Uncle John’s Bathroom Almanac always has little interesting facts and statistics.
I read that 98% of what is filed will never be looked at or read or again. 98%!!!
Then in that case filing is a lot of work for no apparent reason.
Doing family research and looking at history, in a detached way, I am always cutting things out of the paper and filing them…. Or, if I was on the ball, I would be filing them.
Instead, I pile them in a tray to be filed. And when the tray over flows I put them in a box to be filed. The last time I counted there were slightly over a dozen printer paper sized boxes containing things to be filed. That is also why God invented basements.
To make the job not seem so overwhelming I have decided to file three things a day. And since I decided that, I have not missed a single day. That was two weeks ago.
That is why God made computers and hard drives. If what I clipped was worth any thing at all I scanned it or found it on- line through a newspaper and copied and pasted it and electronically filed it.
And from time to time, if an electronic files is getting big I transfer it to a CD and delete it.
Then someday I might read two percent of it – if I live long enough.
10 comments:
sounds like you might have the same trouble that hipster and i have...we're hopeless packrats. in fact, one of my tasks for today is to clean out the filing cabinet so we can actually file current things in it, not tax returns from 1987...
Bird,
We need a system. The only thing I have now is a state of mind.
That's exactly what I told Hipster. The disarray in our house kind of reflected the disarray in my mind. It seems like the clearing away of old, useless stuff has a cathartic effect and my mind is clearer, too. Purging the house had a purging effect on my brain. SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY...
Two words:
Yard Sale!
In this household that would take care of some but not all. Another word might be utilized:
Bonfire!
She's right, we have kept everything. I even had some football magazines from 1990. You never know, the 1991 season may turn out better for the Falcons. Just give it time.
Steve,
I know how that is. That is one thing good about filing after it gets old. At the moment when I toss something aside to be filed I can see why. Then later, when I am actually filing, I am in a different mind-set and I ask myself, "Now, why did I want to keep this?...." Then I toss it - which is usually months or years later.
It is probably that you and I both could benefit from a visit from an effiency expert! I have so much stuff "filed" here that if it caught on fire, you'd see it all the way to GA!
Judy,
And if I had my bonfire with all my collectibles we could send each other smoke signals.
My apartment looks like a newspaper, magazine, and mail factory blew up in it. I should throw out 98% of it immediately, but of course, I'll accidentally trash the 2% I need. Still, I like this as a rule of thumb.
Suzanne,
One person's trash is another person's treasures.
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