I used to be a messy desk person. I worked on platforms covered in drafts, mail, coffee cups and dozens of stray pen caps. My floor was an obstacle course of books, documents, magazines, loose change and umbrellas. I forgot to calendar items, I kept phone numbers on post-its, and my briefcase was a sinkhole for bills, business cards and apples. I worked about 16 hours a day, partly because that’s what lawyers do, and partly because I was either distracted or searching for things I had misplaced seconds before. If I weren’t at work, I thought about it and the stresses and questions and deadlines.

Even sleep was no escape. When I was a young (and bad) graveyard waitress, I used to wake out of a dead sleep and yell, “I forgot a milk.” Lawyering was not any different. Except, instead of remembering beverages, I would remember assignments, legal issues, proofreading, section reference checks, copying partners, filing fees. But the stakes drive a different result: when I remembered I forgot a milk, I went right back to sleep; when I remembered that a quorum of a board of directors is a majority of the directors then authorized, I was up for hours.  After about six years of this, I wanted to do more and better, so I decided to become organized. I was 35.  I had no idea it would become a near obsession and change everything about the way I see the world. Something about getting a firmish grasp on my schedule and my obligations freed me to look at my hopes and ideas. If you are a messy desk person or you wake up to a nightmare of open loops (foreshadowing), it is never too late for a total makeover. I’ll talk about my productivity makeover tomorrow.