E-Mail and Elephants

Last week, I needed to make a trip to the Apple Store to fix an issue with my e-mail. The technician who helped me was wonderful, not only restoring my e-mail, but also answering random Mac questions as they occurred to me during the course of our conversation.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that he laughed when I told him I write about organization. One look at my desktop -- vintage I need to see it, with every photo, image and Keynote presentation I'd used or worked on in the past month virtually scattered and piled and filling a large percentage of the screen -- and it looked as though I needed an organization intervention.

wallpapercdn.com

I joked that this was the pile of papers on the corner of the desk that hadn't gotten filed yet, but in reality, I was embarrassed. Perhaps even more embarrassing is the fact that it wasn't until the moment before I opened my MacBook that I realized I should have at least tidied up my desktop. I mean, had it been an actual desktop, that would have been obvious to me, but my virtual desktop? The thought never crossed my mind. I walked into the store with one goal: restoration of my email functionality -- and I never even thought to address the elephant on my screen.

I'm happy to report that I've recovered my composure, along with my email, and that the desktop looks a little better. The fact that it remains an issue has more to do with my reluctance to spend time fixing it than with my personal or organizational style.

Our styles, it seems, pervade everything we do -- which is why some of them are classified as "personal" styles. Though the technician was a magician when it came to restoring my emails, his suggestion that I use a catchall file on my desktop was less enchanting. For an I need to see it person, putting something into a file folder other than its actual destination isn't any different from simply saving the file in a different location.

And so the journey continues. Accepting our styles is the first step; choosing how much we display them to the world is a continuing adventure.

Just a reminder: If you'd like to continue to follow the

Wednesday organization blogs, check out

Organizing By STYLE.