In general, I'm pretty detail-oriented in my life. I keep track of a lot of things, including an endless list of my husband's dietary restrictions and preferences, what food and medications each of my girls is taking, what groceries we have run out of, which items of clothing go in the dryer and which do not, and how many birthday cards are in my box of greeting cards.
But do you know what I am seriously terrible about?
Calendars.
I don't know, my friends. Calendars aren't hard and yet I fuck up about 25% of the time I'm interacting with them. I put the event at the wrong time (literally did this on Tuesday - the meeting was at noon, but I had it as 9am). I put the wrong Zoom password in the description. I put it on the wrong month. I put it on the wrong year. I'm a calendar fuck up.
So National Clean Your Desk Day was Monday, but I had it on my editorial calendar for today, so Happy National Clean Your Desk Day three days late!
Before:
A huge stack of papers that had to mostly with community center business. I shredded what needed to be shredded, cut up the rest to use as scratch paper, and called it good. I also took the bottle of sunscreen (like, yo? why is it on my desk?) and put in the bathroom where normal people put their sunscreen. I also moved the power cord for my computer behind my desk because that's how normal people do it. I am pretending to be normal.
After:
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| The post-it note stays until I can track down the book it's reminding me to look for. |
If you're super curious, I've been able to keep my work office desk in pretty good shape.
When's the last time you cleared off your desk? How often do you make mistakes with calendars?
OMG--This was a much-needed reminder! I need more working space on my home and work desks. I tend to drop piles of books everywhere. I love their colorful spines, but desks are probably not the best place for them.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! It's always random bits of paper for me. Post-It notes, to-do lists, bills, paperwork from work - it all ends up on my desk!
DeleteThis is a good reminder! I like to keep my house tidy but for some reason I don't mind a messy desk.
ReplyDeleteThe thing with calendars is that I live in a world where the date is MM/DD/YY and a 12 hour clock. Everyone else that I work with lives in a world where the date is DD/MM/YY and a 24 hour clock. It always feels weird to ask "hey can we meet at 15:30?" and that's assuming that I've gotten the time zone difference right to start with. Every time I write a date I feel like I'm playing Ginger Rogers to everyone else's Fred Astaire - doing it backwards and in high heels.
TIME ZONES!! I hate it. I would not be able to deal. You know what I really hate? When my google calendar adjust times for me when I'm traveling. But I honestly could not do your job. I'd show up late or early or in a different year.
DeleteI am the WORST with calendars. I have an app on my phone that I share with my husband and I am CONSTANTLY making mistakes. Wrong day, wrong month, etc. I will know in my head that I have an appointment coming up but not be able to find it... and somehow I scheduled it for a date that has already passed. Most recently, my daughter had a dentist appointment but I hadn't gotten one of the 7,000 reminders the dentist normally sends out, so I called pretending that I couldn't remember if it was at 10:00 or 10:30... and then it was actually on the following week. WHY. My husband mocks me mercilessly about it, which I think is both mean and fair. I don't know how to fix this about myself! I purposely think about scheduling things and try to be very methodical but it rarely works. It is a miracle I am anywhere at the correct day/time.
ReplyDeleteYour desks both look very neat and tidy. Mine is... less tidy.
Yes, WHY? I understand how calendars work. Why can't I actually use the calendars correctly? My husband, who has his own set of imperfections, knows about my calendar issues, but it doesn't help when he's always saying "is this right?" because dude, if I just had it memorized, I would NEED the calendar. What is wrong with us?
DeleteMy main mistake with calendars is my reluctance to read what I entered.
ReplyDeleteThis is a lot of people's problems, I think.
DeleteI laughed at you being a calendar fuck up. So funny. I also laughed at your 'before' desk . . . that's messy? Um, no. I am very organized and I know where most things are, but most things that I need to find (and I do usually find them) are buried either on the counter top in the kitchen or on the desk in the study. I clean if off a few times a year, when it gets really bad, but my desk almost never looks as neat and orderly as your 'messy' desk.
ReplyDeleteI don't have issues with calendars, but I should not be trusted to book flights while on my own. I booked a flight for Tank to fly home from college, but I booked it the opposite: as if he was flying from home to school, so reverse. I've messed up pm and am. Date. You name it.
Ha ha. The thing is that you can't see INSIDE my desk drawers because that's where the real nastiness is. I'm very good at decluttering surfaces, but underneath is a disaster.
DeleteFlights! Travel! So many things to mess up. I have made all the mistakes. Maybe I need to stop saying I'm detail-oriented and just admit that I'm a flake.
I love calendars. They are kinda my happy place. I am weird and slowly accepting that. Though we once booked a hotel for the wrong week for a vacation, ended up having to cancel and the only thing left was the sketchiest motel. There was a reason it was the only thing left and available. The good news, it is my daughter's favourite memory from that trip because it was SO sketchy. So I guess when bad things happen (within reason) they can make the best memories?!
ReplyDeleteMoving on to more pressing matters - I WANT A PICTURE OF YOUR DESK WITH THE PIG BLANKET, ENGIE. Where is the pig blanket?
The pig blanket is hanging on the back of the chair that you can only see a bit of. Next time I'll be sure to include the blanket!
DeleteI need to do that with my desk at home! I have a small stack of papers on it. I am going to do it right now.
ReplyDeleteI am meticulous with my calendar and rarely make mistakes. What do you think that's about - that you're calendar challenged?
I think I'm overconfident with calendars. I think "this isn't so hard," but it obviously is. So today I was doing a work thing and the calendar defaulted to May 2024 (the end of the academic semester) and I didn't notice it was May. So I clicked it and did a May 16 deadline instead of January 16 and then I had to go back and change it later. It's that kind of stuff that gets me EVERY TIME.
