Chronological Disorder

I must confess I've done nothing about the paper piles in my office (see my 9/27/11 post).  I did hang a curtain to hide my open shelving, but that’s probably cheating.

However, I think I'm getting to the root of my problem.  I have this anal retentive quirk that stops me from getting the papers on the floor into the filing cabinet:  I need to file things in chronological order.  I had to laugh as I typed those words, because it's a ridiculous hang up.  Do my appliance manuals really need to be filed by date of purchase?  No, no, a thousand times, no.  The fact that I have a file for the appliance manuals should be a moral victory.

Back in the go-go ‘80s, I interned for Chiat/Day Advertising, the place to be for aspiring mad (wo)men.  At the time, the company motto was “Good enough is not enough.”  The mantra was everywhere – on t-shirts, coffee mugs, legal pads.  To a lowly 20-year-old, the message was clear:  if you can’t put forth your absolute best effort, don’t bother. 

So here I am, twenty-something years later, surrounded by enough paper to choke an industrial shredder.  It would take me weeks to file it chronologically.  But you know what?  I’m going for half-assed this time.  Martha Stewart isn't coming anytime soon to do a surprise inspection of my filing cabinet.  Heck, I probably won’t ever look in most of these files again except to toss them.

Thus, I’m signing off now to attack one pile.  I’m giving myself five minutes to cram the most important sheets into their respective files and recycle the rest.  Because good enough is enough already.