The “Misc.” Folder

I hope you had a great week! My week was good. It was filled with tons of meetings and conference calls. Tuesday of this week was the longest day. Ed and I had back-to-back meetings allllll day long.

Our last meeting of the day was with a guy named “Joey” (name changed for the purpose of this post!) who’s helping us with a project at work. The meeting went well. It lasted almost 2 hours long, most of which was Joey talking and Ed and I answering questions.

In the middle of the meeting Joey turned around to look something up on his computer. While he did that, Ed and I patiently waited while sitting in the two chairs across from his desk.

While we were quietly waiting for Joey to find the necessary information on his computer, my eyes started wandering off to his paper sorter and organization systems on his desk. And sure enough I caught the infamous “misc” folder sitting on the corner in a tall stack.

I immediately thought to myself, “Why do SO many people file papers away in file folders labeled ‘miscellaneous’? Don’t they understand this is the wrong system!?!”

My mind kept spinning after I saw the “misc” label and before I knew it a full 3 minutes had gone by and I had a full conversation inside my head about this file folder on Joey’s desk!

At that point I realized I had a lesson to share in my weekly email.

And that lesson is this: Avoid filing papers away in the “misc” folder. Nothing belongs in a folder labeled “miscellaneous.”

Why?

Well, when you file a paper away in a miscellaneous folder, you are really saying, “I can’t make a decision on what these papers are or where they go, so I might as well just call it “random” and deal with it later.”

And we all know what happens to this folder “later”….

Eventually we are forced (once again) to make a decision on the contents inside.

Think about it: how many times have you labeled something “misc” to find it weeks, months, or even years later and are left at that point to once again, make a decision on where those papers go.

It all comes down to decision making. And when you can’t make a decision the first time, it gets postponed. The second time, it gets postponed again, etc., etc., etc..

It’s like an endless loop of not being able to make decisions, all while time wastes away and productivity decreases.

So, skip the “misc” folder. Instead, spend the extra time figuring out a “real home” for your papers the first time around in efforts to save time and increase productivity.

When papers have a “real home,” they’re easier to find while the chances of them suddenly going “missing” are decreased.

So anyway, that’s how the week went here at Alejandra.tv!