an organized disaster

(i actually wrote this on monday, april 21, but i forgot to post it. i discovered it just now when i sat down to update my blog )

last week monday when i arrived at school, my desk was neat, clean, and organized. by friday it was literally piled a foot high, from edge to edge with books, binders, papers, etc… i don’t think it has ever been that bad. it was ridiculous! a couple colleagues commented that my desk was actually worse than their own, and a few others just looked at it and laughed! i always have a pile or two, but this was so bad i could no longer function. i told ty that i was so overwhelmed that even when i had 15 minutes, i couldn’t get anything done. which, of course, only adds to the problem as then i’m even further behind!

i’m perpetually looking to be more organized at school. i chuckle because my students think i am so organized, and so often i feel very unorganized! i always know where something is, it just may take me a minute or two to find it. (i think i inherited this trait from my father :)) well, i spent six hours this past weekend at school working on my organized disaster. i’m very good at putting papers on piles, and not so good at filing them away. so, i now have a very clean desk area! i filed a very large pile, rearranged a few bookshelves, put a couple more units into 3-ring binders, and left feeling very satisfied with my accomplishments. unfortunately, i didn’t get anything graded. but, this morning when i arrived at school, i was able to sit down and work! wow! it felt amazing to be so productive first thing on a monday morning. now the trick is to keep it this way.