When a friend dropped in yesterday she was dismayed to stumble across the state of my home office. Or, more precisely, stumble through it. To be frank, it’s looking pretty chaotic. I confess I used to be one of the ultra-organised, neat-freak workers who had a teenie-tiny in tray and a desk adorned with colour-coordinated office accessories. You know, the designer stapler with matching ruler, pen holder and document tray that a fancy office outfitter might sell. All neatly displayed, shouting out loud “I’M IN CONTROL HERE!!!”
But these days my desk looks like this:
I have to admit that in the past, this would have left me shaking with a need to organize, declutter and disinfect. But today, I’m perfectly fine with it.
To be honest, it doesn’t always look this bad. And most of the time when it does, it goes largely unnoticed because most of my client facing meetings are held well within the self-employed safe zone: the client site.
But my German ancestry leaves me predisposed to a streamlined, tidy office environment. As a kid, the plaque on my bedroom door read “Mr Fussy’s Room – Please Keep Neat!” And to be truthful, I’d much rather have a spotless workstation than the shambles I’m working in tonight. So when this email lobbed into my inbox yesterday from the delightful Karen James at On Purpose Hub, my first emotion was envy. One look at her desk and I was reminiscing about the good old days when my desk looked like that too:
Clear benchtop. Vase of flowers. Everything in order. This is exactly what Jen-the-banker’s desk looked like, and in the early hot-desking days of management consulting, indeed it was a condition of employment.
But seriously, who am I kidding? Those days are long gone. My world has changed and I’ve had to adapt to survive.
My Dad offered very little career advice to me in his lifetime. To be fair, he had no idea what my working world was all about, it was as foreign to him as housework is to Tony Abbott (actually, Dad had no idea about housework either!). But the one piece of advice he gave me time and again was spot on: don’t worry about it!
I used to stress about clearing my desk, emptying my inbox and diligently storming through my to-do-list every day. I stayed back after the business of the day to get all these things in order, ready for a clean start the next day and an inevitable late end, when the process was all repeated over again. It worked at the time. I was productive beyond measure. And to see the bottom of that in-tray, it felt better than a foot massage after a hike through the Himalayas.
But it’s been a long time since I enjoyed the luxury of an empty inbox. These days I accept that my career is complex, my life is multi-dimensional, and there are – to be frank – more rewarding ways to spend my time.
My desk these days represents the various hats I wear in my portfolio life – complete with the artifacts of motherhood, the farm projects I’m overseeing, the books I’m reading, the admin I’m working through and the writing and research projects I have underway. And you know it’s not as bad as it seems, I’m always able to put my hand on what I need very quickly, and of course there are systems. Nothing leaves my desk til it’s been dealt with.
Annabel Crabb says in her book “The Wife Drought” that, since having children, she’s mastered the art of “using every scrap of the day like an Italian farmer uses all of the pig.” I see semblances of my life in this metaphor, and my desk is like the gatekeeper.
No invoice, no request and no piece of correspondence is filed from my desk until its been actioned. One-and-done. No double handling. Why file it in the to-do, then take it out again later to action? I leave it all in the one place now and – as minutes appear in my schedule – I consider how that precious time could best be applied across the long list of tasks that never seems to be depleted.
So… my desk. At times it looks this way. I used to pretend it wasn’t true, but now, I’m at peace. It may never again have the slick supermodel looks of years gone by. But I like to think its imperfections tell a story, of a life well lived.
I’m still overly-perfectionist about many aspects of my life. I still overestimate how much I can get through in any given day. I still run from meeting to meeting. I still worry more about the individuals I mentor and how they’re progressing with their goals, much more than I do about my own. I know I obsess more than is necessary, or healthy. And I’m still very, very anal about prioritising the most important things in life. It’s just that my desk, and its broader environs, are no longer at the top of my hit list.
Do I miss the perfectly organized desk of days past? Absolutely. But when I need a neat-fix, there will always be my scarf drawer. A bastion of my former self, it’s a showcase of neatness, all my flowy favorites neatly tucked away in their orderly existence:
I’m not sure what the time management experts would say about my carefree abandonment of the clean desk policy. I know that in many corporate environs it wouldn’t be acceptable. But for me, for now, it’s serving me just fine.
And it’s proof that:
- Priorities change over time. What is important today may be less so tomorrow.
- We can change. Anything. Provided there is adequate motivation and desire.
- First impressions aren’t always right. What looks like chaos actually offers me calm, in an unorthodox sort of way.
How about you? Can you top my messy desk? Go on, make my day! Send me a photo and lets talk dirty. I dare you!
Yours in anticipation,
Jean says
Jen,
This strikes a chord even though I was born without the neat gene. There are some things that are worth stressing about and some that aren’t. I would love to have a scarf drawer like that, but I would rather spend the time outside walking the dogs. So I have to accept that I’m messy and muddle on prioritizing where I can.
cheers
Jean
Jen Dalitz says
Oh I get it, Jean, I get it!!!!
Catherine DeVrye says
Great article-love the line it’s perfectly OK to be imperfect.
Must confess my desk is very tidy 99% of the time…but with all the travel I’ve done lately, it was hard to see the bedroom floor last week with had 3 open suitcases waiting for the laundry and to be re-packed. Thankfully forgot to take photo!
Karen James says
Love your blog! I have a desk in my home office and it looks just like yours! Candles, little bird, blue cards stuck all over the wall with the app design, my hand written BHAG, my star rock hand painted from Joanne Nasir, my fake telephone to hold my hands free, my stress star to help stave off arthritis, Rescue Remedy, and the list goes on! Love it and believe we when are real we shine – warts and all which is why I left the video with my stammer in it!
xo kj
Jen Dalitz says
Karen you are as real as it gets… but please do let me have my moment of envy at your gorgeous office desk!! 🙂