Ever since I was very little, I have had a very interesting relationship with organization. The majority of the time, the mere thought of the task conjures up one strong emotion: blah. Categorizing, stacking, filing, labeling… it’s all very dull. Mundane at best. I’ve found that the only time when I actually enjoy organizing is when it involves items which hold some of my interest, like music or art supplies. So, for this assignment, I chose to challenge myself and organize my desk in all its overflowing glory.
When I first looked at my desk, I just didn’t know where to begin. There were textbooks supporting mountains of worksheets, which were buried under scattered pens, pencils, and the occasional stray eraser. My laptop lay in the middle of the disaster, silently screaming out to be rescued from an inevitable avalanche.
After a little mental prep-talk, I decided to work top down. I carefully picked up all my writing utensils and sorted them into different containers according to type. The most tedious job was next, as I filed away all the loose papers into various folders and binders by subject, and threw away all the old and irrelevant ones. I finally hauled all my textbooks onto a nearby shelf. To my surprise, there was a whole host of tidbits and leftover who-knows-what’s that were hiding beneath all those books, so after that was all swept off into the garbage bin, the wood of my desk was visible at last.
The effect of this seemingly obvious discovery that I could in fact see and feel the surface of my desk was shocking. I felt as though an enormous burden was lifted off my shoulders because I realized that all the clutter on this small table had actually been an obstacle in my way—I was always trying to work around it. Before I had gotten started on the daunting task of organizing, I thought very little about what all I carelessly cast to the side, and how those little things can build up into a mountain of stress in no time. With every pen I sorted, every used-up scratch paper I discarded, my outlook on my workload became much clearer and more confident.
Ever since the first time my parents told me to clean my room and taught me the importance of doing so, I’ve understood that organization is extremely beneficial in order to stay on track and know where everything is. But, I realized something after this simple project of combing through and tidying my desk: organization can also be a way of letting go of unnecessary things. Day after day, scores of odd papers and ideas accumulate around me, and I’ve realized that I rarely take the time to just sit down and purge the superfluous ones that all tying me down. After this project, my mind feels cleaner as well, and I can now think about and move into tomorrow with more ease.
I will definitely be incorporating this useful and therapeutic exercise into my life more often, so that my burdens never become too heavy.
Anya - it's interesting you think organizing things is boring: I think it's somewhat engrossing (although you might not disagree). It is mindless - you're right; it can be mundane, but it's something that, if I have nothing better to do, I enjoy doing. It makes me feel as if I'm being productive with my time (usually if I have nothing clearly productive to do - which is today a rare occurrence).
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, organizing things in my room is also something I frequent, as the sheer amount of paper that makes its way through my 'office' is somewhat unnerving. You might find things like proxy vote forms, financial newsletters, cards, magazines, or simply articles others have cut out for me. Yet like you - there's always a stream of material that accumulates into an unremitting mess.
It's interesting that you now see the value in cleaning rooms/desks, as a sophomore - I always wondered if I were alone in my views of organization. After all, the disorganized high school room is the epitome of, well, high school. It's a question worth asking - why don't some of us like organizing and fixing up what is ours?
Regardless, you're definitely correct about the feeling of exhilarating productivity some feel after having finished organizing and sorting through odds and ends. When you see a blank, empty desk, fresh from a methodical organizational session, it almost entices you to sit down with a piece of paper or computer, and get things done.
I'm somewhat strange - how and when I organize - I'm guessing you might clean things up on a weekday in the afternoon, or before you start to do homework on a weekend. I, weirdly, prefer to organize late at night or early in the morning - and I do so with meticulosity. Although I don't sort my pens, like you, I do paper clip papers, put things on shelves where they belong, and neatly arrange cords where they have gone astray. I make sure my window shades are configured in a certain way, that certain supplies of mine are lined up in the correct order, and that my reading materials are ordered in the order I'd like to read them.
Call me obsessive, but when all is said and done, and chaos has returned to my room after a typical weekday afternoon, my pristine workspace has turned into messy, but still usable area, thanks to my painstakingness. Despite this, like you've explained, it's somewhat nice to know that I can come home to some sort of survivable, but crude 'desk' (if, after a few weekdays, it's still on four legs) to get done what needs to be done.
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ReplyDeleteYour blog really resonated with me, because for the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that my desk has become more and more cluttered. I had cleaned it over winter break, but with finals and all, it just got messier and messier. In fact, one of my goals for this weekend is to clean it up so that, like you, I can feel that wonderful feeling of letting go and reducing my psychological workload.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I’ve noticed in regard to my desk is that the amount of clutter and junk on it is directly connected to the amount of stress I feel. When I’m busy, I throw things around and often have multiple textbooks, binders, and notebooks from different subjects open all at once. I leave loose sheets of paper scattered about: Chinese character practice, assignment description sheets, and all sorts of other stuff. But unfortunately, when the time of stress is over, I never really get around to cleaning up and organizing my pile of mess, leaving me still stressed when the next wave of work comes around and I can’t find the rubric for my important paper worth most of my grade.
When I do finally get around to organizing my desk this weekend, I hope that I will find a way to let go of stuff so that I can get the same liberating feeling you did. Right now, among other things, I see King Lear laying out, after using it for writing my English final paper, a note card filled with random brainstorming for dumb debate arguments, 14 unsharpened pencils, and a crumpled piece of homework that contains my math homework from last year (I have no idea why that’s even still there…). My goal will be to get rid of the useless stuff, instead of saving it “just in case I need it again”. I know it will be easy for some things, like my old math homework; that’s something I would love to get rid of and know that I don’t need it anymore. But other things, like my note card will be harder; even though I know the ideas are silly, they are still my ideas and I don’t want to get rid of them. But I know that doing so is the only way to make way for new, better arguments. Of course, that is a subject for an entirely different piece of writing.
Dear Anya,
ReplyDeleteI must say I’m shocked that you don’t like organizing! You always seem composed. I’m the opposite way, I like to organize things when I feel begin to feel overwhelmed, instead of when mess is really overflowing like you seem to. I have a habit of whenever I know I have a lot of homework; I have to clean my room before I start otherwise I can’t sleep or concentrate. I can almost always see the glass surface of my desk!
Even with our differences, I completely agree with the conclusions you drew from organizing your desk – places that we keep lots of ‘stuff’ and where we spend a lot of time should be taken care of, so that they can take care of us. Cleaning can take a load off of our shoulders, even if it doesn’t count for a grade or benefit us students when submitting college admissions, It’s a matter of looking at the big picture, which in our hectic lives gets lost,
I loved when you said ‘I realized something after this simple project of combing through and tidying my desk: organization can also be a way of letting go of unnecessary things.” That’s an idea that I’ve never considered before. When I clean, even while I like it, it’s just one thing to check off my list, but you see it as much more than that – it can ‘check off’ other things too, because we then realized what’s important to us after we explore all of our memories.
I wish you luck on your organization, and I doubt that your burdens will ever be too heavy. Have a great weekend!
-Charlie