I found the stapler I lost six months ago!
This might not seem a big deal, in and of itself. But I hate paper clips (they are so temporary) and much prefer staples (those pages are going NOWHERE until I say they’re going somewhere) and was irked to distraction every time I wanted to staple something and had to settle for a slippery little non-committal paper clip, which I was certain was planning to abandon its task and squirt away the very second my back was turned.
Unfortunately, my office has been heaped with mounds of papers that ranged from two inches deep in some places to foot-high stacks in others. At least I had some rough idea of what was where on my 8-foot desk surface and was managing to get work done every day in a somewhat productive fashion. I could never find the time to stop and file as necessary, and I couldn’t risk what little order I had achieved to turn the whole mess upside down in search of the stapler. So I begrudgingly settled for paper clips.
Today, though, I resolutely turned over a new leaf: actually, about 1000 leafs of paper pages, notes, forms, pieces of mail, and God knows what else as I decided to start the new year off with a clean, organized office. Seven hours later, every piece of paper has been either pitched or filed. I feel fantastic and enthused about tackling tomorrow’s workday, AND I found my lost stapler!
In honour of my shiny clean desk and my refreshingly clear mind, I present Dale Carnegie’s fourth principle for “Preventing Fatigue and Worry and Keeping Your Energy and Spirits High:”
“Apply these four good working habits:
1) Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand.
2) Do things in the order of their importance.
3) When you face a problem, solve it then and there is you have the facts necessary to make a decision.
4) Learn to organize, deputize, and supervise.”
“If you visit the Library of Congress,” Carnegie wrote, “you will find five words painted on the ceiling – five words written by the poet Pope:
‘Order is heaven’s first law.’
“Order ought to be the first law of business, too. But is it?” Carnegie asks. “No, the average desk is cluttered up with papers that haven’t been looked at for weeks. In fact, the publisher of a New Orleans newspaper once told me that his secretary cleared up one of his desks and found a typewriter that had been missing for two years.”
(Well, I feel much better about losing such a little thing as a stapler!)
Chaos and confusion have consequences beyond productivity, Carnegie points out emphatically.
“The mere sight of a desk littered with unanswered mail and reports and memos is enough to breed confusion, tension, and worries. It is much worse than that. The constant reminder of ‘a million things to do and no time to do them’ can worry you not only into tension and fatigue, but it can also worry you into high blood pressure, heart trouble and stomach ulcers.”
Order IS heaven’s first law. Happy, Organized New Year!
(NOTE for New Years, 2012: I’m pleased to report this blog was originally written several years ago. Ever since I paid a professional organizer a measly $500 to whip me into shape in 2006, none of these issues have recurred. Best wishes to you in becoming as organized as possible this year! It truly does reduce your stress levels fantastically – as Dale Carnegie pointed out in 1955. Try it and see! You have nothing to lose…and you might actually find some of the items you’ve lost.)