My Least Favorite Thing

I'm currently in an unused classroom at Widener University while the students are participating in the JETS engineering competition. I took the opportunity to bring a foot-thick pile of unsorted papers and spread them out on a nice, big open table. I can never do that at work or at home, because in both paces I am stymied by an implacable enemy. That enemy is my desk.

I seem to be incapable of keeping an orderly, neat desk with space available for me to put something down in front of me to work. I read somewhere that when a journalist mentioned to Einstein that his desk was very messy, he said, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?" My mind doesn't feel particularly cluttered. It's certainly more clear and orderly than my actual life. But I cannot for the life of me keep paperwork in order. It's actually demoralizing at times. I can clear tons of things off the desk and yet more remains.

I think my problem is in putting things away. My filing system is as follows: Every 6 months I clear everything from my "To File" folder, which at that point is about 18-24 inches tall and put it in a box and I seal the box closed with tape. If in the next 6 months I have no occasion to open the box I throw it away and start a new box. This is a functional system but not a good one, and it makes me cautious about putting things in the file box and so they remain on the desk.

At his point I have no solution to this. Years ago, when I was running the little ad agency, I bought a organizing self-help book called "Winning the War With Your Desk." One of the people who worked for me walked in, noticed the book and said, "My money's on the desk." That about covers it.