Make it look easy

Make it look easy

School is about to start and with that comes earlier mornings - meaning waking up at 4:50AM or earlier - and a new motivation for organizations. I took a picture of my desk this week as I was

in getting things ready for the coming year, thinking about how long I would be able to keep organized enough to maintain a clean desktop; I have to keep on top of planning, correcting, notes, test updates, etc. Last year I was able to keep it up for only 2 months, but I also jumped in mid-year and was spending a lot of time getting things organized from the wrong side of the pile, just the fact that there was a pile. So with the beginning of the year to get hings organized, I hope to make it through Christams with the first wave of organization, and hope to regroup over the holiday (along with some time spent in Spain) to be able to finish off the year without a pile on my desk. A good example of where I don't want to be at any point in the year can be found in the following photograph...

...and to start the year with that pile, what will it look like as the year progresses, does it diminish? I showed these pictures to a friend of mine and he explained the importance of keeping a mess on your desk to appear busy, as he did while working as an accountant. My approach is more like running, the easier you make it look, the easier it is. So if I am trying to look busy, I am going to manage to make myself even busier, while giving that same appearance. And just looking busy doesn't mean you look effective nor efficient.

I think I am going to stick to my clean desk, and good, hard running.