I take a sip of hot chocolate, look out at the snow-filled frigid expanse of Devil Track Lake, then turn back to my task. It is the first day of a new year, a day of football watching and social get-togethers for many. Others take the day to make resolutions and contemplate their lives.
I have chosen this day to “organize” the piles in my office and have fortified myself with a concoction of cocoa, milk and sugar.
I look at the “piles” on my desk and wonder why I allow them to grow.
The world is made up of two different kinds of people. Those who take care of paper work in a timely and efficient manner, leaving an organized and clean desktop and—those who don’t.
I fall into the latter category. I am a “pile” person. As mail arrives … mail order catalogs… credit card receipts… I toss items into various piles. Not bills. Those I pay or give to my proficient and organized spouse.
The amount of paper entering everyday life is overwhelming. I always mean to deal with it but not at the moment. So I throw it on a pile to deal with—tomorrow.
For the past three months, my “pile’ has grown. It divided into two piles that eventually spread on to my plant-holding table.
I finally took a stand. “As soon as the holidays and this rotten three-week flu are over, I’m cleaning up the pile,” I vowed.
Today, January 1, 2012, that is what I am doing.
The hot chocolate is energizing, and soon I am tossing “stuff” into a large trash bag.
Unwanted catalogs are the easiest to throw. I toss a Land’s End with a wistful glance at the powder blue autumn jacket I forgot to order. Last year’s Mother’s Day cards from my children are harder to throw. I set them aside. I am aware of the old saying,” Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow,” but geez, there’s a limit.
The afternoon wears on. My hot chocolate cup empties and the large trash bag fattens. I’m feeling pretty good about the emerging tidy look on my desktop.
Then I spot a copy of The Whole Dog Journal, with a section on dog training—a must read. I also set this aside.
By late afternoon, my desk is looking good and a feeling of pride fills me. I did it.
Unfortunately a new pile is already sprouting. In addition to the dog-training journal I plan to read and the Mother’s Day cards I’ll save, my brother’s birthday card waits to be addressed.
Tomorrow.
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