One Touch

Long ago, 1058 miles East of here, I was given the tip "touch each [piece of] paper once" for living a practical and organized life. I would not actually heed this advice until much later in life, like starting last week, and appreciate it until right about now. The motivation to organize each loose paper, in addition to the virtual paper cluttering my life, and willpower to see this tedious chore through to the end came from a part of me that has never before exposed itself. One might say it took a lifetime to get here, I will counter that... I managed with pure determination and a label machine.
And then I took everything to a whole new level, deciding this strategy for handling 'loose ends' was applicable to the communication (and fashion) world as well. So momentarily the necessary phone calls have each been returned while clothes and shoes have been given away.

You're admitting a first--this girl is on top of life. This time, I concur. Maintaining paperwork, returning emails, drafting letters, and answering phone calls are continuous chores, some more exciting than others. But, for now, everything has a home or a time slot. I could literally pick up my life and be out of here in minutes. That alone is refreshing.

And to keep it this way, there will be rules to follow:

1. Mail will be read when delivered. Then each piece will be disposed of, filed, labeled for follow-up, or responded to immediately.
2. Emails will be read in full and replied to as received... not 'starred' for do-something-with days or weeks later. 
3. As worthy links are discovered on the World Wide Web the articles will be absorbed right then and there. If the site is a continuous stream, I will bookmark it for easy referencing.
4. Text messages will be responded to as they are read. Postponing a reply only increases the number of times I check my phone throughout the day.  
5. I will aim to carry my phone more often, thus ensuring I can answer calls as they come in, even if to announce talking would be preferable at a later date and time. This, of course, will reduce the number of voice mails, not that I ever previously listened to them. 
6. Promptly after capturing life, pictures will be uploaded, virtually organized, backed-up, and/or printed to store in my progressive photo album of life. This will prevent (hours of) wasted time digging for particular pictures days, months, and years later.
7. Clothes not worn for an entire season will be donated, without hesitation. 

These seven rules reveal my more uptight side. That's okay though--the unorganized madness was weighing me down. One can not imagine the medical paperwork accumulated by an ongoing parasite issue, the never ending legal paperwork associated with Peace Corps, the numerous bills from travel, the phone calls racked up by taking a seven week hiatus from the grid, the emails procrastinated on, the number of memory cards floating around (... chronologically "organized" as documented by random pictures on this blog), or the amount of clothes hoarded throughout my life.

There will always be occasions where time does not permit, but I have always believed, if I have time to accomplish 100 tasks, there is time for 101.