brain that can solve big problems.

      Oct 23, 2014

      Its achievements are undeniable. Having hosted what some historians call the greatest creation of wealth in human history,1 the San Francisco Bay Area had the fastest growth rate in the United States in 2012,2 the highest per-capita gross domestic pr

      6 min read

    • Article

      Do You Have Brain Overload?

      Feb 24, 2020

      Do You Have Brain Overload?
      2 min read

    • Article

      Anti-age Your Brain

      Sep 23, 2019

      Anti-age Your Brain
      2 min read

    • Article

      For The Wearable Tech Of Tomorrow, We Need To Rethink Our Human Rights

      May 11, 2023

      Through technology, we're now able to track our steps, our heart rate and even our vascular age. But as technology advances, there is a new metric to access – our brain waves. New ‘brain sensors’ promise much, but as Nita Farahany – an author and pro

      4 min read

    • Article

      Clean Thinking

      Jun 17, 2020

      Clean Thinking
      6 min read

    • Article

      Clean Thinking

      Jun 17, 2020

      Clean Thinking
      6 min read

    • Article

      Beat Brain Overload

      Mar 7, 2019

      Beat Brain Overload
      2 min read

    • Article

      News From Nowhere

      Jun 5, 2023

      News From Nowhere
      2 min read

    • Article

      Running Out Of Storage

      Nov 6, 2022

      Running Out Of Storage
      5 min read

    • Article

      How To Train Your Memory

      Dec 2, 2019

      How To Train Your Memory
      6 min read

    • Article

      How To Think Yourself Smart

      Jun 11, 2020

      How To Think Yourself Smart
      2 min read

    • Article

      Mind your MEMORY

      Jul 9, 2023

      You haven’t run for a while and when you finally do a few laps, your lungs are burning and your heart races. Or perhaps it’s been a long time between gym sessions and the morning after a workout every muscle in your body aches – even ones you never k

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ageing And Memory

      Mar 16, 2022

      DR MICHAEL ELSTEIN is a Sydney-based anti-ageing physician and writer. He is the author of three books including his latest, The Wellness Guide to Preventing the Diseases of Ageing. He has also designed the app The Diet Guide to Ageing Prevention. I’

      3 min read

    • Article

      Times Of Distraction

      Mar 1, 2023

      Times Of Distraction
      17 min read

    • Article

      Boost Your Brain

      Jan 5, 2024

      Boost Your Brain
      4 min read

    • Article

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Dec 5, 2023

      My 3 Greatest Revelations
      4 min read

    • Article

      An Existential Crisis in Neuroscience

      Dec 30, 2020

      Happy Holidays. This week we are reprinting our top stories of 2020. This article first appeared online in our “Maps” issue in January, 2020. On a chilly evening last fall, I stared into nothingness out of the floor-to-ceiling windows in my office on

      13 min read

    • Article

      5 steps to DECLUTTER YOUR BRAIN

      Aug 19, 2021

      The flow of information we’ve had to absorb since the start of COVID-19 has been enormous and endless. Details about variants, travel restrictions, rules, exposure sites, testing and plenty of things to check and double-check. And don’t forget to che

      2 min read

    • Article

      Signs Of trouble

      May 11, 2023

      Signs Of trouble
      7 min read

    • Article

      Bust Through Brain Fog

      Jan 8, 2023

      Bust Through Brain Fog
      4 min read

    Reviews for The Organized Mind

    3.5/5

    157 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      The amount of retention that you gain through Levitin's careful prose is surprising. He elucidates concepts clearly and succinctly while providing relative background information to justify his points. There are also many real-world and abstract examples to support his findings, which helps with the overall flow and poise of the book. This is a mind-building exercise. Through what Levitin teaches, I feel like I have a better comprehension on how to separate important information from that which is not. A groundbreaking book in modern non-fiction, it deserves all the aplomb it gets.

