I am going to pick on my beloved wife for a minute. I was looking at her home office and noticed she had papers scattered everywhere. Not only on the desk but under it.
Some of the papers important. Some not.
My first question to myself was “who can work this way?” Answer: nobody at least efficiently.
My second question was “How does this happen?” I mean, she didn’t plan to organize her office like an Exxon bathroom. It started out simple, attractive and easily accessible.
So what is the obstacle to organizing our stuff and more importantly our lives?
In thinking it through, I realized it wasn’t all her fault. Our kids can get into the area and leave their little messes. I’ve probably left a CD lying around here or there when I went to fix a problem on her computer.
So we can chalk up ‘other people’ as being a barrier to our organization. Others don’t care about our work areas as much as we do. They care about what they want and if it makes a mess for you, sorry – but they’re in a hurry.
But what else gets in the way of our organizing?
I noticed there was a small trash can (full) sitting in front of (blocking) her filing drawers. These are the same filing drawers I painstakingly helped her organize – ala GTD – complete with labelmaker’d file folders.
Could this little trash can be part of the problem?
You bet it is. Because something as simple as filing a sheet of paper into a file folder gets an upgrade from a mere task to a project.
Project: How to file a sheet of paper when your work area is cluttered:
- Get large trash bag
- Empty trash can
- Find new place for trash can.
- Open drawer
- Find file
- File paper
It might sound silly, but that’s how the mind works. If something simple becomes a project, then you will resist it more. Won’t you?
But then you can expand on that to cover the whole office. Everything there is now an obstacle. To do one thing, you’ve got to do 6 or more other things to get it done. It should be simple, but it isn’t.
You see, it doesn’t matter the size of the obstacle that matters, it’s the emotional meaning we attach to it. And get this. Sometimes the emotional meaning makes no sense!
As someone who likes projects, I’d often rather haul landscaping timbers, dig holes and build backyard planters than I would rather empty a shoebox full of items to “put away.” That box has sat near my dresser for a month now. Why not empty it? Because of the emotional “project” I’ve made of it.
Sometimes just shedding conscious light on our mountains made of molehills can make all the difference…
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I hope you emptied her trash
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Yeah, more than that. I’m helping her organize the office again.
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Heh, you should see the mess i create. Wherever I go and whatever I do, a mess is imminent. Really, that’s just the way some people are. Personally, the chaos is a sort of order to me, while if I tidy up, can’t find a thing.
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I can relate. I used to feel the same way too. However as I’ve gotten older and more responsibilities, I’ve found I simply cannot work in a cluttered environment.
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Such a simple thing can become a big mesh if we not manage it. thanks for the tips.
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I have a child who did not inherit any sort of organizational gene. Her father is a tornado, and that is the trait she inherited (and I say inherit, because she was not raised by him) Growing up, she created a mess wherever she went. As she’s reached adulthoood, the organizational side of her brain has finally kicked in, and when she’s in my home, I can actually find the floor.
Possibly part of her problem is that you are doing the organizing. People think differently, and unless the system is working for her, and not her for the system, her work area will always be out of sorts.
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Tammy, you make a good point. I do want to mention that I am not doing all the cleanup. I am only helping.
Plus, it’s not entirely her fault as the whole family has contributed.
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Interesting post. Has she ever thought of starting off with a paperless office? I ask my colleagues to conduct all their writing with a mini-PC so no paper work is created in the first place. Only invoices are in paper and our office is working very well since 1/2 a year on that.
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Not everything turns out as we wish, therefore, is to work hard to ensure that all turned out!
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I know how you feel, my girlfriend is a translator and she has to be the most messy person on the planet, although every argument I throw hits a brick wall, she has an order to her mess, I feel for you man.
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