Holy mackerel, this stuff actually works

I don't clean very often, mostly because I'm more interested in the system of cleaning than in the actual process itself.

My parents still laugh at me ten years after I purchased a book about how to clean my place. Both children of the Depression, they're good at scrubbing, scraping, and scouring as a matter of course, and think it's hilarious that anyone would actually read a book about what most normal people just do. Now if either one of them is feeling down, just to cheer them up I'll them I'm reading my housecleaning book, and in no time they're giggling and snorting like two kids poised with a water balloon. Nothing else works quite like it.

For this very reason, I can't tell them I'm reading "Getting Things Done," by David Allen. Because they will mock me. Thank goodness they don't know what the internet is and will never see this blog. But even if someone were to lead them to the computer, sit them down, and click the Context is King link for them, I would have the last laugh. Because it's one of those books that's changing my life.

Just look at my cube.

When my coworker Donal came by, he got the creeps and instructed me to get some knickknacks.

My coworker Rick came by, and because I wasn't there for the moment, he thought I was on vacation.

My most anal coworker, Annie, came by, stood there for a moment, and admired the sheer sterility of the space. Then she asked in her distinct, matter-of-fact fashion, "Where is your desk cleaner?" With a glimmer of a Wednesday Addams smile I answered, "It's neatly tucked away. Where it should be."

On my way home tonight, I purchased an inbox for my place. Very soon I will be inviting people over again, simply because I will no longer be tripping over stacks of tax forms, piles of books, and dust bunnies the size of Harvey.

Thank you David Allen, for helping me to dig out of the avalanche I call my daily life.