3 Keys Thursday: 3 Key End-of-Day Habits

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

These days, I'm spending a lot of time in my home office. As someone who often struggles to draw the line between work and home, I need something that says "day is done" and that leaves my workspace looking welcoming at the start of each day.

Until recently, I've never been very good at the "clear off your desk at the end of the day" routine but, ever since my last desk revamp a few months ago, I've been committed to doing just that. The first of my three end-of-day habits to emerge was clear my desk, an unmistakable sign that work time is drawing to a close.

Clearing off my desk is actually the second thing I do. The first is to set my table up for morning. I have a small, round table that was in my parents' house and ended up in my office by accident, which turned out to be serendipitous. I've always wanted an L-shaped desk, but my office is too small to support a desk that size. The small table, currently to the right of me (I'm right-handed) holds the materials I need for today's tasks.  At the end of the day, everything on the table either goes in the trash (lists), away (if I'm finished with it) or back on the table for the next day.

My final task is to put the pillows back on my chair. When I splurged on my new desk chair, I also made it home to a white lace pillow that had been my mom's, a small fleece throw and a pillow that says "I never met a chocolate I did not like." At the start of each day, I take the pillows off so I can sit in the chair and work and, at the end of the day, returning those pillows to their places signals close of business before I even leave the room. And, since this room has no door, having a signal like that is an important step in sharpening the line between work and home.

Though I don't always stop working completely after I "shut down" my office, taking these three steps to draw a line leaves me with a sense of peace and accomplishment and, even better, it makes
my office a space I want to walk into the next day.

How about you? When work and home lines blur, how do you separate one from the other?

Bookish Inspiration

freephotocc via Pixabay

I've been listening to -- and greatly enjoying -- Michelle Obama's book, Becoming. One day last week, as I was driving home from work, she was talking about her husband working on the second draft of his first book:

"He worked late at night in a small room we'd converted to a study at the rear of our apartment -- a crowded, book-strewn bunker I referred to lovingly as 'the hole.'"

Hmm.

She went on to say that she's come to the conclusion that he needs that sort of space -- "a closed-off little warren where he can read and write undisturbed....Time spent there seems to fuel him....any quiet corner or alcove will do....There, he can flip between the six or seven books he's reading simultaneously...."

Okay, wait a minute. This man, the former President of the United States, has an office that looks like mine? He intentionally creates that type of a work space wherever he goes? And reads multiple books at the same time?

I felt oddly validated, despite the fact that Michelle Obama insists on a door on each of these spaces so she doesn't have to look at the room that lies beyond the door.

President Obama and I were both born in August so, maybe it's a Leo thing.

Or maybe it's a style thing.

Though I would like my own I need to see it/drop and run-driven space to be a little less cluttered, I was positively gleeful to discover that a highly intelligent, Ivy-educated, accomplished former President is not only perfectly happy in a space that is, by Type A organizer standards, disorganized -- closed-door worthy, even! -- but seeks to create that sort of haven, even when on vacation.

When it comes to organization, I'm not seeking to emulate President Obama any more than I'm seeking to emulate my Type A friends who swear by binders and file cabinets. I'm just pointing to anecdotal evidence that it's possible to look disorganized by Type A standards and still accomplish a lot. 

Even better, perhaps we accomplish a lot because of the spaces we create, not in spite of them. I've heard, "I don't know how you can work in here" more than once. The truth is, some days, I don't either. But whenever I re-envision or re-design my workspace, personal items and visual inspiration are a part of the package. Sterile office spaces may look lovely, but they're just not my thing.

We shouldn't have to rationalize our styles -- we should revel in them. As unique individuals, we should set the standards for our spaces based on what makes us comfortable, what what inspires us, and what, to use former First Lady Michelle Obama's word "fuels" us.

Even if sometimes, we have to close the door.

nietjuh via Pixabay

As an I need to see it person, I know that no matter how many times I clear off my desk, it will never be completely empty. Too much stuff interferes with my concentration, but too little stuff results in a desk devoid of personality and that just doesn't fuel me.

This afternoon, I hope to assess my desk (funny how these posts inspire) and to give serious consideration to every item on it. Some things are here out of habit. Others are here for a purpose and still others add a playfulness to the space that, as a creative person, I find essential.

What does your haven look like? Is it an endless stretch of clear space, a home for neatly stacked piles or a mishmash of I need to see it task reminders? What interferes and what inspires?

Whatever your haven is, make it intentionally yours.

Your space, your styles, your rules.

A Place for Everything, An Item for Every Drawer

Now this would be a cool
addition to my office!
Photo: Pixabay

In my office, I have two unassigned drawers -- that is to say that they currently serve as "home" to no specific items. One has served several purposes, but, because of my I need to see it style, none of those plans have stuck. Right now, it holds some writing projects and some "miscellaneous files" (always bad news from an organizational perspective), but I wouldn't call the space well-utilized.

