Piles, I Have Piles! And We're Not Talking Hemorrhoids Here

Organization: the act of organizing.

Gee, thanks Webster. That helped a lot. Not!

Organize:  arrange or distribute into parts with the proper officials so as to work, or carry out, a scheme efficiently.

Aacckk! Now I have brain freeze!

Organize: put into working order.

At last, something I can understand.

Most people seem to consider me an organized person. They often comment on how neat, clean and organized my house is. I look at the dust just itching for a smiley face and roll my eyes. Maybe they need glasses? The piles I see on all three of my desks (yes, three) plus the top of both filing cabinets beg to differ. I guess it all depends on your definition of organized. I think we too often assume organization comes with cleanliness. I dare to state that organization can exist in the midst of bedlam. My piles may look chaotic, but I know what’s in them.

What I have in the filing cabinets and desk drawers are mostly in order, but where do I put all this other stuff? Tax return paperwork sits in shoe boxes, years of shoe boxes. Organized, hmm, yes, I guess. Efficient, no way. Digging through box after box trying to find which year we made which change in which thing is a total pain. I have rethought this process. I am going to fix it. Some day. Soon. No, really! The problem with teaching old dogs new tricks isn't that they can’t learn. It’s that their bodies refuse to follow through. My spirit is willing. My bod is not.

I have writing notes on sticky pads, legal pads (large and small), notebook paper, typed pages I printed for corrections and scrap paper of every size and shape. My current projects are stuck in clipboards, folders and piles. One stack for each book. Do the wobbly heaps make me crazy at times? Yes! Am I going to change them? No!

I have a small bible for each story on the computer, but I also have the information on paper. The problem with that is neither is complete as I put new information on whichever I feel like at the time. Technically, that could count for organization according to good old Webster. I know where everything is. I just have to look two places to find it all. When I get fed up, I input it all on the computer. Then I start my schizophrenic system all over again.

I would say after reading the other blogs, that organization is whatever works for you. My work-oriented brain understands how to be more professional. My creative side doesn't want to take the time to make files much less put everything in them. If I can find what I need in five minutes or less, I’m good. If I have to hunt longer, I fix the problem. It’s not always pretty, but I’m comfortable with the madness in my method.

Someday I’ll go through and toss all the bits and pieces from my brain that created my stories. Hmm . . . maybe not. I’ll let my kids do that. It will serve them right for giving me grey hair J Someday I will get better organized. Nah, won’t do that either. I like my system. I like paper. I like picking up pen or pencil and feverishly scribbling down my epiphanies. Computers are great, but I’m just old enough to prefer holding what I’m looking at, like real books. I like to feel the crinkly texture of my rumpled notes. I like squinting while trying to decipher my atrocious handwriting. Maybe I just like doing things the hard way. Yeah, that’s it.