A peek at my office these days

Monday, July 11 at 3:14, I was hanging around in my new office. It still has a lot of cardboard boxes and memorabilia from past occupants, so I still have a bit of work to do cleaning it up and sorting things, but I do think it's coming together nicely.

From the doorway, looking in.

From where I sit, I can see a little bit out into the hallway, but not so much that I'm constantly interrupted. Here's a view of some summer students checking out the maps that hang in the hallway outside my office.

Looking the other way.
Still a few boxes of random stuff lying around.

It's incredibly satisfying to create order out of disorder. It must have been a quarter of a century ago that I impulse-bought a book in an airport called Organizing from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern. I feel like I'm such an organized person that it's hard for me to read a book that teaches me something new, but this particular book has really shaped the way that I think about organizing space. I have since bought multiple copies and happily loan them to friends, often not getting them back again, which is why I go out and buy more copies.

One of the main takeaways I got from the book is to organize something by how I will use it, not by what it is. A second big takeaway is to organize things by zones of activity, and a third is to label the heck out of everything. Since I've moved offices two times in the last two years, I'm getting to put all of my practice at organizing things to incredibly good use.

I very much love the natural light that I get in this office, and also the light colored, warm colored furniture. I was in the same building 17 years ago, and I helped to pick the colors that we would use to decorate the space, so it's not a coincidence that the furniture suits me well. Still, it's nice to be back in a place that feels so pleasant.