Last Monday we drove past the Kenilworth Lodge road sign. The message for the day read something like, "Today is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Just toss it all on the floor!" Back home, feeling comfortable at our messy desks, we checked it out on our computers. Sure enough, the second Monday in January is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. It has been since 1982 when Ann Chase Moeller, daughter of the Chases (of Chase Annual Event Calendar fame), wrote it into their record book. According to Organizing Resources, "Desktop management is critically important to our well being - physically, mentally and psychologically." They say, "It is extremely difficult to concentrate on a particular task when bombarded with myriad piles of paper. The only papers that should be on your desk are the ones you are referring to at that particular moment. The only miscellaneous objects should be ones you use all the time, except for a few special mementos and a living plant." ...more

January 18, 2008