Procrasti Nation: my country of origin

Yesterday I took a "before" picture of my messy desk area, books and papers piled literally a foot high in some spots. My plan was to clean it up, get organized again, then take an "after" photo so you and I both would know how it's supposed to look.

Uh...the "after" shot will have to wait a while longer. I've made some progress, but there's still a lot to do.

Here are some of the things that were on my desk (two desks, actually) at the beginning of the day:

Printouts of my first four months of blog entries, except for those I gave to someone who "doesn't like to read online";

Eight different stacks of genealogy research printouts;

Two genealogy books;

One website-creation book and four pages of HTML code;

A reverse dictionary and a book on American slang;

A stack of two non-fiction and five fiction books that were moved to my desk "temporarily" when a nearby shelf broke;

Two identical 2006 Ascension Parish telephone directories and a 2004 Baton Rouge phonebook;

Two fold-out maps: Baton Rouge and Missouri;

At least a hundred photographs, scattered in little stacks;

Assorted utility bill receipts and bank statements;

My great-aunt Hazel's diary covering January 1942 to September 1944;

My own well-worn baby book;

A sympathy card that wasn't mailed within a decent amount of time;

A delicious-sounding recipe for corn casserole (already misplaced and probably in the trash);

Assorted CDs, DVDs, zip disks and 3-1/2" floppies;

Two empty softwear boxes and two unopened (free) ones;

Three looseleaf binders of computer, electronics and appliance manuals;

One book of logic puzzles;

Things you'd expect to see, like the stapler, Post-Its, paper clips, tape, and more pens and markers than any human needs.

This process would be so much easier if I could focus on the task at hand. I have well-organized files to put papers into, but do I pick up a piece of paper and put it in it's proper place (Peter Piper)? No. I read it, and I think about it, and it reminds me of something else, and there I go, off on another tangent.

There've been distractions, too. Saddam Hussein received the death sentence and another religious leader crashed and burned. I finished one really good book and started another. I read part of the Sunday paper. Chocolate covered cherries are in the refrigerator and keep calling my name. I had nice phone chats with both of my daughters. Kadi and Butch have had to go in and out a number of times, and sometimes they just needed their bellies rubbed. And when I sit at my desk and look out the window toward the neighbor's yard, I see golden sunshine, blue morning glories, white lattice and green leaves.


Who can work with all that going on?