Culling the Clutter

That good ole to-do list keeps growing and growing and growing and as I try to tick off items on the to-do list, more stuff gets put on my desks. I've got several so called desks though their number is shrinking of late. The kitchen table at the house is one, the counter in the utility room, my desk at my office, my kitchen table at the office, the passenger seat of my truck, the floor surrounding my desk and so on are all "desks" that have items to be addressed.

Then there's that beast that sits on my desk called the computer. It's something that I sit and stare at for hours on end. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer doing my job, writing letters, researching, scripting, coding, graphics, blogging, chatting, sending and receiving email, reading the news... the list is endless. More on this "beast" in a moment.

Being responsible for upwards of 75 domain names, and their associate email accounts, it would be safe to assume that I get a lot of email. Oh, I've figured out ways to filter, sort and organize my email automatically, but in an almost compulsive obsessive way, I keep nearly every single email. CLUTTER!

Well, as part of the "new me" 12 week program, along with fat content, I'm also culling the clutter! At this very moment, my email program is "archiving" all old email and I have pushed everything off my desk. With a renewed sense of organization, I've been using my daily planner, written to-do list, journal and blogs to keep things on track, on time and off my mind.

Funny thing about clutter; it would seem that the more "stacks" of stuff that pile on my desk(s), the less focused and productive I become as a result. It's almost as if the question of "what's in those stacks?" prevent me from focusing on what's in front of me. It seems to be a cycle of the more I put stuff off, the more stuff I get to put off. In the end, little if anything gets done.

Back to my computer! As fate would have it, with recent business developments I've been forced to take a close look at my computer and all the files she contains. OMG! I have so much stuff that I don't need that I can't find the stuff I do need. I have programs running in the background that I don't use; duplicates of files that I'll never need; copies of files that are redundant and spread all over my hard drives; trial-ware, shareware, freeware and software that I'll never use again. Oh, and the photos... SHEESH! I've got zillions of photos that need to be simply cataloged, put on a disk and forgotten... some of which should never be viewed again. (blush)

Carrie is going to Pell City this week so I am using this time alone to clean out my computer closets. Yep! I'm saving, deleting, moving, uninstalling and otherwise expunging all files, folders and programs from my "beast." It is necessary because I have to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Microsoft XP Pro for operational reasons. In short, I've allowed so much clutter on my computer that it has caused it to stop operating properly. So with all the software keys, licenses, logins and other pertinent information that needs to be found, printed and saved, this may take a while. I've been putting it off for so long that I have forgotten my own advice to be disaster prepared.

Another key in the organizational keychain is a firm schedule! A to-do list without a personal commitment to accomplish is nothing more that scribbles on a piece of reconstituted wood pulp. So, I will be reformatting my hard drive on June 6th. (6.6.06) - How's that for a deadline? What? Don't like that number? Well, ask me about my Air Evac days and the fact I used to volunteer for mission 666 which flew once a week. I am not superstitious... sorry.

My point to this ramble is , clutter of the mind, the spirit, the desks and the hard drives steal productivity, steal precious brain cells, steal time that can never be recovered and I have decided to stare clutter down and do something about it.

Why am I writing about all this? Besides the fact I can't use anything but the notepad while MS Outlook is working on my email? To help me solidify my commitment! Wish me luck.

(Maybe I should document some of the steps for later reference and use by others... hmmm... good idea.)

Now working on a new article for www.soky.biz; "BRANDS, for teenagers, are fleeting things." based on a report from the New York Times.