My quarterly office checkup.
September 28, 2008 by Lara Kulpa
Filed under Productivity
It all started with spilled coffee.
A couple weeks ago, I ran into some issues with my computer. I’ve got a Dell PC that’s about 4 years old, and one morning what chatting on Skype with a client, I spilled my coffee all over my beautiful ergonomic split-key keyboard
Next thing you know, I was getting “low memory” errors on the screen. Now I know that the two things had little to do with each other, but it forced me to restart the computer. When I did, the keyboard didn’t work at all. Fortunately I had a few others in reserve, but they’re not the ergonomic ones, and it’s been torture on my wrists to get used to using a traditional keyboard since.
After the restart, I couldn’t get things working properly, so I called up my computer guy and bribed him with an extra large Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to let me bring the machine in immediately. It worked.
So I get there, we backup everything I can think of, and wipe the machine clean. Great. I now had dozens of programs to reinstall, password lists that I had to write down beforehand, and a hope that I didn’t forget anything. I also added another memory card, and things have been beautiful since. I’m still getting that software up and running, though.
So this brings me to a new plan.
Every three months, I’ve decided that I need to do a major cleanup of my machine. Delete images that I’m not using anymore or have been stored on a website somewhere, make backups of files and folders to CDs, backup photos I’ve taken that I want to keep in their original forms, and so on. Computers get a little touchy when you overload them – this wasn’t my first time finding this out – and they need to be maintained and kept “clean”.
On top of that, when I came back from Blog World Expo, I walked into my office and wanted to literally turn around and walk out. I’m really organized with client info, but not with everything else. Mail winds up in piles, CDs in stacks, notes and papers floating around, even one too many coffee mugs (ack!) sitting on the desk.
I remember when I used to actually go to work in an office, and coworkers would remark at how clean my desk was. I would take 10 minutes at the end of the day to organize the stuff I’d need for the next day in a pile, and everything else went in a drawer. I’d leave with a neat, short little pile of folders and a notebook sitting on the desk and that was that. It made life SO beautiful! Since working at home, I got out of that habit, and I’m going to make a concerted effort to get back to it.
It’s amazing how we can often let things in life “pile up” and get out of control. I’m really into reading about simplicity in life, organization, that kind of thing – I just have a hard time implementing it. Leo Babuta’s Zen Habits | Simple Productivity blog is really great motivation for me.
Do you have a plan to keep things neat and organized at your desk? Have you tried, but failed? Share your stories of “paperwork attacks” or computer crashes!
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Lara, I totally identify with your office dilemma. I used to be one of those people that left the office each day with the desk cleaned off and the neat little stack awaiting the next morning. But working at home I have the same kinds of stacks you describe.
In addition I’m moving to a new computer which isn’t completely done, so I’m hopping back and forth from one side of the office to the other working on different projects on different computers.
Whereas I used to think of myself as an organized person, I know say I “aspire” to be an organized person.
It’s pure craziness sometimes!
I’m “aspiring” to get back to my organized self!