I feel like most of what I have done this week is put out fires and tackle stacks.  Monday was our first day of school.  I have two in elementary school and this year I have one in middle school.  This means two times the parent meetings, two times the school events and two times the paperwork.  Well, truly I have three sets of paperwork but two different schools means different channels of communication going out and coming in.  To top that all off I spent all of Monday night shopping at the huge consignment sale that I shop at twice a year.  It was hugely successful.  And by hugely successful I mean that I got lots of great clothes, games and books for my kids and I used up all my energy stores in one fail swoop.

*deep breathing*

I’m getting a bit anxious as I type that all out.  Take a break for deep breathing if you’re feeling that way too.  I have systems set up for all this paper but there has been too much going on this week to even get that far in the process. If you’re feeling overwhelmed I want to encourage you to take some time this afternoon or this weekend to really evaluate your problem.

Decide what the problem is!  For me, the problem has been time to file and tackle the paperwork.  Let’s not even talk about the stacks of laundry baskets waiting for my attention. It may be the same for you or maybe you have another step before you are ready to put away.  Maybe you haven’t created a system yet.  I have places to file school work and bills and two clipboards that hold important documents I might need to access on a regular basis.  Decide what the REAL problem is!

I was talking to two moms today while volunteering at school and one of them mentioned the awkward location of her family office.  It’s in the far back of the house…not really NEAR where all the paperwork comes in and resides.  She said she felt like she had an underutilized drawer in the kitchen that could make a good filing space.  So what was her problem?  Paperwork on the counter? NO  Her problem was that the storage area and the work area were not in fact the same space.

Go grab a piece of paper and write down what you’re thinking as you’re brainstorming about your problem.  Maybe your file space is not big enough.  Maybe you are procrastinating and need a better action motivator.  Next week I’m going to show you a few of my back to school organization systems and see if we can get our blood pressure down a bit.

*deep breathing*

We’re all going to make it!  And maybe we’ll even make it Neat & Pretty in the process!

PS: For the record…this was when my desk was looking really great…for this week.