The top of my desk is full of paper of all sizes: a baseball schedule for my beloved Kansas City Royals, a list of phone numbers of editors I work with, printed spreadsheets for my business, and various other things, like writing tips. I have all of these slips of paper taped to my desk and I have a clear plastic desk cover over the top of it all so my information is always readily available...and the cover keeps it all neatly packaged and safe from things like coffee spills or hair balls from my cat.
But once in a while, the information becomes obsolete and I have to replace it with more slips of paper. The problem is, sometimes baseball schedules aren't the same size as last year; and sometimes I need to add a new list of phone numbers and the list doesn't fit anywhere, and I keep coming up with things to track in spreadsheets, and there certainly isn't any more room on my desk to display the printed versions.
So, once a year or so, I pull the plastic cover up, and detach everything under the cover and I re-arrange it all so it fits--ditching the things I no longer need. The stuff that doesn't fit ends up on the wall. When I'm done, it looks like I have it all together, which is so far from the truth it's ridiculous. I have a system in place for my business, and I'm continually streamlining it, but when it comes to organizational skills and keeping up with ever-changing things like schedules and contact information, I struggle.
I'm looking at my desk right now and it's obvious that I need to consider removing the plastic cover again for a little re-arranging session. I can't help but see a parallel to life in the mess though. I do everything I can to put things in order. I even go so far as to put a nice plastic cover over everything once it's organized. For me the cover looks a lot like my determination, if it actually had a physical appearance. But then I spill the proverbial cup of coffee and I find out that my determination isn't nearly as good at protecting my plans as the plastic cover on my desk.
So, I clean up the mess, print new pieces of paper, grab any new pieces of paper I need to add, and then I try to figure out how to make it all fit. Again. Frankly, I don't like that process. But I'm learning to accept it and to not freak out when it happens. I haven't run across some magical formula that helps me to to accept it. I guess I've just finally reached a point in my life in which I've seen enough change (for the better and for the worse) that I see it as part of the normal flow of life, and just acknowledging that helps.
