While many of us on post are taking time to properly pack the holiday decorations and plan the 2010 budget, those who really know how to start the year off right are gearing up for National Clean Your Desk Day, an annual observance held on the second Monday of the new year.
The day was first set aside by Anne Chase Moeller, who shared a cluttered office with her father, the original publisher of Chase's Annual Events, which was first published in 1957. Chase would drape a cloth over her father's desk so she could work. In 1982 she declared that she would clean off his desk once a year, or so the story goes of how a day was set aside for desk organization.
Numerous businesses and Web sites focused on organization offer tips and advice on the most efficient way to observe Clean Your Desk Day. Some organization experts recommend using the day to do away with obsolete papers or to take a stand toward overall organization. Onlineorganizing.com goes as far as to suggest adding organization to the list of New Year's resolutions many of us feel obligated to write annually. Cleaning up is a better idea than the "lose 10 pounds" resolution.
January in Maryland doesn't lend itself to an aggressive workout resolution that doesn't include sprinting to your car after work and diving into your bed on a Friday afternoon for weekend hibernation. However, adding Clean Your Desk Day to your ever-growing list of observances, right beside Organize Your Home Day, is a first step in 2010 that is worth taking.
Make Monday count.
If some of your desk notes include ideas for articles, a commentary or just happen to be a command-generated message for the Fort Meade community, remember Soundoff! Write and submit stories to the post publication by e-mail to soundoff@conus.army.mil. We welcome your input in 2010.
Soundoff! is back on its routine schedule following this Year in Review edition. The newspaper is published each Thursday in 2010, except for the last week of the year.
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