      4 stars.
    • 4/5
      The academic approach to keeping and finding information is very appropriate. The author systematically structures and organizes the literature and practical stories into a cohesive and interesting book. Although it can be read cover to cover, I also find myself flipping to sections and digging into specific topics. This is a well organized and easy to access work.
    • 4/5
      Honestly I did not read the entire thing. Just some parts. It seems to have great information, from the parts I read. I would recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I highly recommend this book, which is somewhat odd, since I don't think it actually sticks that well to its ostensible subject and some of the chapters don't do a particularly good job of giving you practical advice on dealing with information overload! However, the brain science is so interesting, and Levitin is such an engaging writer that this turns out to be a far more interesting read than many new books you run across today. Try it, you'll like it!
    • 5/5
      "The Organized Mind" presents a wealth of information on all aspects of organizing. While the title indicates that the writer is going to be talking about the mind, he does much more than that. I learned how to organize my home, benefits of living in a clutter free environment; how to organize paper and computer files, how an organization is organized and yes, how an organized person is able to make better decisions.The book tells us about the critical thinking skills essential to live in this Information age with brains which haven't caught up - physiologically evolving slowly from the hunter-gatherer phase.An asset in any library; and Oh! you can go to that Google job interview with confidence after reading this book!
    • 4/5
      This long but readable book is hard to summarize, comprising neuoropsychology, Bayesian statistics, and practical advice about organizing time and spacThe first chapter is an overview of the psychology of organization, including information about the unreliability of perception and memory, factors that impair organization. The next chapter describes the daydreaming or "default mode" network, that I have read about elsewhere in fMRI experiments. The author claims to have discovered that the insula is the localization of the switch between the default mode network and the central executive network. The central executive is responsible for focusing attention on a task. There is also an attentional network that monitors incoming stimuli for salience. He claims consciousness occurs when brain areas that are monitored by the attention network have enough activity to turn on the executive. The claim is that the brain remembers details of a very large number of things, and the "act of remembering is bringing on line the collection of neurons that were active during the original experience". The pointers to the filing system are stored in the frontal cortex. Externalizing memory is essential for organization to function. The David Allen system for indexing notes on 3 by 5 cards is one such principle.Transactive memory is the knowledge that other people in your social network have certain areas of expertise.Most people discount situational explanations for behavior, inferring a stable personality trait in people who are only situationally shy, angry, irritating, etc.The chapters on Bayesian statistics, and on time organization, were the most informative.
    • 5/5
      When I last read Levitin, he was waxing scientific about our brains on music. That book was a little on the dense side but well done. This time he picks what seems like it would be a more challenging topic -- how we process information, and crafts a thoroughly readable, enjoyable treatment that could easily have been even denser. Levitin tells us much about how memory works, what we are capable of achieving, and, just as importantly, what we cannot. He discusses at length the fallacy of multitasking: everyone thinks they do it, some even think they are good at it, but in reality, it is inefficient and wastes more time than it ever saves. In passing he also discusses a fundamental limitation of our attention span -- we can reasonably keep track of two, and not more than two, things at the same time. Two people talking at once we can manage, add a third, and it becomes jumbled noise. Mental gymnastics are only part of what this book is about. Arranging information in conventional ways such as filing systems, both physical and digital. are covered. Techniques on remembering people and faces are covered. And probably my favorite part includes critical thinking: how to properly evaluate data and ask the right questions. One thing I found fascinating regarded treatment of prostate cancer. It is common among men, and often is aggressively treated by chemotherapy. Doctors point to a high rate of success, so they continue to prescribe this treatment to all who are afflicted. But after looking further into the numbers, Levitin discovered that only 5% of those treated have their life spans extended because of the treatment, while 25% experience negative effects from the treatment, including some (about 5%) who have their lives actually shortened by the treatment. When confronted with the data, oncologists appeared to be severely challenged by the simple math. That their patient is 95% more likely to be better off not getting the treatment is irrelevant to them. "But what if you are in the 5%?" they ask. Levitin contends that there is a lot of such deceptive practices, here and elsewhere. The media is a particularly egregious source. "Ebola cases in the US are up 300%", making it sound like an out of control epidemic rather than an increase from 1 patient to 3. Such percentages have their place among epidemiologists studying a disease, but alone they mean nothing but are often used to spread FUD. The book wraps up with a critical slam against crowd-sourced information such as Wikipedia (he said the same thing I've been saying for years -- it's not a trustworthy source because anybody can edit and therefore the sources of the information cannot be trusted). Acceptable, peer-reviewed sources are available, he contends, if one takes the effort to find them. It's not just what you know, but having the confidence that what you know is true and correct.
    • 2/5
      I did not finish listening to this audio. It seemed to on, and on about experiments without adding anything I have not read elsewhere. Maybe it gets better but after 3 hours I had enough.
    • 4/5
      Much of the valuable productivity literature I've read has been written by professionals with experience in personal or business organizational systems who teach lessons learned from consulting and coaching over many years. The Internet is bloated with blog posts outlining individual productivity systems or productivity tips that may be transferable, in whole or part, to the situation of the reader. Dr. Levitin, by contrast, has expertise in the inner working of the mind and approaches productivity and organized thinking from the grey matter out.

      According to Dr. Levitin's site, he "...earned his B.A. in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science at Stanford University, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Oregon, researching complex auditory patterns and pattern processing in expert and non-expert populations." Dr. Levitin has a gift for expressing complex scientific facts and theories in practical, but not simplistic, terms.

      For productivity, Dr. Levitin blends neuroscience and the historical development of organizational systems to suggest ideas for improving data management, information filing and retrieval, and handling information. Like productivity expert David Allen, of the Getting Things Done (GTD) system, Dr. Levitin suggests developing external systems that efficiently handle information so we can use our minds for more productive work. Whereas Allen focuses on the "mind like water" result of efficient external systems, Dr. Levitin focuses on why the mind achieves this state from a medical perspective.

