I’m a ‘floor is my filing cabinet’ enthusiast but last Friday, the haphazard piles of paper finally got to me and I cleared the lot. Staples were meticulously removed (quite a feat if you have no nails like me), clips unclipped and returned to their storage jar and a huge pile of paper was consigned to either the recycling bin or put through the shredder.
The declutter felt good. The process was cathartic and the final result returns the order to my office.
But floor filing is a hard habit to break. It’s just so convenient to swivel to the right of my desk, look to the floor and pluck the bit of paper I need off it. To my way of thinking, there was even some kind of method to the seeming madness of the sea of paper on the floor. The row closest to my chair comprised of tasks that need immediate completion, the next row could wait a day or two and the pile that edged along the wall? That was for well into next week.
Most embarrassingly, the floor files made me feel productive and busy while an empty floor now makes me feel like I’m missing something or not quite up to speed with my forward planning.
Dilemma. No floor files looks nice, floor files feel nice.
I wonder how long it will take before that first floor file makes its way off my desk and down onto the carpet…..