Swept Away

I can definitely feel the effects of spring on my energy level.  I am motivated to get up, get moving, and mostly, get cleaning.  Mail that I let pile up on my dresser gets inspected and usually tossed, books and binders are put in their proper places on the shelf or in a filing cabinet, and sometimes I even find myself inspecting the carpet as I cross the room for lint, hair, and other crud that is visible to the naked eye (because believe me, my vacuum isn't all that great, and the stuff I can't see?  I shudder to think.), picking it up on the move.  I don't have an immaculate home, by any means, but it feels brighter and fresher in the spring, and not so wintry dark and oppressive as in the previous months.

Unfortunately, that doesn't always translate to my electronic space.  Files fill the confines of my Documents folder.  I have Bookmarks miles long, and pages of saved emails.  My Reader subscriptions are modest in number, but I'll easily find hundred of updates every day.  I am past due for a virtual deep clean; so why can't I do it?

The Lisa Chronicles, one of my Reader subscriptions, written by a fellow WSU library school graduate, recently explored this concept of "information hoarding", and as I read her post, I nodded in commiseration.  Most of the information I've kept over the years has been library/archives related, because I am (was?) determined to know of the latest trends in the profession.  I have pod casts of conference proceedings from October 2009 saved to in my Inbox, and articles from before I even applied to library school in my Favorites list.  I save everything with the expectation of soon returning to it to read and mull over the issues.  But, I never do.  Those latest trends?  It's very likely that they've been replaced by something trendier now.

I know why I haven't taken the time to read/listen/learn.  It's all research, case studies, and theories with no practical application in my life right now.  It just seems so irrelevant and time-consuming.  And there is so much of it.  Talk about information overload.  Even in a profession where it's central to the field to organize information to facilitate access, it can be too much.  So, that information I've saved just gathers dust bytes. 

I should delete it all.  I have decent searching skills; I can find the information when I need it, rather than letting it take up storage space.  And yet, I don't.  What if I need it tomorrow?  It will save time to click on a link that is already saved.  Okay, but that hasn't happened yet, not in the nearly eighteen months since I graduated.  And that leads me to the real reason why I have not purged myself of the virtual clutter: Fear of giving up.  I have a full time job, and my hunt for new employment hasn't exactly been aggressive, so a year and a half shouldn't seem so long, but there are a few dents in my optimism armor.  And I'm not entirely unhappy in my current situation.  Life has been pretty good lately, even if I am a bit restless.  There is not as much drive as there had been in the first six months out.  I know that and I accept it, even if it worries me a little.  But to delete the articles, blog posts, pod casts, etc., of all thing library/archives makes me feel like I have abandoned all hope.

Yuck.  I just have to find that drive again.  It might not be a bad idea to do that by starting over and cleaning out my Inbox.