Your System Can Be Messy

I watch YouTube when I eat my lunch. Just like most of us, I go down rabbit holes of content where I will watch ten or so videos about some topic I previously hadn't cared much about. Just me? Naw. Can't be. (Reply if you do that too, okay?)

I started looking at peoples organizing systems: and by this, I mean physical as well as workflow. In their journal and in their office. I was all over the map. I don't know about you, but some of these types of videos really crab my rangoon.

I Don't Care for "Instagram Perfect" Organization

One side alley I went down were people's desktop setups. That's because I bought a standing desk (cheap but highly rated). To put this desk in place meant I had to clean off my existing desk. Uh oh.

So there I was at lunch, watching person after person having Instagram-pretty desk setups. They all had purplish lights (I can't say much. I like lights like that) and those clicky clacky fancy keyboards and like felt desktop mats and on and on. You know, the kind of people who lay down white carpet in their kitchen as if anyone does something like that.

Or more accurately, I came to accept that I'm a lot more messy-organized than I am pretty-organized.

Messy Organized

Here's what I did to move into my new desk: I had some baskets kind of like these but not exactly the same, and I started putting "similar" things in each basket. One of these gathered up my daily meds (which used to hide under my monitor riser stand). Another clustered my stationary supplies (postcards, paper, stamps). One ended up full of quirky electronics I keep nearby (my cool instant camera, for instance, and my mala beads). One had my variety of Post-It brand stuff.

ALL this stuff was all over my desk in messy-but-findable piles. Once it went into those little bins, it was still easy to find. None of this makes a whole lot of sense (to me, at least), but it's what I understood.

And that's what I'm saying: it's okay to be messy as long as you're messy organized. I don't care if YOU can't find my pens. I care that >>I<< know where my pens are, and where my nail clipper is, and my eyeglasses screwdrivers, and.. you get it.

Your System Should Be YOUR System

It's okay if you have a weird way of doing things. It's even BETTER that you do. That's what we mean even at Appfire, when we say we provide tools to help you make work flow. We don't say "the way some company wants you to do it" after that. We just say flow.

I don't think we all have to fit in. I think we have to make the world fit US. Nobody wants to fit in: we want to be where we feel we belong. I think that's true of our systems, also. Don't you agree?

Important point, though: your system has to WORK for you. If what you're doing isn't cutting it, and you're frustrated and flailing, etc, then there's not a lot of sense trying to argue for that, is there?

This Also Means You Can Change Things

I shift in and out of systems probably every quarter or half a year. Something will come up or some situation at work or in my life will change and I'll realize that what I'm doing isn't really optimal for my needs any more. That's okay.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not going to get some OTHER kind of desk in three months. Holy cats, I do NOT want to do that reorganizing again any time soon.

But if there are shifts and changes, that's a good thing. It means you're alive. Maybe don't get any tattoos that point to your being in the cult of one type of system or another. "David Allen 4 Lyfe" might not age well.

But make it yours.

What do YOU do? What's your system?

Chris...