I chose to organize my desk at home for this blog, not that it was a huge undertaking or anything, but it needed some rearranging. I use this desk pretty much daily, it's where I do my homework, keep most of my personal belongings, and it's where most of my random crap (garbage, notes, trinkets) ends up. Needless to say it can get pretty cluttered, and it needs a good cleaning about once a month.
Cleaning is never something I want to do; not that I'm opposed to it, it's just one of those things that I always dread, even though I know it's necessary and will have good outcomes. It probably doesn't help that I'm sort of a pack rat, and I like to keep seemingly random things like notes to myself or ticket stubs for "sentimental value", or whatever other justification I can come up with to convince myself that something's not worthless. Reorganizing my desk is one of those activities that I think about for an hour before, sighing and groaning to myself before actually starting (yeah, I'm pretty lazy), and this time was no different.
Even though I dread and put off cleaning, creating this annoying anticipation before sucking it up and starting, it never seems as bad as I anticipate while I'm actually doing it. I'll get into a "get stuff done" mode, where I go through intense spring cleaning with myself, wether or not it's actually spring. I feel really accomplished when I know I've been productive, probably more so on account of my laziness, but when I start being productive I just ride the positivity wave until I'm done. It usually takes a pretty big event or incentive to get me to start on a project like cleaning or reorganizing (unfortunately this same principle applies to me and homework as well).
Even after reorganizing my desk, and feeling pretty productive for a solid 40 minutes, I still feel like it would take a lot of motivation to get me to do it again. When I don't want to do something, I will go out of my way to avoid it, even if I know it's for good and will have positive effects. Organization specifically has positive effects attached to it: it gives me time to be reflective, I can unscramble and decompress my thoughts, I actually end up physically organizing something that probably needed it; but even after seeing these positive consequences I still know I won't be eager and excited to do some cleaning the next time the need arrises. I'll still be lazy and I still won't want to do it, and I'll still see the good that comes out of it. At least I hope so for that last one, I fear that I may someday not see the value in reorganizing things (wether it be physical, mental, emotional, etc.) and that's when I know I'll have a problem, when I'm not able to sort through my clutter and pick out what's important (even if it's mind clutter and what thoughts are important) simply because I don't want to. This exercise taught me, if nothing else, that it's important to force myself to do things sometimes. Just because I don't want to do something doesn't mean I shouldn't, and it's sometimes necessary to force myself into things if I know in the back of my head that it's for the best. It's probably good to have assignments like this every once in a while to force students to organize themselves, hoping that they'll see the same positive consequences. So did I want to clean my desk when I have massive amounts of other homework to be doing, no I didn't, but am I glad I did (or at least will I be glad I did in a few hours/days) yeah I think so.
November 28th, 2011
Jack,
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to have found myself smiling and sometimes even laughing while I read this post. Don't get me wrong, it was great, but there was a hint of your sarcastic voice all along that made this very pleasant to read.
At the same time, I found myself agreeing to various of the thoughts you were having. I am completely and one-hundred percent that person that has to drag and force themselves to do something that could possibly be left for later. Or in other words, I too am a procrastinator. However, once I motivate myself and actually start to do something, I finish it in the best I can and similarly with the "let's get stuff done" attitude.
I find that a lot of what you talked about happens to me when I run. I have slim to no self motivation when it comes to running. Unless there's practice that day, I rarely find myself running. It takes a lot of mental preparation to go out alone and actually run. However, the consequences that running has have been amazing. The physical endurance and health not only lead to mental and social health, but to an overall productivity with my time and in life in general.
I enjoyed how I could almost hear you saying this out loud when I was reading, so in other words, your personal voice is incredible. Your point is stated very nicely and it's easy to related to. I'm glad that you found out that cleaning makes you organize your thoughts, and I hope that both of us will get off our lazy butts sooner in life. :)