Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-18
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEwELL.

I thing at hand when needed. Surely
they should work more efiiciently than
Cluttered DeSkers. Yet they sometimes
! hunt for something or other quite as
much as the latter.
Cluttered Deskers work from beneath
mounds of papers, and it is surprising
| how we'll they do it. An observer look
ing at them, moving behind heaps Of
papers, might believe that they worked
at random.
We once knew one of these Cluttered
| Deskers, who held one OF the Govern
ment'S most responsible positions. His
huge desk, at least 10 feet square, was
heaped feet high over its entire sur
| face.
If he wanted to sign his name, he had
| to push back mound OF stuff before ne
| could find room to spread the document
out fiat. He had the ClutteresG Desk in
the World.
Yet no one even whispered that his
output was any the less vital because OF
his untidy desk habits. Papers did not
impede him, because he surmounted
| them.
A neat desk may be recommended for
the so-called average worker, who per-
haps needs all his forces for his work.
One may not have enough to surmount
Self-imposed hurdles.
A neat desk is largely matter OF
what housekeepers sometimes call rid
ding out" One must be perpetually rid
of things II things are not to get ahead
of him.
The wholesome injunction not to lay
up treasures for ones self in this world
can begin at no better place than at
mans desk.
Why wait for Sunday, when Saturday
will do? Why put of high things to
religion, when they may as well be IN
corporated in business?
A neat desk means getting rid OF
great deal that a man does not want.
Papers that he has no earthly use for
are cleared away the moment that fact
becomes recognized. Nothing is COM
moner, however, than 70 see man
treasure such stuff for days and weeks,
In a blind belief that he may have
some need for it later. That time sell
dom comes. In the meantime his desk
is covered with dusty papers.
The proclivity of desk to collect or
binary stuff and nonsense Is exceeded
only by that of the waste paper basket.
These two run race for collection hon
orS with the basket sometimes coming
out the loser, when by right of destiny
1t should win every time.
An absurdly large amount of paper
comes to a desk every day, much OF
which can be thrown away without even
being looked at. In this category come
repeats, two or more copies of the same
thing. This wasteful habit is not yet
relegated to the past. Only the other
dav we saw newspaper man open half
dozen duplicate handouts from the
same Government department. Five of
them went into the waste paper basket,
where they belonged.
Another way to help keep a desk neat
is to refrain from poking letters in the
corners of the leather pad. It is very
easy to fall into this habit Often q
newspaper clipping is stuffed in by one
corner, to be handy when needed. 1t
may not be a bad idea, for day or so,
but when the clipping is permitted to
remain there until 1t is yellow the prac-
tice Is under suspicion. The keeping Of
neat desk is, after all, mostly matter
Of little daily attention. If one puts
of desk cleaning so long that it becomes
task he is likely to let things pile up,
but If he throws little away every day,
here letter and there document, he
finds that the desk takes care of it
self, which ought to be the ideal Of all
triIe hlIsinees men