Note to Self: Keep it in Neutral
;)
I’m “cleaning off my desk” at home today—paying bills and sorting through disheveled piles of sundry papers that seem to thrive and multiply there—and as usually happens, I’ve come across many that, for reasons that now escape me, I failed to expediently dispatch.
One is a direct mail advertisement from a CPA firm. Now, I’ve used the same CPA for more than thirty years, so why, I ask myself, is the solicitation gathering dust on my desk? Another is a letter from my home mortgage company announcing, as though I’ve just won the lottery, that I’m “eligible to apply” for refinancing. The letters arrive so frequently that I’ve learned to recognize their envelopes. So why did I toss this one on my desk instead of into the circular file?
The one I’m looking at now is a ragged page torn from a magazine I don’t even recognize. Maybe Dawn clipped it for me to read. On one side is a full page ad for a beauty product that “lifts away years while you sleep”. I know that isn’t what caught my attention; I want to keep all the years I can! On the other side is a short article about the music preferences of composer Danny Elfman—Billy Holiday, Goran Bregovie—and I can’t imagine that would have interested me.
Hmmmm. At the bottom of the page is a link to myngle.com, an interactive site offering online foreign language instruction. Maybe that’s it; I’ve often considered brushing up on my high school Spanish. Or maybe, just maybe, it was this profound excerpt from The Personal Credibility Factor by Sandy Allgeier:
“Highly credible people make decisions to ‘suspend judgment’ when considering another person’s perspective. They do this because they are okay with being wrong - or, at bare minimum, okay with having their opinions challenged. This doesn’t mean they don’t have passion and strong beliefs. It simply means that their minds are open to other opinions, even if those are quite different from their own.”
Yeah, that must be it! I probably wanted to check out the book. Mystery solved.
Now, why do you suppose I’m holding on to this expired offer from Hallmark for a $5 stuffed panda if I buy three cards before December 24…?
Doug
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Reader Comments (15)
A terrific post. I really enjoy the humour in your writing. Subtle whimsy and always an enjoyable read. I hope you will share more like it.
LOL! Why aren't you up snow skiing instead of desk work? You have the weather for it and anything would be better than chaining yourself to your desk on a weekend. Good post though and the excerpt makes me want to check out the book myself.
This looks like a fast and interesting book to read, I may pick it up.
I try to keep an open mind and listen to other people's opinions. But fter I have weighed the arguments and I believe I am right, I am not too "pc" to speak my own mind.
Good advise. Sounds like a good book.
Maybe a book on organization would also help keep your desk tidy :))
Funny :D
I enjoyed this with coffee and muffin at Starbucks this morning. I love to start my day with something that makes me smile. Thanks :))
I may try the online language course. I always wanted to learn Spanish so when we travel to Mexico I can speak the local lingo. I will let you know how it works.
Let me know what you think of the book. I always enjoy 'self help'.
There are lots of books out there that will help you get organized lol :)
Thanks for the suggestions that I become better organized. I usually keep things shipshape, but with my long hours these past several months, everything's been dumped on my desk with me getting to it when I can. I dig out the priority stuff and eventually get back to the flotsam and jetsam (like yesterday). It's a crappy system and I hate it, but it is what it is for now. I'm feeling a little better today knowing that I've reestablished a modicum of order within the chaos.
I haven't read any reader reviews of the book, but it's an inexpensive paperback, only 208 pages, so it would be a quick read. If anyone reads it before I "get a round tuit", let me know what you think.
I know the feeling! Once a month I dig into the mound of paper that I threw on my desk to handle later. It grows until I can't stand it. By then, most of the stuff has handled itself and I can dump. The rest I figure are important enough to work on. It is my great system of priorities :))_
That system is more popular than you might think. If you ignore it long enough, it either expires or no longer requires any action so you can circular file it. The ones that are left you can work on. It's like the cream rising to the top and proves that the majority of paper that crosses your desk shouldn't have been written in the first place.
I agree, if you ignore it all, the need for most of it will evaporate. Toss it and handle the things that are left. All brilliant thinkers use that system.
Where did you get the picture? Very cool!
Wonderfully entertaining article. I hope you don't mind that I used your "email" option to forward it to my children scattered about the country and my grandson stationed in Germany. I know they will enjoy it.