Korman: Clean up your act. The pros and cons of organization

Freedom is nice. I have plenty of it now, but this hasn’t always been the case.

Elementary school, for example, was constraining in ways that college is not — I could give no input as far as my courses went or whether I sat next to Robert Kaplan (stinky) or Rachel Silverstein (hubba hubba).—

But as my responsibilities have increased, I’ve developed an appreciation for the decisions the educational system once made on my behalf — namely, how to organize my work.

I’d be given a list of required supplies on the first day of school, which I’d forward on to my parents, and the next day I’d have my five marble notebooks, five folders and whatever else my teacher had deemed imperative to my academic excellence that year.

Now, the average professor is too entrenched in academia to weigh the virtues of the three-ring binder against those of the five-subject notebook. The choice is up to me. It is inordinately stressful.

A stroll down the school supply aisle further complicates the matter. Do I go for the big loose-leaf binder or go the one-spiral-notebook-per-course route? Do I spend the equivalent of an hour’s pay at my minimum wage job on a durable notebook that’ll withstand the wear-and-tear of a full semester? Or do I shell out the fiscal equivalent of a canned beverage in exchange for one without perforations for seamless sheet removal?

I’ve tried virtually every permutation of organization, yet the result is always the same: My English papers will inevitably end up in my anthropology notebook, and at least one syllabus will turn up in my underwear drawer.

My disorganization, though, isn’t as much an impediment to success as much as mere inconvenience — just as I’d respond to my parents’ pleas that I clean my room as a child, “It sure is a mess. But it’s my mess.”

In researching the pros and cons of being organized, I came across U.S. Patent Application No. 20020106235A1, titled “System for organizing, planning and motivating schoolwork and the like.”

The proposal, submitted in 2002 by Dr. Columbia E. Perry Jones, consists of six binders, each with nine dividers and designated “To Do” and “Turn In” folders. The system is so intricate that upon viewing its 19 diagrams, one can’t help but ask, “Do people really need this?”

“The primary object of this invention is to provide for students a system and means to organize schoolwork,” wrote Jones in the application’s ‘Objects and Advantages’ section. The system also “encourages and instructs the user in building lifelong habits of being organized.”

Is being so organized really imperative? Considering the amount of foresight evidently poured into this project, one would assume fastidious organization skills are a universal prerequisite to success.

I spoke to some classmates with varying GPAs about how they organize their work during the semester, and it turns out good grades and organization skills don’t always go hand-in-hand. Rather, the concept of organization appears to be decidedly subjective. Consider the following case studies:

The Agenda Setter

GPA: 3.2

“I make a really organized to-do list, which I update nightly,” says The Agenda Setter. “I also color code it. Green means it’s an assignment I have to physically hand in, orange is for essays and red is for quizzes and exams.”

“But as my GPA proves, I am not the best of students,” admits The Agenda Setter. “I just happen to be a really organized person.”

The Risk-Taker

GPA: 3.1

“I would like to think that my setup is neat and tidy,” says The Risk-Taker. “But one hazard I have come across is USB keys. One day, mine just stopped working — I lost everything.” The Risk Taker has since learned to back up his resources, electronic or otherwise.

The Contrarian

GPA: 3.4

“I’ve always been jealous of friends who have intricate note-taking and studying habits,” The Contrarian said. “But it’s a double-edged sword because while they are highlighting their faces off, I am on the couch watching ‘Home Improvement.’”

“It’s like a sacrifice,” adds The Contrarian. “People who are committed to academics struggle in other areas.”

If you happen to be reading this column in class, take a quick survey of those around you. Perhaps there is an agenda setter to your left or a risk Ttker to your right. But it is far more likely that the person next to you has his own distinctive system, just as unique as his fingerprints or DNA.

The aforementioned cases underscore how our organization habits not only speak to our larger priorities, but who we are on the most basic levels: Who do you become after your flash drive malfunctions? When your notebook grows so thick it can barely close, do you clean it out? Or do you see how much more it can handle?

Check out images from Dr. Jones’ patent, as well as Ben’s own patent proposal online, at pittnews.com. E-mail Ben at bek25@pitt.edu.