The Four Ds and the Four Boxes

So we finally dug through the four boxes of paper last weekend that we had hurriedly packed at the end of January. You know, it's part of that last 10% of stuff that didn't get orderly packed--the boxes that were labeled "Random Shit" and "Miscellaneous Crap" that were destined for "Far Far Away" or "Wild Blue Yonder" instead of the neatly labeled boxes that were packed weeks in advance and clearly marked for "NC" or "Residency." We got a little punchy there at the end. As Jimmy Buffett says, "If we couldn't laugh, then we'd all go insane."

The contents of the four boxes consisted mainly of mail that began accumulating while Eric was packing up in October for his externships--most of it just needed to be scanned and either filed or recycled, but there were some "ah ha!" and "oh no!" moments sprinkled in there for effect. Before I lament about our inability to handle things in a timely fashion, I should state that the mission was accomplished--we were able to successfully locate all our tax documents before the end of March.

Tom Kaiden, fountain of organizational wisdom at the Cultural Alliance, passed on the adage of the four D's in a meeting the better part of a year ago: Do, Dump, Delay or Delegate. So succinct, straightforward, simple... (yeah, Tom, that alliteration's for you!) ...and so terribly hard to, well, DO! Fortunately I've been able to [mostly] overcome my procrastinating tendencies at work, but home matters are an entirely different scenario. I can't plead ignorance; I do know what it takes to be organized at home; I was actually really good about keeping my home matters in order while I was in school (and procrastinating on my school work). But when the work day comes to a close, it feels like "delay" is just what the doctor ordered.

I have an inkling that the short-term gratification is probably not worth it--especially after a 4-hour-long search for tax documents that were delivered to two addresses. And the worst of it wasn't even the search; it was the countless times that I had to cringe just while thinking about the search! Add to that the after-shock cringe of knowing how many unanswered letters were also in those boxes, and you've got a lot of angst building up over months, rather than an investment of minutes had it been dealt with sooner rather than later. What a waste of energy--but realistically, I'll probably opt to delay again. Yeah, addict!

So if you get a response to a letter that you wrote in 2006, you read about it here first. It's OK, I understand why you're rolling your eyes, but at least the "Delay" finally converted to a "Do," right?!