You dread filing. You don't even own a file cabinet. You're allergic to labeling. Whatever the reason, maintaining a meticulously organized file system has eluded you. Throw it all in a box. Photo by Jonbro.
Over at the productivity blog SimpleProductivity, they offer a suggestion that—by their own admission—is heresy to devotees of organization:
Many people, otherwise competent and some even brilliant, cannot maintain a filing system. It has nothing to do with intelligence or organization or even self-discipline. I'm convinced it's just the way they are wired.
Their suggestion? Throw everything in a box. Keep a box under your desk, near your work area, or where you sort your mail, and put everything in the box. Everything you would normally file or save for potential future use goes into the box: pay stubs, paid bills, receipts and such all piled into the box as they appear. At the end of the year, you sit down and shred everything that you won't need in future years and then simply write the year on the box in bold print and throw it on a shelf somewhere.
While this system is completely antithetical to the systems that many of us use, a by-the-year filing system could easily meet the simple filing needs of many people. It's also an approach that—despite its potential shortcomings—is still Better than Nothing™, which is what most of us attracted to this method are likely to do. Whether you're horrified or not, sound off in the comments.
Filing Heresy: One Box Filing [SimpleProductivity]
