As I was having my first cup of coffee this morning, a serious thought occurred to me; I am badly lacking in organizational skills. I have to get my living/working space in order. I have to prioritize what needs to be done in order to achieve some short term goals. I feel like I am wasting a large amount of time as a result of my lack of organization. Oddly enough, at one time, I actually made a living based primarily on my ability to organize things. I’ve never thought it was one of my strong points. I think that, probably, I was the only one around that was willing to give it a stab.
So, I decided to do my daily walk and contemplate how best to spend my day of organization. Instead, as I walked, my thoughts centered around this question; “I wonder how much time, during my life, that I have spent exercising?”. Here’s the thing, I am 43-years-old; for 25 of those years, I have made a conscious effort to get some exercise. I’m not saying I’ve worked out every day but, I’ve made an effort. I have, at different times, ran, walked, lifted weights, done yoga, played racquetball and basketball. There was about a three year period where I really didn’t try to do some kind of workout but, during that time, I was an ironworker. It was physically taxing and I figured that I didn’t really need to add to it.
The only time I ever got real serious about exercise was between the ages of 18-22. I would wake up every morning before any food or coffee and run 3-4 miles. I remember thinking that, the run would be the hardest thing I would do all day and if I did it first, the rest of the day would be a snap. That was really the only time in my life that anyone would have considered me to be slim, by the way.
Anyway, this morning, as I was walking I was thinking to myself; “All of the exercise I’ve done in my life and I look and feel like crap. If I could have all of that time back, I bet I wouldn’t have to worry about being disorganized.” Of course, my line of reasoning didn’t factor in the thousands of bottles of rum, cases of beer, pills, pot, chicken wings etc. that I consumed and the amount of time that wasted or the obvious conclusion that it might have been counter productive to all of the exercise.
So, I finished the walk, showered, and then, set out to organize in earnest. I spent six solid hours throwing stuff away. Going through stuff and throwing most of it away. I am at a point in my life where I have less “stuff” than I ever had. It’s not some noble pursuit of non- attachment to the material things, I just don’t have room for stuff. On top of that I genuinely don’t need a lot of stuff. I spent most of the time going through boxes of CD’s. These aren’t regular CD’s, for the most part they are demos of songs that I have recorded in the past few years. For instance, I found six different mixes of demos of the song “Munk” all in jewel cases. I filled two Hefty bags with nothing but CD’s. I took them all out of the jewel cases, by the way, because I have friends that like to get them when I give them away. So, that’s two Hefty’s full of just the discs. It’s got to be over a hundred pounds of discs. I think I may lay in wait on Friday morning to see the trash truck crush them up.
I thought it might be productive to multi-task while I was going through all of this crap so, I put on the Jimmy Buffett songs that I need to know for this weekend. The thinking being that I could learn through osmosis. Maybe it works on some level, “Cheeseburger In Paradise” is running through my brain right now but, I couldn’t sit down, sing and play it for you. I think that the benefit of multi-tasking is one of the great myth’s of our time. Multi-tasking is doing several things poorly, at the same time.
You may be able to tell from my tone that I don’t feel a great sense of accomplishment. No feeling of a task completed. The fact is, I’m not finished. I have boxes to go before I sleep. When I do finish this chore, getting rid of every unnecessary item in my tiny work/living space then, the actual organizing can begin. So, this is really like pre-organizing.
All of this stuff, organizing, exercising, getting rid of clutter, could come under the heading of self-improvement. I say “could” because I’m not totally convinced that it is noticeably improving my quality of life. Maybe, it would if I could have that sense of a task completed.
But, does that really ever happen? Do we ever reach a point that we have ever self-improved enough? For instance, if I did somehow have all of this silly jazz in order, I know that I drink too much coffee, I should stop smoking, and improve my eating habits. Hell, it probably wouldn’t hurt to make some money while I’m at it.
I think it’s part of the human condition to constantly self-analyze, take in inventory, as they say. You know, be honest with yourself about yourself. Do you ever reach a point in this self-analysis where you say; “You know what, I’m good, don’t need anything here”. I’m not seeing it. Remember all that “I’m O.K., you’re O.K.” crap? Here’s what I know, I’m not O.K. and neither are you. Get back to work.
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