Wow. Who would have thought...

[a_nord]

That the world would change so much, so fast.  Because of the Covid-19, I have been working from home since March 16th.  The company mandated a work from home order on the 17th.  To tell you the truth.... I've actually enjoyed the Stay at home - Shelter in place order.  It's no secret, The generally... I don't like people.  Mainly they suck.   How does the old addage go..."The more I get to know people, the more I love my Dog."  Well that pretty much states my feelings.  Sorry I digress....

I have taken this opportunity of No commute and with no real interaction with people to start better managing my life.  I've started completing things.  Not a lot, but some.  For example, The office.  Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that my home office is a stress point for me.  Roughly around the beginning of the year, I started working on the office.  Clearing everything nonessential out into the Media room.  Going through around 30 boxes of stored things (gadgets, cables, notebooks, file folders, labels, apple accessories, office supplies....etc) and get rid of a much as possible.  Then there was the paper.  Drawers, piles, boxes, baskets, notebooks full of paper.  I had been so good at keeping records, because I never got rid of any.

And there you have the root of the problem...Paper.  I couldn't understand why this room had been so overwhelming to work in or clean up.  And the answer is Paper.  I wrote about the office in November.and I was prepared to start working on it, but not till I got back from KC.  Things happened, so I didn't work on it while on vacation.  When I did start, I work for a little bit and then find something else that needed to be done.  I just couldn't understand why I kept avoiding that room.  Then I thought long and hard and realized that I was overwhelmed.  When I get overwhelmed like that, I leave the situation.  In my head I'm confused on where to start, and my instinct is to walk away and think on it.  And that was what I kept doing.  So I needed to change my tactics.  What I did was, I started going through the boxes.  One or 2 at a time each sitting.  However many I was comfortable with and then I would go on my merry way.  After about a week... I had gone through all the boxes!  And reduced 30 boxes down to 8!  That felt good.  The donation pile grew, The trash can got full and the amount in the office shrunk.  Just doing a little bit at a time was adding up to a big difference.  And the office was getting easier to deal with.
Then Came the paper.  I decided to take this even slower.  I used to keep notebooks for each of the dogs, the cars, all the warranties and owners manuals, projects completed and project plans, camper...  probably around 13 or 14 notebooks.  So I would take a book at a time and go through it and I would do a couple a day.  I ended up condensing them down and eliminating a bunch... Now I have 6.  Then the files.  I sorted everything like 3 times.  A little at a time.  Baby steps.  Throwing away nothing, but putting all paper that was trash in a box of it's own.  That would be the last step ... Shredding.  this would give me one more time to check that paper and make sure I didn't need it.  This process took me a couple of weeks.  It sounds tedious, but it was only in daily evening bursts and It helped me to move forward.  I wasn't scared that I had thrown out things I needed, like financial papers or God forbid Titles to the cars.  To touch every piece of paper multiple times has helped me so much.  Yes I still have more papaer than most people, but I have stopped adding to the problem. 
Once the papaer was tackled, It was my desk.  I had 3 computers there and it was crowded.  The apple moved to the media room, the laptop moves around, but lives upstairs.  And the work setup is in the office.  I dismantled everything and reconfigured it to sit back a little farther and of course cleaned everthing really well.  I would like to have a new desktop, but I am still trying to figure that one out.  I rearranged the shelves, removed 2 and cleared off the top shelf - because I really shouldn't keep things up there I need to get down.  I do stupid things and use the rolly chair to stand on and like I said... It's stupid.  And just like that, I like this room.  Good thing, because Little did I know it, but I will have to work from there for several weeks. Bad thing...I Hadn't finished everything.  Because remember, I am the 90%'er.  I never finish anything.

so here is the original List from November:
    What do I want/need to do for the office Redo?

1. New desktops - Not yet  This can wait
2. remove Mac Mini from the office. - Completed
3. Less cords - Completed
4. Reduce Shelving - Completed
5. Repair Walls - Completed
6. Go through File Cabinet - Completed
7. Scan what needs to be kept - Not yet  This can wait
8. Get Monitor for Laptop - Not Needed, Don't need it
9. Go through all the boxes on the shelves - Completed
10. Go through both Side Tables - Completed
11. Paint the side tables - Not Needed, I like them the way they are
12. Take the hard drive in to get the missing data out of it - Not yet  This can wait
13. Update modem - Not yet  This can wait
14. Go through the Trunk full of Empty (equipment/electronic) boxes. - Completed kept what I needed
15. new lighting - Not yet  This can wait
16. new curtains - Not yet  This can wait
17. New window - Not yet  This can wait

I've completed Over half (59%). a trip to IKEA will handle another 18% (Desktops, Lighting, Curtains) and I am still researching Modems (6%).  Scanning isn't high on the priority list and the hard drive is $500 for recovery so those 2 can wait.  Then there is the window... That is construction and Needs to be planned out so that shouldn't have been on the list.
What ended up happening is I came up with another punchlist that needed to be done to reach completion status... I still had a couple of piles of papers left to deal with but weren't showstoppers.

New Punchlist:

1. Finish Taxes - Completed 4-7-2020
2. Dog Bill Pile --Need to send to Insurance
3. Move the cork squares - Completed 4-7-2020
4. Put labels on boxes - Completed 4-21-2020
5. Deal with red shoe box - Hard drive & IPhones
6. Paint Ikea Box Black - Completed 4-11-2020
7. ReArrange Bumpout Wall
8. Put Up Whiteboard - Completed - Donated
9. Put Up Magnet Board - Completed 4-7-2020
10. Fill holes - Completed 4-7-2020
11. Touch Up Paint 

I'm pretty close on that list.  I do a little bit at a time.  And I'm good with that.  I clean my office everynight before I go upstairs for dinner and I actually like going to work.  I was very lucky.  I got the office to a place I liked to be in right before I actually had to be in it!.  I'm trying to face my fears or whatever makes me uncomfortable head on.  It's hard to do each time, but that's all part of it.  At least the office is a nice place to be and I think I've got a handle on it ... for now.