      Dr. Levitin's section on the executive and daydream capacities of mental thought were extremely interesting and provide insight into some cognitive challenges we face because of the flow of information, technology, and the "multitasking" culture mentality. He also suggests ways to encourage either mode to engage for suitable tasks. His discussion of "flow state" and how to achieve it is very valuable.

      Like "The Invisible Gorilla", the book also challenges what we think we know about how our mind and memory works and what science has revealed. He provides medical insight into the notion of multitasking and what really happens in our minds and the mental impact of task switching on our productivity and efficiency. He also gives us a mind tour of dreaming and learning that is both education and useful.

      An important part of this work is the discussion of critical analysis skills and decision making structures to help when we are bombarded with information. It is important to analyze the information package (source, potential biases, authority, etc.) as well as the content of the information itself. His discussion of Wikipedia helps explain the challenge of handling data wisely. He also provides a framework for helping patients and caregivers use medical tests and information to make better healthcare decisions with the diagnoses and research available that speaks to their medical need.

      The Organized Mind is a user guide for the mind.
    • 5/5
      Extremely insightful. Book gives practical and easy to implement ways on improving your life with cognitive enhancements. Helped me regain control of the chaotic flow of information I take in everyday.
    • 5/5
      We are drowning in information. Levitin illustrates this with a biological example (15). Google Scholar reports 30,000 research articles on the nervous system of a squid. You can have a PhD in biology and never know all that’s been written on the topic!This superabundance of accessible information has left us confused. We waste our time away making meaningless decisions that would not have been a matter of choice a few decades ago. This plethora of information can leave us overwhelmed. We have this vague sense that we can’t quite keep on top of everything we should know.Daniel Levitin draws on scientific research studies as well as time management gurus to help us understand the problem. More than that, he offers practical ways for us to (as the subtitle says), think “straight in an age of information overload.”One of the most interesting parts of Levitin’s book was his attack on the myth of multi-tasking. While we think we can do many things at once, “what we really do is shift our attention rapidly from task to task” (306). This leads to two problems:1. We don’t devote enough attention to any one task.2. We decrease the quality of our attention to a task.Levitin is aware that self-professed multitaskers will disagree with this research. In one of the best scientific jargon-laden insults I’ve read, “a cognitive illusion sets in, fueled in part by a dopamine-adrenaline feedback loop, in which multitaskers think they are doing great” (306). Uni-taskers unite!Multitasking is just a small part of this 500 page book (400+notes and index) in which every section had something interesting and enlightening to offer. If you want to understand more about how your mind works and how you can stay in control of the modern information torrent, Levitin is a great guide.
    • 3/5
      For a book with the objective of reducing information overload, it really overloaded the information. There are some good tidbits early on, but most of the latter two thirds of the book is just about where all the information is coming from. Oh, five of the chapter titles start with "Organizing", but ... not really.

      Something many people don't realize:Externalizing memory doesn’t have to be in physical artifacts like calendars, tickler files, cell phones, key hooks, and index cards—it can include other people. The professor is the prime example of someone who may act as a repository for arcane bits of information you hardly ever need. Or your spouse may remember the name of that restaurant you liked so much in Portland .
      This made me laugh/snort:And apparently, in the online world, political leaning is more sensitive and less likely to be disclosed than age, height, or weight. Online daters are significantly more likely to admit they’re fat than that they’re Republicans.
      An obvious one in "What to Teach Our Children", after an analysis of what was pushed by search engines (without validation):Because the Web is unregulated, the burden is on each user to apply critical thinking when using it.
      A lot of interesting material in here, but in my opinion, not a lot of actual "hows" for a casual reader. Maybe there is and it just seemed too obvious to me?
    • 1/5
      I started reading The Organized Mind and have abandoned it as life is too short to waste time on verbose trivia. In abandoning this book I am applying the author's approach to dealing with information overload: filtering out trivia.The Introduction takes up fourteen pages to say what could be said in one: Our minds are overloaded by the amount of information we receive and the number of decisions we have to make. Reduce the load on your mind by filtering out trivial information and not wasting time making decisions on trivial issued. Oh! I said it in two sentences. The main text is no less verbose. It contains endless anecdotes of people being overloaded with information and exhausted from making decisions. On page 77 it starts to offer advice on how to declutter. This too is verbose and tiresome. I quickly got to the point of skimming by reading the first sentences of paragraphs. That only led me to the conclusion that most of the paragraphs were unnecessary.As Levitin advises, avoid wasting your time on unimportant things. He is right. Apply his approach and avoid this book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Very interesting examination of the neurobiology underlying human memory and organizational techniques that can be used to make life run more smoothly.