The other is drawer is a small one, the lone, empty drawer in a three-drawer unit. Its companions hold, among other things, FitBit wristbands and toilet paper tubes decorated with washi tape and pressed into service as cord storage. Unlike my drawer-in-limbo, it's an organizational coup -- easy to use and in keeping with my styles, I can find what I'm looking for in under five seconds. Because these small drawers have clear, labeled fronts, I can not only glimpse the contents, but I also know what's inside even before I open them -- the labels remove all the mystery.

As an I need to see it person, I need this, ahem, transparency. That's why my wonderful, large drawer with projects and miscellany is a drawer in limbo in a room that still has piles that need sorting. I could take a page out of the I know I put it somewhere handbook and transfer the stacks from my counter (which looks much better this week, I must say) to the drawer. Unfortunately, that would simply hide the problem, rather than solving it; my counter would look better, but I wouldn't be any more organized. Worse yet, those papers could sit in that drawer, hidden from sight, for years before I paid attention to them again, which means that I'm taking a significant risk if I put anything important or time sensitive in that wonderful, practically empty space.

Meanwhile, in another spot in the office, a rolling bin has been pressed into service as file storage for my active class files. Previously, it collected dust as the official storage place for all of my notes on organization, but, when I needed a place (besides the chair in the living room) to keep my class files, I rethought the plan. I moved the organization files -- which I don't need to access on a daily basis -- to the family room to create space in my office for the files I touch every day.

What, you may ask, is the purpose of all of these stories?

Balance.

Balance between overstuffed and just right = room to grow (my empty/unassigned drawers).

Balance between my I need to see it personal style and my drop and run organizational style = a "just right" container that allows me to put things away (instead of down) in a place where they're visually accessible.

Balance between the easy answer and the one that makes sense = time + patience + trial + error.

Pixabay

It's amazing how easily we fall into -- and stay stuck in -- habits that don't work. Getting organized and staying organized means constantly reassessing what goes where and whether or not the storage we choose is the best choice. It means finding what works and replicating it so that eventually, everything has a home that's as easy to use as the default surface we choose when we're too exhausted to put things where they belong.

Needless to say, it's a process.

And sometimes, empty drawers share space with homeless piles.

I'm Just an L-Shaped Desk Girl in a Small Office World

Not my porch. I wish.
(Photo by Jade, via Morguefile)

The room that is my office used to be an open-air porch. Not a wraparound porch like the ones you see on beautiful old southern homes, but rather, a step-outside-and-check-the-weather cement slab structure with four corner posts and a roof. When my daughter was small, she loved sitting out there with my husband when it rained. Although my husband has forgiven me for enclosing the porch (he was complicit in the decision, after all), my daughter has not. The patio we installed off the back of the house is consolation, though, and she's coming around.

I've spent a lot of time over the past several months organizing my workspace by my styles. But space is a fixed quantity, and there's only so much I can do to create work space and storage. What I'd really love is an L-shaped desk so I can cater to my I need to see it style and spread the stuff I'm working on out on one leg of the L.

But an L-shaped desk won't fit into my converted porch office. And I do love the desk I have and the small niche I've created, so I have to get creative. In the absence of my L-shaped desk, I:

• Use a tray table. Turns out it's useful for more than eating dinner in front of the television. Perfect for a small space, it folds up when it's not in use, and can get pressed into service as the makeshift "L" when I need to see things I'm working on. 
• Pull out the rolling bin that lives under my desk and stores files. I love my rolling bin, purchased close to ten years ago at The Container Store. The bin used to be auxiliary storage in my office at school, and now that I'm retired, it's parked under my desk where it houses years' worth of information I've collected on organization. If I simply need a place to park a binder or textbook I'm using, I roll out the bin and lay the materials on top. When I'm finished, it tucks back under the desk. (I also have the top of an old tray table that I can use if I need to make the top of the bin more desk-like).
• Flip the lid of the bin beside my desk. In a small workspace, auxiliary storage is a fact of life. One such storage solution is a fabric bin beside my desk that holds class files and notebooks. When I'm finished working, a lid covers it all up. Flipped upside down, the lid holds loose papers and files I'm in the process of using, keeping them contained in the process.

None of this is rocket science, but rather, an extension of organizing by STYLE. Once you know what works for you, solutions sometimes present themselves. After all, nothing's easier than using  your "default settings."

Organization Extra: Organization for Teachers: Not Just Binders Any More

#3 (Buzzfeed.com)

On Thursday, I went onto campus and spent about an hour in my office checking emails and making to-do lists. My friends who teach have begun making forays back into their classrooms, preparing for the school year ahead. Some of them never really left.

So, in their honor, I'm sharing a great Buzzfeed post about organization ideas for teachers. Most are designed for elementary school teachers, but many will transfer to secondary and post-secondary staff, as well as parents, or anyone looking for ways to keep paper, pens and the like neat and corralled.

As for me, I'm going into my basement to retrieve what I need to make #19 a reality in my campus office.