DeleteYour before home desk looks pretty good to me, lol!
ReplyDeleteQuestion- in your work office, do you like those bright fluorescent overhead lights? I'm such a lamp girl. I'd have at least 2 lamps in there and turn those bright overhead lights OFF every chance I got! :) I must be cozy at all times. haha.
Look, I want all the light. I have a lamp I also have turned on a lot. If it's soft, ambient light, I will fall asleep. I am a lady who needs light, even if it is harsh overhead lights!
DeleteWell, I have to say that I laughed out loud at your before and after photos of your desk! Thanks for that! I also like a tidy desk, but I have way more stuff on mine, plus extra knick knacks and cute things. I'm awful with a digital calendar - I completely forget to look at it. I tried a digital calendar during December, and I was SO happy to get back to my paper planner in January!
ReplyDeleteI do NOT like clutter on my desk. There are knickknacks and stuff in the shelves above my desk, but I want the surface area clean.
DeleteBack in the day, I had a paper planner, but my husband and I have a combined digital calendar and that's really the only way the household works. I don't know how we did it before we had this ability! Likewise, I need to have a digital calendar at work so that the rest of the team knows where I am and what I'm doing. But I'd love to go back to paper!
My desk is a MESS. I should be ashamed but I'm not. I've been busy doing more interesting things than cleaning it up... however now that I know what today is about I could try to tidy a little bit.
ReplyDeleteOh, don't worry. I still need to declutter the totes under my bed!
DeleteMy desk has become a catch-all for stuff RICK doesn't know/doesn't care/doesn't feel like dealing with. This can, at times, be hardware, tools, papers, mail, scratch pads, and receipts. I've stopped using it as a desk because I'm so frustrated with its condition. And yes, I've brought it up a billion times.
ReplyDeleteIn college I had an enormous wall calendar that controlled my life and helped keep me (relatively) sane. Every so often, I'd forget to put something on it, though, and that would lead to a meltdown. I once had to write an entire research paper on Victorian Humour in one day, including citations from rare books in the BGSU library. This is in the days before Internet and computers. I don't want to talk about how I managed to get those rare books into my possession for a couple of hours, nor what I went through to get that paper done. But I got an A- on it, and that was a 400-level class. I was not okay for a while after all that.
My husband has his own desk to pile crap on. My desk will not be part of it! (We also have a desk downstairs that is the depositary of our mail garbage, so don't think we don't have our own pockets of insanity.)
DeleteBGSU!! I spent a lot of time in that library, too! Good times. I did have access to computers, though. That made it easier.
My desk is a disaster area that I will need to clean when I get home so that I can use it. I made a commitment to use my desk more this year because I have a second screen so it's better for my eyes and neck to sit there. Your desk at home hardly needed a clean ,and you work one looks good too.
ReplyDeleteHa ha. The one at home rarely gets used, which is why it's so clean. Even today, I'm working from home because of a blizzard and I'm at the dining room table, not any of the three desks we have in our home.
DeleteI cleaned my desk last week, and I'm much happier. It's my work desk, and in my bedroom, so when it gets out of control it is bad news. Now I need to clean out my personal email inbox. I haven't done a thorough job of that since last January. Blah!
ReplyDeleteWhen I stepped down from my volunteer position, I cleaned my personal inbox(es) and now I have three emails, work and home combined, and I have all my inboxes down to fewer than ten emails. It's GLORIOUS!!
DeleteBut my desk drawers are a mess and don't get me started on the totes under the beds.
Oh boy. Your "before" photo would be my "after" photo. I think you're VERY tidy!
ReplyDeleteWell, I won't show you anything hidden from sight. The drawers and closest aren't so tidy!
DeleteLOL LOL LOL wrong date for desk day— I also suck at calendars.
ReplyDeleteNo, Sarah, we don't suck at calendars - calendars suck!
DeleteAs I'm reading this, looking around at the stacks that need my attention, I feel like you could see me! ;)
ReplyDeleteI've effed up my digital calendar too, usually by just putting a time and NOT SAYING WHAT IT IS FOR. *sigh*
Oh, boy! The appointment with no details is the worst!!
DeleteI am a calendar f*ck up - LOL . Sorry that made me laugh (it's probably not funny to you when you realize that you put down a wrong time/date).
ReplyDeleteI thought your before was your after photo... you desk didn't look so terrible (you don't want to see mine - it's just a lot of stuff for a tiny desk, but I am trying to keep it organized at least).
Well, that pile of paper held a lot of sins, I think. And you can't see inside the drawers where the real mess is!
DeleteMy work-at-home desk is in pretty good shape, for me. The problem is, it's my only non-kitchen, non-coffee-table surface in my one big room (other than my bedroom) so it has 2 computers (including the personal one that barely functions anymore, sight), as well as a caddy thingamabob for pens, pencils, etc. While I don't WANT more surfaces to clutter up, this does mean it's not nearly as clean as yours!
ReplyDeleteAnd while I don't always mess up calendars, I do it enough (usually, scheduling something, for say, 11:30 pm instead of am) to be able to sympathize. :)
I think the surface of my desk belies the disorganization below. I need to take some time and go through those drawers. *sigh* That will happen when the totes under the beds get organized. :)
DeleteYou have me laughing over here. This is your uncleaned desk? you really dont want to see mine. Because that would be my version of a cleaned desk about a second after I declare it clean.
ReplyDeleteWell, the true messiness of my desk is in the drawers. I won't show you those!
Delete