Monday Madness on Tuesday: True/False

Christopher participated in Monday Madness this week, and I thought I would too. It is true or false week.

I consider myself to be very organized: False. I often mean well, but am bad at keeping up. After three or four years of trying, I have recently managed to get most (but not all) of my e-mail and computer files organized (a project that I started several times, the final attempt taking over a year to complete). In paper stuff, I have a nice new file cabinet, but I'm bad about adding new file folders as often as I should. I'm also bad about properly categorizing new books as I get them, etc., etc., etc. Right now, I can't sit in my reading chair, once again.

I tend to get more done when I’m pressed for time: True. If the deadline is looming, but not so close as to drive me crazy, that is when I get the ideal amount of work done. Too far away (or non-existant) and I work on other things; too close and I merely run around like a chicken with my head cut off before madly completing the work at the cost of sanity.

Multi-tasking is something I do often: True. I didn't know any other way of working was possible in today's always-connected world.

I might be a perfectionist: True. I'd get a lot more accomplished if I wasn't. Typically, on any non-deadlined project, I will spend months (or even years) doing cathedral-building like work. I'll lay the groundwork for something far over-engineered for my purposes. The only way I end up getting a project to completion is when it receives a deadline (or I otherwise realize the necessity of finishing it up) and then I switch to pragmatic mode and nix the grand ambitions… most of the time. I can still wander off and start back to the bigger plans, at which point I have to reign myself back in. This blog's software is a good example. SAFARI originally took a year (about eleven months too long) to build, because I over-engineered it. That was 2000, and my hand was forced when we wanted to go live with a new church web site that would use it on June 1, 2000. Afterwards, I immediately started on a new version — the one this blog runs — but did not get anywhere major with it until December of 2004 when the old software for this blog quit working and I needed something ASAP.

I enjoy Mondays as much as I enjoy Fridays: True. I like many of the things I do and the people I work with, and so while I enjoy getting a break on the weekend (sometimes — often I end up working on Saturday, though), I'm not disappointed to get started again.

If I didn’t make a list (or hang a post-it note) I’d forget what it is I need to do: True. I don't make lists, and I do eventually remember, but some things just get passed by because I don't remember them in the midst of more important things.