You can't get ahead of clutter || The Joseph Planta Commentary ||

Tuesday, 11 October 2005

You can't get ahead of clutter

By Joseph Planta

VANCOUVER - Clutter. I know I should be talking about something more important, but sitting around my desk here, I notice a lot of clutter. It's expected of course, what with writing a column in this space, and researching and preparing for interviews. They say the tidy desk is the home of the empty mind.

My desktop rotary file-that I won't call a Rolodex, because it's a different brand-is bursting at the seams. I started using it a while ago, because using sticky notes around my computer screen was ugly, and using an address book was not as useful for me. The rotary file is getting unmanageable. There are a few sticky notes sticking out of it, and a few business cards that need transcribing.

There's a sheaf of papers on a lectern next to my desk. It's stuff I've read, but haven't finished, or stuff I've printed off, but haven't read. They said the computer age was to bring us the era of the paperless office. Yeah right. A lot of this junk is stuff that's not immediately useful, but perhaps useful in the future, so I can't really throw it out. It's stuff that ought to be filed, but of course won't, because there are a couple boxes of stuff also in need of filing, and why file this new stuff ahead of them.

Then underneath the lectern next to my desk, there are incidentals on the shelf-blank cassette tapes, I bought thinking I'll use, but I'll probably never. There are a few computer disks thrown around. There's a couple reporter notebooks I hide so that when I need them, I won't know where they are. A bottle of Aspirin, Advil, some alcohol swabs, and an old television remote that I never use, despite the fact I got it a couple of years ago, so that I could consolidate all the remotes-the VCR, DVD, cable, and TV-into one. Alas, I never have been able to figure out how to program the damn thing.

On the floor next to my desk is a stack of ten books that I've already read. On the other side is another stack of ten, I haven't read, but plan on. There's a chair next to it, with a bunch of newspaper clippings, I swear I'll file away whenever I get the chance. Then on top of my filing cabinet is one of those shelf things for CDs. It's half utilised, with a couple stacks of CDs in front waiting to be shelved. I wonder how many discs are in the right case.

Here's a card from the famed gossip columnist Liz Smith. I don't know where to put it. If I file it, I'll forget where I put it. Here are some stickers that I was supposed to give to the accountant when he was preparing my taxes. Hopefully, they weren't important. And here's a stopwatch. I've always thought I'd use it during interviews to keep me on time, but I've never been bothered to use it. There's so much junk, sure, but where's a pen, when you need it?

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