Ponderings on the Importance and the Aggravation of Paper

"How many times have I touched this paper? What am I going to do with it? It's important. I can't get rid of it. But how to categorize it? I think I will lay it down for a moment." And then something comes up, and the sorting project gets delayed. "Oh boy. What do I do with this piece of paper. Maybe I will shove it in a drawer." The drawer then needs cleaning eventually. This is important information and I don't want to lose it. I don't have anything else that goes in this category so it really can't be organized.

I understand now why people make so much money pushing paper. The items written down on paper require decision-making, action, delay, phone calls, finding items, faxing people. Papers! It seems that binders and hole punching are easier than an actual filing system, because once it is filed in a filing system, chances are that I will never look at it again until I feel like purging the file system. Everyone has their own method of dealing with papers. Some people pile it all up and deal with it all at once. Others put things away carefully. There is much to be said for both sides. At work years ago it seemed like others had more spare time than I did, and I had more work. Was it because I was neat and orderly and always going through my papers? But I could always find what I needed and so was more efficient at my job at editing a newsletter.

Paper can be used for brainstorming, doodling, drawing, making official presentations. It can be high quality or run of the mill. It can be butcher paper to wrap deli turkey or beef hamburger in, line paper for college homework, wide ruled paper for the children in elementary school, copy paper, recycled paper, wax paper. It can be glossy, matte, colored, or translucent. Paper can be used for scrapbooking, calligraphy, wedding invitations. Paper can be used to annoy people via advertising. It can be used to write letters to family and friends from all across the country, write manuscripts, create fine books. The uses of paper are almost endless.

Governmental agencies such as governmental welfare waste paper by not putting it into their computer systems which language the person speaks so that that the person receiving it does not receive at least one or two sheets in seven different languages.

Paper requires organizational systems or periodic sorting it down and getting rid of excess. Unused paper must be in boxes or on shelves but used paper, that which is written on, with ideas - notes from meetings, notes from phone conversations, notes from trainings, becomes problematic. If a person kept every paper they ever made notes on, they would be hard-pressed to keep their things straight - yet, it is important to keep notes on some things to jog one's memory.

A piece of paper found at the last minute may save someone's life - a phone number may be found on a scrap of paper or a person may find a natural remedy for a kidney infection in their stack of papers when it is absolutely needed. Piles of newspaper and bills on a person's floor in a hoarding situation can cause fire hazards, and unpaid electric and phone bills, among other things. It can cause the loss of a few checks or a some cash in the mess.

Are your papers organized today? Are they giving you the value that they really could?