This morning, I finally got up the will to clean off my desk, which – with its voluminous, disorganized piles of paper, magazines and books – had started to look more like a landfill than a work space. As a result, I’ve been more productive today, and life seems just a bit more manageable. I know most CLO readers probably don’t care too much about the vagaries of my personal organization, but this was small victory of sorts for me, and I wanted to share it.
I bring this up because I’m sure there are some of you reading this who are feeling similarly overwhelmed by all the clutter around you. It’s surprising how quickly, in our increasingly “paperless” society, we can accumulate so many documents and paper-based media that’s of marginal to no use. And of course, the absence of paper doesn’t mean lack of clutter. These days, you’re just as likely to find disorder in your desktop or e-mail Inbox.!@!
For those of you who find yourselves in these circumstances, I have just a few words of advice: Get organized today. Not tomorrow, or next week. Now. Do you have other, more important things to do? Of course. That’s probably why you’re in this situation at present. You can always find other stuff that needs to be taken care of, but trust me, if you want to get those things done better and faster, getting your surroundings in order will help out a great deal. And I think you’ll find the whole experience to be rather cathartic.
Anyone out there want to share their horror stories of disorganization? Give us a shout!
