Do you work in 'organised chaos' or is your desk shiny clean?

34 replies
I am not a messy person in general, but because I run a number of sites and do multiple tasks per day I end up being surrounded by lots of 'organised' little piles of print outs, 'to-do' lists, manual, books, files etc..

I know where everything is but then one day, I just can't take any more and I have to clear my desk of everything and tidy up.

Today is one of those days!

Can you work in mess or do you have to have everything cleared around you before you work?

I am hoping I am not the only slob around here LOL

Gary
#chaos #clean #desk #organised #shiny #work
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Riley
    Originally Posted by garyfromdurham View Post

    I am not a messy person in general, but because I run a number of sites and do multiple tasks per day I end up being surrounded by lots of 'organised' little piles of print outs, 'to-do' lists, manual, books, files etc..

    I know where everything is but then one day, I just can't take any more and I have to clear my desk of everything and tidy up.

    Today is one of those days!

    Can you work in mess or do you have to have everything cleared around you before you work?

    I am hoping I am not the only slob around here LOL

    Gary
    Desk and floor and even living room. Total chaos. Only now, the guinea pigs start eating my notes on their daily rampage around my office.
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    Kevin Riley, long-time Warrior living in Osaka, Japan

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  • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
    Chaos... always. Organized... occasionally.

    Tsnyder
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    If you knew what I know you'd be doing what I do...
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    • Profile picture of the author garyfromdurham
      Well that makes me feel a lot better.

      My mess is only confined to one room and I don't have guinea pigs eating my paperwork *were you pulling my leg Kevin?*

      Gary
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      • Profile picture of the author Kevin Riley
        Originally Posted by garyfromdurham View Post

        Well that makes me feel a lot better.

        My mess is only confined to one room and I don't have guinea pigs eating my paperwork *were you pulling my leg Kevin?*

        Gary
        Nope. Every day, we let them out for a few hours of running about. They started in the kitchen, but they love my office (all the shelves and places to hide out). They go absolutely nuts running around in here. And, they actually pull pieces of paper out of bottom shelves and chew the edges. Total maniacs.

        But it is so much fun to have them running around in here, with their constant burbling and chirping. Michael Brown and I did a long webinar the other day, and you can hear the girls squealing in the background a few times. They are a lot of fun.
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        Kevin Riley, long-time Warrior living in Osaka, Japan

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        • Profile picture of the author DogScout
          Originally Posted by Kevin Riley View Post

          Nope. Every day, we let them out for a few hours of running about. They started in the kitchen, but they love my office (all the shelves and places to hide out). They go absolutely nuts running around in here. And, they actually pull pieces of paper out of bottom shelves and chew the edges. Total maniacs.

          But it is so much fun to have them running around in here, with their constant burbling and chirping. Michael Brown and I did a long webinar the other day, and you can hear the girls squealing in the background a few times. They are a lot of fun.
          Sounds kool. And a bunch of fun entertainment too.

          everything here is somewhere, just not always sure exactly where.
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          • Profile picture of the author rm.spain
            I clean up once each quarter more or less... takes me a whole day but gosh...once it's done I'm much more efficient for about a month. Then I start slowing down and what do you know... time to close another quarter.. :-)

            I use 2 monitors too, helps me a lot.

            Once rule I've been sticking to last month has been zero papers on my desk except my to do list. I have one "to-do" list per project and they're neatly stacked. The rest I file and sometimes stash!!

            The curious thing is that the stuff you stash, you barely ever use again. You only find those documents when you move!!

            Rob
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    Forcing myself to stay tidy and organized is Chinese water torture. Life's too short. As long as I know where something is (roughly) it's good enough for me. Better Homes & Gardens can KMA.

    John
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    • Profile picture of the author webwriter
      No table surface in my home is shiny clean. There are papers and books on those surfaces and I seem to know where everything is when I need it! The only time I bother to tidy those surfaces up is when I've misplaced something and the only way to find that item is to literally turn those places inside out. Of course, I don't make a bigger mess --- just go where I think the missing item might be and go through everything.

      After I'm through rooting about, the given surface(s) do look cleaner.

      I remember the time when the papers and books on my dining room table was so large that I nicknamed the mess "Mt. Trashmore," LOL! I've since cleaned that surface off and threw away stuff I'd long forgotten about and all of that stuff was outdated. Now it looks like another Mt. Trashmore is in the making. Got to see what I can do to prevent it from growing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sandeep Shah
    My suggestion: Instead of having a printed and printing our several stuff, install a add on monitor and get rid of the printer. Your work place will be much better then!
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    • Profile picture of the author garyfromdurham
      Originally Posted by Sandeep Shah View Post

      My suggestion: Instead of having a printed and printing our several stuff, install a add on monitor and get rid of the printer. Your work place will be much better then!
      Sandeep

      In theory that is a brilliant idea but I prefer to read hard copies of reports etc. My brain seems to absorb the information easier.

      Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetM39482
    Mine is organized, always!

    Helps me work better and get more done.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    I like my desk as clear as possible, but it unfortunately has been getting more and more messy, i blame kids!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ashley Skuse
    I'm somewhere between messy and tidy. My desk does pick up a bit, but I eventually get round to tidying it up a bit. Sometimes though it just ends up being a tidy mess, if that makes sense.

