Only those who work in offices will REALLY understand. With one boss in Germany and the other out most of Tuesday and all day today, I got a lot done. I had four stacks of "mystery" papers about 3-4 inches high, plus another stack about 1 inch high, and I got all of them sorted, filed, and dealt with!!! The boss in Germany - I have about 8 pieces of paper to file for his files. And I have made a good start on attacking the other boss's filing and should have it finished by the end of the day Monday.

I feel so good about this - I was really worried about the stacks of mystery papers, especially as they have been building up for 6 months or more.

By Christylee on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 06:36 pm:

Good Job! Glad you had a good day!

By Emily7 on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 06:47 pm:

I hate filing!
Great Job.

By Karen~moderator on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 07:01 pm:

UGH! I DO understand, Ginny! I absolutely loathe filing, and I tend to let it pile up. I always have several stacks of mystery papers going at any one time. If it's not something that goes in a file I'm working on at that time, it finds its way to the mystery paper stack.

By Truestori on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 07:07 pm:

Does it count if you have the mystery pile on your own desk at home? LOL

So glad to hear your day was productive, it must feel like a huge relief.

By Lauram on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 07:15 pm:

Oh! Can you come to my office! I have soooooo many stacks right now. It doesn't help that I moved into an office with lots of counter space. Kind of enables me.....

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 10:24 pm:

Laura, there is a set of rules called the Peter Principals. One of the Peter Principals is that people are promoted to their level of incompetence (which means that as long as they are competent they get promoted until they reach the level where they are competent - at which point the person probably is your boss). Another is that Work expands to meet the time available and work product expands to meet the space available. I do understand about how counter space enables more clutter and stacks.

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 10:47 am:

Good for you, Ginny!! Doesn't it feel great?

By Pamt on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 11:05 am:

I need to have a day like that. I went through my 12-15 inch paper stack and threw out garbage and out of date stuff, but now I need to weed through again and start filing. I hate it...ugh! And that's just my pile at home. I don't have a stack at work, but I do have a bag I carry back and forth from work with all kinds of paperwork in it that needs to be cleaned out. WTG Ginny!! It does feel great!

By Kay on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 11:31 am:

You've inspired me, Ginny! I'm going to attack this desk of mine and do some of the tasks that I've been avoiding because they're just boring. Maybe I'll sing a little or even dance .... hey, I'm by myself in the office today - why not?

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 04:57 pm:

Hey - the only reason I could do this is one boss left for Germany Monday evening, and the other was out two days this week. Otherwise, I just build up stacks of mystery papers.

By Bea on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 05:04 pm:

Boy do I understand that feeling. I loved it when our project leaders were traveling...most of the time. I was also travel coordinator for the company, so if they ran into problems while traveling...I had problems. :o(

By Karen~moderator on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 07:10 pm:

Ginny, I hate to admit this but I think my whole house is a mystery paper stack!!! I'm sure my DH would agree with that assessment. I'm so organized at work and so NOT organized at home. I totally freak out if DH asks for paperwork on anything at home, because it *could* be in stacks or boxes in any of 3 or 4 rooms in the house. :-(