but my business office desk is Really organized... really!

When I was in my late 30's, I had a boss that was a VP who was the most meticulous person, male or female, that I'd ever known in the workplace. Joe's organizational skills were second to none. One day he came to my office, where, there on my desk as usual, were piles and piles of paperwork. He asked me for a document that he needed, and I, with great confidence, pulled it from within one of the several piles and handed it to him.

He then asked me (rather sternly) to find a place in a file, labeled, for every important piece of paper on my desk. He wanted to be able to find paperwork even if I weren't around. Imagine that! I later found out that he'd spent the better part of a day, earlier in the week when I was on a business trip, looking for that same document that I had just handed him. He was very frustrated with me and my "filing system", and I had to admit, it did lend itself to a certain amount of job security. I spent the next weekend in the office organizing. The following Monday morning, Joe came into my office and congratulated me on the organization of my files. Then, he fired me.

Since that day about 16 years ago, I've had one singular guide that I've used when it comes to a work office/space. I keep everything 100% organized, and I never bring more personal items into the space than I can get into one small records box. I keep the records box under my desk. When I leave, I'll leave with my box and I won't look back. So here's my very well organized work desk.

There are almost NO personal items on my work desk. The pictures are of work friends/events, not family. The bookends are a gift from a vendor. The clock & business card holder are gifts from my company for achieving certain levels of sales. The only personal item I keep is a tiny yellow enamel cross that I got at church one day.

I don't plan on leaving this job - I plan on retiring here, but if someday my boss comes in to congratulate me on my great organizational skills, I've got my box, and I can pack it in less than 5 minutes. Then, I'll just bring it all home to French Lique.

ps... inspiration supplied by Organising Queen. Thank you.

An organized desk... not my forte' here in French Lique

This is actually my home office work desk. I do a lot of work here... including business and personal. It works for me because I keep stuff that I use immediately on top of the pile... and as long as I have a nice glass of wine beside me...

Actually, I've got 2-printers, one is on the small bookcase to the left; the other is on the shelf just below the hard-drive. I always keep a spiral notepad right in front of me to jot down reminders to myself, a calculator for work purposes, Rolodex for business and personal, mail file (to the right of the monitor) that holds extra notepads, ruler, book light, address labels, journal... eeeeee-gads!... stapler, staple puller, glue, 3-paperclip holders, magnifying glass, CD player, 3-hole punch, extra ink for printer #1, business card holder, 2-checkbooks, 2-digital cameras, ... to the left, reference books, electric pencil sharpener, bulletin board with calendar and other stuff, printer paper and ink for printer #2... hummmmmmmmmm... Did I mention the laptop that is in it's case right now but is often on the desk... well... I think you get the picture... no pun intended...

It doesn't work because it's too cluttered and so I just use the little space right in front of me rather that utilizing the space in it's entirety. It's been on my "to do" list, for the past 6-months, to redecorate and organize my office. We're only looking at the desk... you should see the closets and bookshelves!

The cause of all this mess... perfectionism... yes, hard to believe, but that's it. I recently read that perfectionist have trouble completing tasks that they don't think they can do perfectly, so they just procrastinate. Well, that's the excuse I'm using... Now, pray that the public humiliation of it all will cause me to tackle the task and post a new pic, when it's all done, of my new perfect desk/office! I posted this second pic to show you why it doesn't bother me... this is the normal amount of light I use while in my office in the evening... see... can't see a thing!

Just whining about nothing at all here in French Lique... (thanks Organising Queen)

UPDATE 11-15-2008: I've posted a picture of my office work desk... just to prove I'm not a complete and utter disorganized mess!