Organize Less & Do More

I have eleven items in my email Inbox right now--and that's a lot. Everything else is either in a massive Archive folder or the Trash. When I stopped organizing my email into folders (or sub-folders or sub-sub-folders), I spent less time in my Inbox and got a lot more done.

Then I stopped organizing any paper at all.

For years I lugged two boxes of college notebooks with me from city to city, home to home. Every once in awhile I would fish through the boxes searching for handwritten notes or photocopied articles. There was some semblance of organization--folders for each course I took, organized chronologically--yet files had somehow leaped into the adjoining folders or boxes.

Now I use a search bar. It's already built into my email client and my operating system.

I tried scanning all the paper stuff myself. I setup my phone with a tripod and everything. One notebook in and an hour later, I decided to outsource.

I sent everything to Shoeboxed.com and had them scan it into Evernote for me. I still use them. I stuff everything--handwritten notes, greeting cards, post-its, bills, warranties, user manuals, (a lot of) receipts--into ShoeBoxed's folders and days later it's all searchable. Yes, even the handwritten notes.

It can sometimes be frustrating to remember an exact phrase or number to search for on the document: one time I couldn't find my latest glasses prescription, and had to go to google maps to find the name of my old optometrist to type into the search bar.

The energy expended to find what I need, though, is nothing compared to the mental exhaustion I used to experience in the past when organizing what I thought I might need.

In other words, I get a lot more done by organizing a whole lot less.