    However, it's nice having a clean empty desk with a minimal amount of objects. A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind, as they say.
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  • Profile picture of the author azland55
    Definitely organized chaos, and when that oraganised chaos is moved, I just can't find anything anymore. lol
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  • Profile picture of the author Lee Wilson
    I am a living nightmare!
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  • Profile picture of the author Kenster
    Completely clean desk, Very organized by nature...maybe a little OCD going on!
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  • Profile picture of the author petelta
    Originally Posted by garyfromdurham View Post

    I am not a messy person in general, but because I run a number of sites and do multiple tasks per day I end up being surrounded by lots of 'organised' little piles of print outs, 'to-do' lists, manual, books, files etc..

    I know where everything is but then one day, I just can't take any more and I have to clear my desk of everything and tidy up.

    Today is one of those days!

    Can you work in mess or do you have to have everything cleared around you before you work?

    I am hoping I am not the only slob around here LOL

    Gary
    I have my office organized into areas depending on which niche lol. I use 3 white boards that are erased each day and filled by the end of the day.

    I try and make a point to grab each pile of post-its and stickies one time a month and put them onto one organzied document...this happens about once every 3 months really though.

    Travis
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  • Profile picture of the author 1960Texan
    I often dream of staying organized, but within a day my desk reverts back to its natural chaotic state.
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by 1960Texan View Post

      I often dream of staying organized, but within a day my desk reverts back to its natural chaotic state.
      Exactly my case + add the rumbling cat on a 12x4' desk
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  • Profile picture of the author Music City Copy
    I love to be organized, but I fall off the track far more often than not.

    For example, I have read about 7/8ths of Getting Things Done, the Bible of personal organization. My bookmark saving my place is a piece of paper with a partially finished list of how I will implement the system. The book is now tucked on top of another row of books on my bookshelf. ha ha ha

    Not long ago I cleaned off everything, bought a 32" monitor, and now I am in total bliss....EXCEPT for that huge pile of papers and files I stacked in the corner "to be organized later."

    Oy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dherm
    I tend to tidy up the desk last thing before going to bed, because by then it usually looks like an explosion in a paper factory. I like to see the desk clear every morning when I enter my office with my coffee it sets me up for the day.

    Regards. Dherm
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Actually, the top of my desk is shiny clean. The stacks of paper on top of it do get a bit dusty sometimes. And sometimes the chaos isn't all that organized. That's when I go on one of my cleaning jags and get everything nice and neat...

      And spend the next two weeks looking for stuff.

      It's like the old W.C. Fields film, where Fields leaves a mountain of papers on an old roll-top desk and returns to find that an efficiency expert has sorted everything into nice neat piles. Fields starts tossing the papers like a salad, inspects the mess for a moment, and extracts the document he's looking for.

      I am trying to get better about it, because if anything ever happened where someone else would have to make sense of my desk they would be in deep doodoo...
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    • Profile picture of the author Hanz
      Fully organized and clean!



      From left to right...

      -Fan
      -Desk Lamp
      -open binder for taking notes
      -post it notes with future plans/ideas
      -above that there are 2 fortune cookies notes which say "You will be unusually successful in Business." And "Good health will be yours for a long time." That keeps me in a good mood and motivated.
      -Speakers
      -Headphones
      -Boxing glove signed personally to me by reigning WBC Heavyweight Champion Vitali Klitschko.
      -Screen wipes
      -Design books and Internet Success books
      -Chair with my 1985 Superman pillow as a back cushion. That is all!
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      • Profile picture of the author Hanz
        Oh yeah, and there is the PSP lying there under the monitor which I play during breaks. Good to relax the soul sometimes.
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  • Profile picture of the author JennSpencerIM
    Wow that is a neat and clean office! I work in chaos...never organized. If I organize, I can't find anything!
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    • Profile picture of the author Hanz
      Originally Posted by JennSpencerIM View Post

      Wow that is a neat and clean office! I work in chaos...never organized. If I organize, I can't find anything!
      I had this problem. But then I realize the stuff I don't really need shouldn't be on the desk. Either file it or discard it.
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      • Profile picture of the author garyfromdurham
        Hanz

        Please straighten the books up.....they are making the place look untidy

        Seriously....that is one very tidy office. *stares in wonderment....then looks at my office *

        The curious thing is that the stuff you stash, you barely ever use again. You only find those documents when you move!!
        LOL How true!!

        Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author money2k
    Computer files are a mess. Have no office and my house is always in chaos. I have a 4 year old boy and a soon to be 3 year old daughter...
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    • Profile picture of the author Music City Copy
      Here's my "situation" at home.

      The office outside of home is much nicer, but no big screen.
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  • Profile picture of the author RebeccaL
    Physically my area is pretty neat and tidy. Just the laptop, diary and notebook.
    Mentally though, thats another matter.. organized chaos reigns there
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    My file system is as neat as a pin. My books and music collection are impeccably ordered. My business receipts are all ordered chronologically.



    ...which is a way to avoid saying my desktop is organized chaos. Of course, my wife would call it full blown chaos, but she just doesn't understand genius!
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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