My new week resolution

Today I realized that I have allowed disorder to reign throughout my life for too long. When late fall and winter roll around each year, I tend to descend into chaos because I just don't seem capable of doing anything when it gets cold and dark. So pretty much from the time I get home after work, I lack the energy to do anything but sit on my couch. My dear friend who for some unknown reason likes to clean stayed at my house this weekend. He organized my kitchen to a degree it hasn't seen since I first moved in, if then. And you know what I discovered? I like it. I like it a lot. I was so inspired, I even washed my dishes as soon as I was done with dinner, instead of thinking I'll get to it later but then getting so comfortable wrapped in my blankets on the couch that I can't bring myself to get up and go into the cold kitchen so I wind up not getting to it until tomorrow. Maybe, once the dishes are done drying, I'll even put them away before going to bed. That would be crazy for me, but it would make my grandma proud, wherever she is. (No, it wouldn't make her proud so much as it would make her say, "I told you so!" Her neatnik, put-everything-neatly-in-its-place-before-retiring-for-the-night gene did not make it down the line to my mother or me.)

I think I have some orderliness momentum now that I have to pounce on when I get to work tomorrow. And I think perhaps my lack of order at work has been one of the reasons I have had such a hard time focusing on the massive caseload that is threatening to swallow me whole. I feel like I have been drowning in work, which has made it almost impossible to see a starting point. But I have to get control before I really do go under. So here is what I will do:

1) I will catalog and organize the gigantic case that has taken over almost every corner of my larger-than-the-piles-make-it-seem office. In so doing, I will also make sure I really do have everything I need and that no issues are being overlooked. All good.

2) I will return all my statute books to the shelves where they belong and get rid of the superseded ones that I truly do not need. What is the point of having a bookcase if all the books are scattered on every available desk surface?

3) I will do all my filing and close out those cases that can be closed, which will also involve finally resolving the open question of where my little sub office's closed files will be housed (being housed in a stack in my office isn't really working for me anymore).

4) I will actually use my filing cabinets instead of storing all my various work product in piles throughout my office.

Maybe if I do all this, and continue to keep my kitchen orderly, I will stop feeling like a failure as a lawyer, as a housekeeper, and just as a person in general.