Sydney’s Office
Sorting through those mounds of paper that pile up in my office (and on the kitchen table and on the carpet around Nyel’s desk and… and…) is one of the chores I most hate. I think it’s the number of decisions that need to be made – to keep or not to keep; to toss or to shred; how to categorize and where to file.
Some days it seems to be an exhausting exercise in futility. I know from past experience that the piles will reappear almost immediately, never mind any resolve to the contrary. And I know that my files are so packed and so not cross-referenced that it is an ordeal to locate anything in any case. How many times I have wished that there was a ‘search button’ on the outside of each file drawer! I could push it and the pertinent pieces of paper would pop up, even if they were totally forgotten or misfiled!
Vespers Article, Chinook Observer 1996
On the plus side, though, this sorting process that I periodically force upon myself often turns up treasures I had forgotten all about. Usually they have settled to the bottom of a pile and, most probably, were left untended until ‘next time.’
What else would explain a 1996(!) news clipping with the headline Oysterville vespers: A history with an accompanying photograph by Stan Thompson of me and my mother taken in the day when my hair was still dark. Or how about interview notes taken when I was writing Ocean Park School: the First Seven Decades back in 2005? They seem to have reverted to the bottom of numerous piles over and over again, yet I must have thought them important enough to keep every single time. But did I run out of steam? Why aren’t they filed?
The worst part, of course, is running across wonderful tidbits that I can’t remember a thing about – not where I got them or who might have given them to me. That they are ‘treasures’ not to be tossed is usually clear but… what to do with them? Hard to utilize them in a blog or a story if I can’t credit the source.
This time around I am determined to put every last scrap… somewhere. It’s my bottom line!
Please contact the Russell Stones as soon as you (if you) learn of an efficient way to file and systemize (?) the printed words that seem to grow and morph into stacks and piles! J has been diagnosed by family members, those who observe, as a hoarder. Items that belonged to his grandfather and aunt seem to feel acceptable, but how many years of The New Yorker does one need? I have a fairly efficient filing system which includes a file titled, “Items that need to be filed…..” my teehee for today.
Oh, Nan! I, too, have a file folder labeled “Items to be Filed”! I just ran across it under a big stack of papers that never even made it to that stage. Do you think that’s a trait left over from Mrs. Barnes in 8th Grade?
Sydney, I think you’ve identified one of the great challenges for those who have wide ranging, time spanning interests, and aren’t willing to attempt to store everything in some rapidly evolving electronic media format. The problem is needing a robust filing system, and the physical space to store library-scale files. But that isn’t all.
I had a boss once who simultaneously was the head of every significant US geotechnical society in addition to being the Director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey and the OU School of Geology and Geophysics. I asked him how he managed the flood of paper generated by these enterprises. His answer; in addition to having space for superb files, he said his rule was striving to never handle a piece of paper twice except for future reference! He forced himself to deal with each new challenge/opportunity on first encounter in real time.
Doesn’t always work do me, but my procrastination multiplies my problems.
Clay, your words “resonate” (as they say these days!) Years ago I worked as the Assistant to the PR Director at Blue Cross, Oakland, which in those years meant a lot of filing. I had a boss who gave me that exact same advice. I think of it often but follow it seldom, much to my distress. By the time one project ends and I should pause and file the debris, I’m usually well into the next thing. I was hoping you’d suggest a full-time file clerk and know right where I could get one who would work for love and affection!