On Getting Organized

I took a two week vacation at the end of the year. Unprecedented. I brought the laptop with me to San Diego and Chicago, but only to read the newspaper online and check out Twitter followers--I swear.

We went to Borders in Encinitas (or near there) and browsed books. Now, I don't normally engage in print, but I wanted to change it up during my vacay and revisit those things that used to get my creative juices flowing--fiction titles.

I circled the fiction section and nothing screamed buy me. I started to wander toward the front of the store.

"Where are you going?" H-band said, sensing I was heading for the nonfiction. "No self-help!"

"But I like self-help."

"No working!"

Self-help isn't working, not for me. It's like candy--a treat. I found the time management aisle and breathed in deeply. Even the odorless, purposeful fumes gave me a high. What was the title of that one book? Getting Things Done. Yes, that's it. I found it!

Husband found me sitting cross-legged in the aisle.

"This is fun for me," I told him.

Every day I read a few pages, refusing to eat--I mean, read--the whole thing in one sitting. I'd glean a few new learnings and implement them on the spot. I created a "DO NOW" folder in my Outlook one day, bought a file labeler the next. Dismantled the home office and made proclamations while H-band was home sick watching an entire season of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations".

"I'm clearing the second shelf!" I said, referring to our three-tiered office organizer. "Your stuff is going on the third." The empty space on the second shelf made me giddy with possibility.

The next day, while H-band was with Tony in Russia, I yelled from the bathroom, "How much hydrocortisone do you need? It's getting tossed, Babe."

And with these unwanted tubes went the shower gels, yellowing Band-Aids, pills without accompanying packaging to identify them, make-up I somehow inherited that weren't in my colors.

I get this way, ambitious about organizing my time and my stuff. Yet I felt nervous. I'd done this before. Before life set in. But during any time off I forget the deluge of stuff that gets in my way, in front of my intentions. I wonder, will I stick to this? Will I put things where they belong, or will I let it rush over me and allow it to pool in the corner? Will I wake up saying to myself what will get done and then do it, or will I forget what that thing is by noon?

Will I forget how to tap this place where I have options, time, and creativity?

I'm working on it.
 

Comments

[genevieve]

Jory, I think we were twins in another life. What is it about holidays that makes us writerly girls want to tidy up??? WHAT is that about?
Just wondering. Thanks for 'fessing up, I'm embarrassed about how exhausted I've made myself by tidying in my hols. I need another holiday, actually.

[c lo]

why ya gotta be going and bein all local/fellow gemini/funny now when I'm trying to be surly about BlogHer??? :)

[Dustin]

I read the book, up to the point where you have to start actually DOING what it says.

I think there's a part of me that is afraid I'll lose the quirky, creative qualities that make me... me. Getting organized ranks up there with a root canal on the enjoyment factor for me. But, I also think a zen-like environment would be more helpful than the clutter surrounding me. Besides, my wife would be definitely be grateful.

Dangit! Now you made me think I should open that cursed book back up. ;)

[Zip n Tizzy]

It's kind of a pre-spring cleaning, With our climate, who's to say when spring officially begins?

I've been doing it too.