Cluttery Desk Syndrome

I suffer from a terrible sickness. It causes others to freak out and try to "fix" me. I feel awful that it makes others so uncomfortable, but it's the truth:

I suffer from Cluttery Desk Syndrome, or CDS for short.


I know, I know...this picture of my desk is a little misleading. It looks clean to you right? Well...CDS takes over when you are in the midst of 7 referrals, numerous conversations with parents and students about different situations, and a checklist of sorts of things that must get done. Right when you're in the midst of the mess of course, that's when the students, teachers, other administrators want to walk in and go crazy. "Oh my goodness" one recently said to me, "how do you even know where you are the in process of your day??!!" I always respond back "I'm right where I need to be!"

Throwback to a great morning in 2007-ish when the principal walked into my classroom. I was just teaching away, probably about General Washington and noticed that he was very on edge the minute he got near my desk. I noticed he walked around my desk to sit in my desk chair, stopped, turned around and just walked out of the classroom. So strange. A couple hours later during my plan I received a phone call and he asked me to come to his office. "Nothing important, just needed to touch base with you about yada yada". I was very confused. When I got down there before he even started he said "So, about your desk...it's very stressful. I will from now on be calling you down here!" I just smiled. He was a clean desker. Known for keeping rows and rows of sticky notes in straight lines all over his office. He also was seen on more than one occasion straightening blinds in different classrooms. And, although we were different in how we organize the things of our job, it was the moment I realized...I have CDS.

CDS works for a big majority of the population. In fact, some see it as genius level. This article explains that even the greatest thinkers had messy areas where they worked, and they still produced epic ideas that we are forever grateful for.

Fast forward 10 years later.  I'm now very aware of my CDS...little do people know that there is a method in the midst of my mess. It is organized, structured and the great thing about CDS...it gives me the ability to walk out of my office everyday and have it reset for the next day's assignments and tasks. Although all this paper you see here is apart of my day to day life...I get rid of the "junk" as I finish it. So, in reality, every night I go home with a clean slate. I leave work at work. Believe me, my CDS bleeds over into my home life sometimes too, but the CDS is my efficient way. And that efficiency allows me to do the thing that I love: build relationships and play school everyday.