Photo Credit: Guille @Flickr
I keep my tax information in a sweater drawer. Everything that should be important in my life resides in a legal size manila folder next to a 10 year old Express sweater.
Half of my bills, mortgage documents and medical invoices are in an accordion file folder at my “home.”
I put home in quotes because, technically, I haven’t lived there in months.
I’ve unofficially re-located my life’s headquarters to my boyfriend’s condo. Oh sure, it’s a nice place to live – but I still have my “mortgage.”
My volunteer work and community journalism articles are stored on a flash drive. My boyfriend insists (nags) that I back up my data on the laptop or computer in the house. I assure him that I will, but I don’t. I’m a bit of a passive-aggressive procrastinator (sometimes).
I only do things in a hurry if I’m not told to do them.
Other than that, you’ll have to wait a month of Sundays for me to get it done. Maybe, that’s a trait I will need to fix. Not today. Perhaps, tomorrow.
I stupidly think out of some vain attempt to do it my way – “As long as I have the flash drive – why back up?”
“That’s a very dangerous game, Ms. Moore,” my boyfriend would (inevitably) say.
Approximately, 75% of my life is stored in bytes and drawers. My world is compartmentalized by electronic folders and Office Depot paper. I am organizationally fragmented…bit…by…bit.
The old, sage advice is to leave your job at work and your personal life at home. I wonder how often those worlds blend within each other. What do you call work/life balance for those who don’t officially “work” but have way too much going on in their life?
Then, there are those buzz words – work/life balance. At some point, I always thought they would be the same – the work/life part. In what case is your life never really work (and vice versa)?
You probably only worry about work/life balance until one part of the term is seriously missing from the equation.
And so, to make up for the missing pieces? My job hunt, my volunteer work, my finances and whatever else gets stored in various locations between the North and Southsides of Chicago. It would take a 1 hour and 25 minute EL trip to meld the spectrums of my dually fragmented, overly documented world.
Then, there is my job hunt: I don’t itch to get another job, I just know I need to get another job. My only fear resides within the realms of money, not professional continuity. I am wondering if that makes me an unrealized outlier of the Gen Y group. Parts me wants to prove the other parts of me wrong.
Plainly, they are the bits and pieces that managed successful job hopping and a house renovation.
They also simultaneously tango with the parts that cling to self-doubt and dissatisfaction.
I have trouble keeping track of those accomplishments and the goals I’ve set for myself. That is because they are physically (and mentally) hiding. They are in computer hard drives, flash drives, accordion file folders, home offices 2 El rides away and sweater drawers.
So, I am thinking I will have to learn to blend my life into another kind of balance. I will have to (re)create that sweet spot of stableness and (re)discover my organizational center.
The center is where the strength lies. Without it, we just become missing pieces that dwindle…bit by bit.