sometimes it's fun to make a mess because then you get to clean it up

So I left work today and went straight to Staples.  I needed an organization and office supply fix.

So I bought these...

And turned this...

Into this...

And finally, into this...

9 months of accumulation of print outs and forms... assessments... home exercise programs... saved documents... pictures of adaptive equipment... patient education handouts... notes from continuing ed... and more.  All of this stuff was located in about 4 different places in the clinic where I work, with absolutely no order or organization.  Even for the handouts or materials that I use the most frequently, I would still go online to find the original and print out a brand new copy instead of using one of the five copies I already had... hiding in a pile of papers under a book or stuck in a clipboard.

And now... after one night of hole punching, sorting, and paper clipping I have this!

I love it!  A Monday night well spent.  I feel just a little more organized, a little more prepared, and a little more equipped to take on the rest of my week.

Some of my reason for doing this stems from the fact that the last couple weeks I have been a huge grumpy pants.  I finally realized it had a lot to do with the low morale at work, especially with two of my immediate coworkers who are pretty buddy-buddy, and the outspoken type.  (They have worked together for a pretty long time, and are the two that have worked for this company the longest in our network of 5 or 6 buildings.)  I realized that the bad attitudes were contributing to bringing me down, along with having few social supports outside of work, along with the stress of all the changes and cut backs with my job...  I have had a lot of questions about whether I am growing enough in my first year as a therapist, and majorly questioning how long I will continue to stay at this job.

What I finally needed to realize, is that this isn't just a job-- this is my whole career.  This might not be a long-term situation, but that doesn't mean I won't continue to grow from it in preparation for my next job.  I decided that instead of coming home and complaining to my mom and to the boy every night, I needed to refocus my energy to more positive things.  Especially with all this extra time I have on my hands, now that I'm on a shorter work schedule (decreased to 30 hours starting this week) and date somebody who is 2 hours away and all.

Since our company provides a lot of free online continuing ed courses, I decided I'm going to try to do one course per week.  I did a course on hands the other night, and it was only about 3 hours and a really good refresher on some things I hadn't seen since first year of OT school.

I also decided to put some effort into organizing all my random OT stuff, and the first step of that was this binder.  This specific grouping of resources is going to be primarily for use at work.  It has copies of assessments that I use regularly, and good quick reference materials for when I'm writing up an eval or have a tricky patient.

Other than that, I'd like to make a second OT binder with things from fieldwork/clinicals, and to make a better organized file for collecting continuing ed materials/certificates for when I need to renew my license and certification.  I also plan to update my resume.  My current one has the same formatting (as far as alignment and margins and fonts) since when I was applying for graduate school...   I realize the content is more important, but it really does need a good overall makeover.

I feel so much better going into this week with a proactive mindset, ready to tackle the challenges that come, and to ignore the negativity that has been pulling me down lately.  I'm getting my fire back!