Drowning in bits of paper...

Waiting for one of my patients today I decided to sort out some of my paperwork. I had about an hour to kill so I thought I could make some good progress into some letters and files and notes and bits and pieces I keep putting in a wire tray to be sorted later. Only I never seem to have a later.

Today it seemed the ideal time to make some headway into this pile that I needed to organise.

You know when you start something, and you get distracted and pulled into something a little bit more complicated? ?That happened this morning.

I had some paperwork that I wanted to sort out into different subject headings, mostly to collate all the nervous system and cranial nerve exams that students would need to perform for patients in clinic, and for final clinical exam.

I have loads of this sort of paperwork from my time at university. And I've been on courses. And I downloaded piles of info over the years and printed in off. And I taught it, and made notes...

The problem was all I have kept it ALL, and this stuff was all over the place.

Some of it was in my university notes, some of it was in my clinic notes some of it was shoved in the piles of paperwork I was trying to organise. And I knew I'd put a file by especially to organise all my clinical examinations in, but I couldn't find it. I have loads and loads and loads and loads of books and files surrounding me at my desk and I'm always making new files and trying to organise myself and the truth of it is that when I start a new file or a folder and I feel very happy that I've organised myself, I then put it on the shelf and forget where it is.

If you if you have seen my bookshelves you will know that not only do I have all these books in my office I also have loads and loads of books on shelves in my house, in my bedroom, in my dining room, in the front room, even in the kitchen. Actually, even on the landing and in the hall...

However, I digress.

Something got into me today - I was really tired of having all this paperwork in triplicate around me so I pulled my wastepaper bin out from under the table and put it square and central in front of me.

Then the purge began. I threw out notes I'd made 10 years ago that I haven't used, I gathered all my clinical examinations notes together and made a new file on clinical examinations. I know where that one is because I've made a new space on top of a cupboard. On this cupboard I now have three very important files, one of them is clinical examination notes, the second one is a file to contain all my notes from my MSc in Mental Health Science with the Open University, and the last folder my file of Medical Neuroscience notes from my online course I did with Dukes University in the USA. Now they're in glorious isolation on top of my cupboard not on the bookshelf so I know where they are.

I have not anywhere near finished sorting out my stuff, but in that short hour I've started myself on a path to be radical and keep what I need readily to hand so I can find it. Hopefully I won't have to wait through piles of paperwork that I collected over a decade ago and haven't used.

It's true that if you have a lot of stuff physically around you it clogs your mental clarity.

So, this afternoon after my last patient is gone, I'm gonna keep the ball rolling and carry on throwing out paperwork that's redundant.

It may take a while…

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