Organizing Christmas and Other Things

"Organizing Christmas" sounds like a movie title. Was it by any chance?

Yes, I am organizing Christmas, or as the author of one of the Christmas organizing notebooks titles it: Simplifying Christmas. That makes it sound less heartless. I have decided, though, that the best time to figure out how to organize Christmas is actually after Christmas because that is when you figure out what you wish you had done or not done. You write it down and then try to find a solution to doing things the way you wish you had done it. Easier said than done.

As for "other things" I have been organizing "The Pile" of paper. Interesting and also humorous that "The Pile" was in capital letters in the authori's book. Oh, the book is "Getting More Done in Less Time" by Donna Otto. Lovely first name, don't you think? I have a pile of paper in a large plastic box and another one in a cardboard box near my desk. Yesterday I decided to tackle the smaller pile in the cardboard box. I read her chapter so I will know how to set up my "instant" file. (Not what she calls it, but what I call it. That would be a desktop file that you can instantly access to drop things into it and instantly access it to pull things out of it. You see, filing cabinets are "Black Holes." Once something gets put in the filing cabinet, it disappears. At least at my house it does.)

Okay, so I'm reading her chapter on "The Pile" and how to file it in the instant file. She talks about how after six months to a year, you decide that you are tired of spending at least 10 minutes several times a day to find something that you know you put into the pile and so you go through it and organize it. You end up tossing about 40% of the pile of paper. You vow never to let those papers stack up again. But you do.

It was the 40% that got me. I looked at my two boxes of papers. Would I really toss out 40% of those papers? I was highly skeptical. After all, those papers were put into The Pile(s) because they were important and I didn't want to lose them.

So, armed with my homemade instant file, some file folders, a pencil (for temporary labeling), and a good bit of The Pile, I set to work. When I finished, I looked at the small handful (not two hands, just one) of Post-It notes that I was going to throw away. I guess I showed Mrs. Otto, didn't I? Forty percent? Ha! More like 4%.

I decided to count what I had kept and what I had put in the "toss" pile on the table. (Yes, I know I should have brought a wastebasket with me, but I didn't.) Now you must understand that Mrs. Otto is talking about "items" not each separate piece of paper. So if you have an article that is two pages long, it counts as one item even though it's on two pieces of paper. Okay, I had 16 items in the "toss" pile. That meant that I should have had 40 items in the first place because 16 is 40% of 40. So, 40 - 16 = 24. I should have saved 24 things. Well, in my first file alone I had 10 items. No way was I going to have kept only 24 items with 7 more files to count! So I continued. 11...12, 13, 14...15, 16...17,18,19...20, 21, 22...23...24? I really had kept 24 items? I really had tossed 40% of The Pile? (So far at least.)

I will never let those papers stack up again like that!