the pile of paper. just sort it out

Done! SO DONE!

My cluttery stash of old Japanese homework? I’m taking it to my friend’s place this afternoon and we’re going to use it for a paper mache project, he he!

Which is good – because I need a new paper piggy bank :-)
Next year (2007) is the year of the pig, by the way!
I think I’ll make my piggy look like Pumba.

I currently have no looming, insidious piles of paper – oh wait – what’s that in the closet? 1263 looseleaf sheets of my old, finished Japanese homework? Noooooooooo…!

OK honestly, self – am I ever going to look at these again? I know I won’t look at all of them, but some of them will be useful. Sorting through that pile looks like a nightmare. I know I’m not gonna ship all these papers home with me next summer or anything. But I’m still studying Japanese now, so maybe…

Screw it – I’d never find anything in that mess anyway. The best I’ll be able to do is look something up on the web, if there’s a grammar point I forgot or something. I’m gonna throw them out! ALL OF THEM (except the current stuff which I haven’t done the test for.)

Bwa ha ha! I feel so empowered. :->

I have one more lingering pile to sort out – then I’m gonna call this goal finished.

The bills. I’ve paid the bills, but I haven’t a) remembered how much each was, b) told my roommates how much they owe me from last month.

You’d think I’d be more motivated to do this – I certainly could use the cash right now…

I didn’t mark this off as completed yet! I did my homework, sent my passport renewal off, etc. The pile’s gone.

Oh wait – that’s RIGHT… there’s always another damn pile of paper :-(

Sigh. I guess it’s time to reveal the one I hid in the closet a few weeks ago. I’d really prefer to keep it hidden away, yet in the back of my mind I know it’s in there, lurking.

See folks, that’s what this goal is really about. Peace of mind (and how paper is my achilles heel, but let’s not focus on that part.)

Peace of mind.

is about to be attacked…. for at least an hour!

Gee, I wish I knew how to express stuff in that way in Japanese, rather than what I’m learning… “Mr. Ito and Ms. Yamaguchi are on the train to Tokyo. They go shopping. Ms. Yamaguchi buys a sweater. The sweater costs $100.” :-(

(the one sitting in the middle of my floor, not the ones that are hidden away in my closet),

And I started sorting it. Then the one pile became five small piles! Don’t know if that’s progress, because they’re now taking up more space. OK, filed one bunch after weeding it out even more – and put the file away.

Second pile is not very important or urgent, it’s all the past homework for my Japanese class. It’s MOSTLY in order, but not entirely. I need to put this stuff on a shelf somewhere. Good enough.

Third pile is my current Japanese homework, which I haven’t started yet.

Fourth pile are bills, but I have no money until payday, so I refuse to stress about those papers :-)

Fifth pile is my passport renewal application. All I really have to do is copy the rough app onto the new papers, put the supporting docs in and send it as registered mail with a money order. It’s Sunday night, so I can’t do all that. I’ll just fill in the good copy, throw out the old one, get it ready to take to the post office tomorrow. And I’ll do that RIGHT NOW!

So after this, only 2 piles left – bills and homework.

I just realized…. today I brought a pile of paper home from work (it was personal stuff) – but far from progressing on this goal, I seem to be sabotaging myself! Dummy.

I cleaned out the random papers in the bottom of my “big” drawer, but it was in my desk at work, which doesn’t really count.

Really – paper piles are the one type of clutter which is most hazardous to my mental health. How can a simple pile of paper (or two) make my spirits drop so low whenever I see it?

I guess it’s because the papers that are easy to deal with get sorted straight away, and it’s only the ones I have no idea what to do with which end up in the pile. That lingering, oppressive pile…

it’s not truly “the” pile of paper… there are several piles of paper. There always are.

If I sort one pile out, then soon a new one accumulates… meanwhile there are always at least 2 more anyway.

If I had some kind of filing system, I’d simply put papers in it, then forget that they exist (which will typically cause big problems later, when I’ve forgotten to deal with something important).

Why do I have this issue with paper?

It drives me crazy.

yay!