Note: Blogger will have a schedule outage at 7 p.m. EST.I'm still excavating my desk (and exhuming all sorts of things, but nothing that bites!). In truth, not only was it my desk, but a very large wicker basket filled to the brim. Though I have a high tolerance level for mess, at some point I don't mind just sweeping my desk off. To do that, one needs a receptacle. My wicker basket is capacious--it's 9" deep, 16" long and 12" wide--large enough to accept a couple of sweeps. I'm now down to a manageable pile, but it is a pile nonetheless. I plan to banish this pile, but not tonight. I need a break.
As an apostate David Allen apostle, I can tell you that any system that you have will fail you if you do not manage it. I'll suggest that Societe General is realizing that in spades. One of the "tools" that he recommends is getting a labeler and always having fresh file folders available. I have faithfully followed this guidance. So despite my miasma of paper, I do have a systematic means for dispatching it. I've plenty of file space, and I purge those files annually.
I use a Brother, PT-2300. It hooks up to my computer where it will print a multitude of label formats. It also uses different size tape. So making a label is as easy as typing on my keyboard. It has its own robust keyboard for portable projects. I cannot recommend it enough. If you do not have a decent labeler, consider getting one. When you are looking at uniformly printed labels, your eye can find what it is looking for better. Here's a picture. You know you want one of these!
One of the other requirements for David Allen's system is to set aside about 1.5 hours a week to review your system. That might sound like alot of time for you. I used to work at a very complex job for at least 60-70- hours per week. Devoting about 2.3% of that time to reviewing my system, making adjustments etc. ensure that I met my commitments and didn't work 80 hours a week. The complexity of your work and personal life dictates that percentage. My slated time was Friday afternoons after lunch. This was sacrosanct time. When done, I would reward myself and leave early. Leaving early on Friday afternoons seemed like a guilty pleasure, but I worked every Sunday for 8-12 hours for as long as I can remember.
Allen is a big believer in having leakproof buckets. One such bucket is a Someday/Maybe list. I did make a folder for that. I put the directions for doing vermicomposting in that folder. I need to enrich that list a bit, don't you think?
I'd like to tell you why I chose the chair above. First, you may click on the image. It will take you to the gallery that originated the image. The chair reminds me of my grandmother (my Armenian grandmother!). She had a set of furniture that was always ensconced in slipcovers. Underneath were these lovely fabrics in a velvet-type fabric. I'm sure that there is a proper name for it, but I don't know it. The sofa and the chair were red. The club chair was a very pretty medium blue. The fabric had a "carved" floral pattern. I gave the sofa away--I truly had no room for it. But I still have the two chairs. The arms of the sofa and the two chairs were very wide and had wood on them. Perfect for stacking books or supporting writing materials. Can you believe it.....there were not computers back then in the home!
I transferred from VA Tech to VCU the summer between my sophomore and junior year. The most compelling reason for the transfer was that I had been very seriously injured by an overthrown hardball that managed to find my right cheek. I had to have surgery as my face was crushed (tripod fracture of the right zygoma). Not a pretty sight, I assure you. I had to withdraw from school. I worked as hard in school as I did post college. So I had enough credits to be considered a junior which was very helpful. Tech was still on the quarter system, so I had to withraw after Q2 of my sophomore year.
Background noise to all of this was that Mark and I were in a serious relationship AND (I think that this was probably the straw that sealed my transfer, but don't ever tell my husband that!), I did not get on-campus housing. I elected to transfer to VCU--"that hippie college" according to my father who remembered it as RPI from the 60's. They had an excellent Accounting program. Though I adored Tech and transferring was difficult, everything worked out fine.
I lived at home in the addition that my parents had built for my grandmother who was deceased. Her furniture was still there. I had many, many hours of seat time on that sofa with all my books piled around me. My beagle, Suzie, (my very first dog of my own!) would sleep in the blue chair. I will always remember that chair for that. I didn't have too many troubles with living at home. I never had any truly wild tendencies and doing well in school was terribly important to me. Accounting was hard, and it was very competitive. My mother would often worry about me for I seemingly never came up for air. I did eat dinner, and I was always an early riser, as I am now. So I would drink coffee with her each morning.
Though the sofa is gone, I have the red chair and the blue chair--enduring and endearing memories of childhood and young adulthood. They werePublish Post manufactured by Chromecraft (I think) and have a 1945 date. I think they would be considered Art Deco.
"Mrs. Red", then, conjured up a very pleasant memory for me.
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