On top of the desk is a huge pile of sticky notes that I have to periodically go through and toss (where periodically means every 8 months or so although it should be weekly) and a small pile of receipts. mostly for expense reports I already filed. Also the empty file folders needed for filing the stuff I haven’t filed and, of course, the stuff I haven’t filed.

Cleanup blocker? Time. And the alarming, offputting enormity of the piles. That don’t get smaller with time. Hrm.

why don’t i clean up?
feel like other things are always urgent
if i put items of paper to be actioned away, i tend to forget them and never come back to action them
under the desk – I’m with Cheryl on this, coat hangers, shoes.. eeek!!!

Stever, i love your podcast – please help!!

Let’s don’t even look under the desk…

Much of this would not be clutter with better organization. Then there’s the stack of stuff that is just plain clutter consisting of:
Papers for current project
Notepad
Old notes that haven’t been filed
A programming book
A spiral bound calendar I almost never use.

I have clutter most of the time because I don’t make the time to keep it organized and thus waste even more time when it becomes necessary to sort it out. It usually grows to a point where I can stand it no longer and I spend an hour cleaning. All those 10-30 second “do it now” opportunities couldn’t possibly add up to an hour a week so it’s grossly inefficient.

You may have seven evil gnomes, but in my case it’s 4-5 evil company executives that keep changing my direction on a whim – err, I mean, on sound business decisions.

Why don’t a find a solution? Cascading problems: to give this stuff a place, I need a bigger desk, a bigger desk would need the room reorganized, but really I need to move, but for that I need the next steps in my career mapped out.

Wow, that looks a lot more irrational typed out like that.

1. Reference for ideas I think I want to write about (and rarely get to)
2. Lists of stressful beliefs left over from sessions of The Work (see TheWork.com) that I once wanted to inquire into
3. Unfiled expenses for my tax records
4. Objects for which I have not yet found a place
5. Coupons and offers with expiration dates coming up

What keeps me from actingon the piles?
1. Stories about time
2. Stories about money
3. Stories about “I don’t wanna”
4. Stories about having ADD and being disorganized and overwhelmed
5. “I’ll do it later.”
6. “If I don’t keep this in front of my face, I’ll forget about it and won’t act upon it.” (Never works.)

In short…stories…which take up headroom so that I lack energy and creativity to take action.

I try to use Dave Allen’s GTD approach. I’m not very adept at it yet, especially the part that says “revisit all your tasks and projects weekly”.

I usually go for a few days with an impeccable desk, then some event occurs which has me scrambling to find something. When it happens, everything gets thrown into an indescribable upheaval. And it stays there until I can’t take it anymore and the cycle begins anew.

The best antidote I’ve found: have clients come over on a regular basis.

L

I haven’t figured out where to put everything – I desperately need a better filing system and cupboards/drawers. That’s a good excuse, I guess – really it comes down to HATING to clean. And typically if it sits around long enough I end up not needing it and can throw it away! The books, however, taunt me every day……

Any solution you have would probably make my world better