Paper Should Not Be Work

I promised I would share a trick I learned about how to stay on top of paperwork.  I only recently learned about this, but I was so impressed by the way it was explained that I had to try it out for myself.  And you know what?  It works.  I am not always so lucky.

Here's how it goes: first, make a file for whatever you are doing. No, not a whole filing cabinet full of folders. Just one simple folder for, say, your blog. In that folder, you will put anything relating to your blog, but it doesn't stop there. Let's say you post one comment per week and while you are thinking about what you want to post next, you have several thoughts on the subject. There's a way to stay on top of that, but it will come in a future post.

Okay, so your file is simply labeled Blog. Now, lets suppose your blog is about writing. So far, you have posted an average of once a week on your blog, for an average of four times per month for three years. Cool.

If you had made paper copies of each of your posts, you would now have a file full of papers containing copies of all of your posts.  That's awesome. Would you be able to go to your file and pull out a post that you wanted to refer back to? Possibly. But what happens if you are still posting on your blog fifteen years from now? Would you still be able to access the paper you want without spending a lot of time, shuffling?  Maybe not.

Here's what I've found helps: inside the hanging file marked Blog, slip another, smaller file marked 2006. In that file, place the copies of all of your posts from 2006.

Did you have several topics you discussed on your blog? Okay. Then all you have to do is put still another file in the hanging file and mark this new file Writing, if that is something you have posted about several times and if you plan to write more about it. Make copies of those posts which discuss writing and put those copies into the file marked Writing. Don't worry if you have several folders within your hanging folder. There's a way to take care of that and we'll be discussing that at a later date. I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me in gaining some degree of control over my many and varied types of paperwork.