How the Queen of Clutter Cleared Her Desk

For a lot of years, I'm not telling how many, my desk has looked like the first photo. Well, ok, the stacks change, but to the uninitiated it always looks like the same mess. I'm hoping "a cluttered desk is the sign of genius" is really true. I'm living proof of one application of the 80-20 law... you use 20 percent of your stuff 80 percent of the time. And I like to keep it handy. I write on scraps of paper on top of the pile that's on top of the pile...

But for about a week now, my desk has looked like the second photo! Am I dead? No, not even ill. (Wait... let me check my pulse.)

What has brought about this miracle? Some epiphany of guilt, so that I've finally beaten myself into joining the neat freaks? (And of course my husband is one of those freaks. For decades he just shook his head as he walked by my office door. Now, he's scratching that head in wonder at the transformation, and hoping it's not temporary.)

No, I think that I've actually discovered a system that works for me, to keep oft-used projects close at hand, but off the actual work surface of my desk.

Let me explain that my life has always been organized around projects. Most day-planners, and other systems are organized around a schedule. So popular methods and systems for getting organized have never been much help to me. In fact, they've usually just sidetracked me from getting anything done.

At any given time in my life I probably have about 15 to 25 different projects going that require my attention at sporadic intervals. When I work on them is mostly up to me. Some appointments or regularly scheduled tasks appear on my calendar, but usually no one cares if I work on project A from 10 am to 10:30 or at 3 o'clock in the morning.