The Case For Organization

Over the summer as one trip would lead into the next and I spent less and less time in my office because I just was not around I let mess pile up. Stacks of mail, catalogs, bills and invitations sat feet high at my sitting desk. Portfolios of work I needed to complete competed for space at my walking desk with art projects, letters from camp and lists of things to do.

Always at the top of each list was “Clean up my office.” Even though it was ranked number one it never seemed to get done. As my office was getting out of control I let my walking slip from 20,000 steps a day to 10,000. My excuses were many; 10,000 is still good, 20,000 takes a really long time, my hips needed a break, but mostly my office was so horrible I could hardly stand to be in it.

With the loss of half my steps came the gain on the scale. Just a pound or two, but I know what happens when I take my eye off the well-proven plan. It was time to face reality, get out of “summer-head” where I am not thinking about the important stuff, just fun and travel and sleeping in.

Last week I made a concerted effort to get back to 20,000 steps a day. With my office still a mess I upped my steps to about 15,000 a day. It was better, but I was still frustrated by not making back to my long fought for goal.

Rather than just fighting it out on the walking desk amongst the piles of three-month-old mail I decided to get off the treadmill and clean things up. Some of the sorting and throwing away I could do while walking with a trashcan on one side and recycling bin on the other. Some of the work involved making new file folders and going to the financial filing vault, known as the furnace room.

I came across photos of Carter from kindergarten I had gotten out for some unknown reason as well as stamps that now required the addition of a three-cent stamp to make them worthy to mail a first class letter. I put everything in the right place, which mostly was the trash.

Suddenly I was getting more than 20,000 steps done in my more cleaned up office. I no longer had guilt starring me in the face driving me out of the room that made me feel bad. The number of items of my to do list decreased by seventy percent almost overnight.

I was happier, I was thinner, and the pace of my walking increased dramatically all because I cleaned up my office. I realized the cluttered view I had at my desk was confusing my mind. The newly cleared space gave me new energy. My computer even started working faster. The spinning beach ball disappeared once the piles of paper were put away, how did my computer know? Whatever the good juju is I want to keep it going.