Sealing the Cracks

Thought you’d like to see some mundane yard pictures with a twist (click to enlarge). Apparently we’ll have to sweep the roof from time to time. Also, tarps are amazing tools.

Happy fall!

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Each fall, our nationwide Back to School march ends summer vacations (and heavier economic spending), and starts our neatly controlled routines anew: up at the same time, asleep at the same time, events marked by school-free holidays and changing seasons.

The last time I had such a routine was in the fall of 2005, upon entering my last year at the UW as a Masters student. But even though I’m not buying textbooks and putting myself to bed by 10pm anymore, I do try to incorporation one tradition of schooldom in my professional life: organization. Remember the binders, the notebooks, the folders, all so neatly filled and maintained throughout the academic year? Now that these colorful supplies have morphed into a beige filing cabinet, it’s less exciting to work with. And there are new organization challenges, ones that I had no preparation for as a grade or high school student, and still don’t have a hold on despite trying in college and beyond. I’m speaking of the following: digital pictures, monthly bills, and medical paperwork.

Let’s start with digital pictures. Currently, all of my photos live on my hard drive, with some (but not all) on an external hard drive. I understand the importance of redundant data (making copies of the same data and storing it in different places). I should make regular back-up CDs. I should do something with the Flckr account I signed up for and barely acknowledged. But thus far, I haven’t. Because I can usually find what I need in the old C:/ drive, and so far, I’ve had no reason to break my habit.

Let’s move on to monthly bills. Some companies send me a paper bill each month. I understand that I should keep the top half in a folder for 12 months, then shred it. And I do. But I also have some auto-pay bills. Some companies are fully paperless, sending me an emailed receipt each month. Do I print those out and waste paper, or let them clutter my email account? What about the tricky beasts who send both an emailed statement and a paper statement despite my requests for one or the other? What’s that about?

And finally, the medical paperwork. We have access to some of our medical charts online, but not all of the necessary information. And they certainly don’t scan in the bills, after appointment instructions, summaries, prescription documentation, etc., yada, etc. So really, the medical paperwork is the most spread-out between paper and digital, making it impossible to keep a tidy folder.

I miss the days where my blue folder was marked ‘Reading’, and my green folder was marked ‘Science’, and if you couldn’t find a tool in your pencil box, you probably didn’t need it anyway.

How do you handle digital and paper organization? Do you have a routine, or do you take a stab at it when things get out of hand?