Of all the chores that need to be done, filing is not one of the harder ones. I mean, you pick up a piece of paper, look at what it is and then drop it in the relevant folder/file. Insurance paperwork into the insurance file. Bank statement into the bank file. It’s not rocket science, physically exerting, brain aching or dirty work.
And yet I procrastinate about filing by doing other jobs which are exactly those things.
I don’t understand why. I tell myself it will only take 10 minutes. But still I put it off. Then it’s a 20 minute job. 30 minute job. Until I am forced to do it because either I need one of those bits of paper and can’t find it or the towering stack of filing is in danger of toppling. Which is where I am now. So this weekend I am going to have to file.
Do you procrastinate about filing? I hope I’m not the only one!
October 13, 2021 at 10:32 pm
I think with filing its the monotony of it. Like you said, its not exciting or anything. Unless the documents have juicy information on them that you can “accidentally” read whilst putting them away haha.
October 17, 2021 at 9:57 pm
Ugh, nothing in my filing is juicy. It’s just boring stuff like insurance certificates and the like (and I still haven’t done the filing, lol).
October 17, 2021 at 10:02 pm
LOL oh AJ!!
October 14, 2021 at 12:47 am
This is one of the things I struggle with. Sometimes it’s the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality that makes me want to keep it handy so I don’t forget to deal with it. Sometimes it’s the idea of putting it in a file to take to the correct place all at once with other items.
I’ve been trying really hard to adopt the mindset of “don’t put it down; put it away,” and when I keep that in mind, it really helps me to just do the doggone thing. It’s still not a natural thing for me, though, haha.
October 17, 2021 at 9:59 pm
That’s a great mantra, Lynda. I would love to think I could adopt it myself, but I know me too well and no matter my intentions I don’t think I would succeed. At the moment my method is to put it on my desk beside the keyboard so it gets in my way in the hope irritation succeeds, lol.
October 14, 2021 at 6:54 am
It depends upon the definition of the word ‘procrastinate’. Mine, it’s in stacks on the filing cabinet.
October 17, 2021 at 10:00 pm
I don’t have a filing cabinet anymore as there is no room in the office. I have two boxes which are in the bottom of a cupboard which is a little hard to get to – part of the reason why I think I procrastinate.
October 14, 2021 at 8:28 am
Oh my, yes. I created a box in which to store bits of paper (mail, receipts, time sheets, car repair stuff, etc) so it wouldn’t clutter up the place while I don’t file what needs to be filed (and trash what I don’t actually need to keep). I let it gather for 6 months (read: 8 months) before I finally lose it and go through and deal with it all.
But I bought a shredder this summer with the plan of going through the files and getting rid of that which I don’t need to store. (I had pay stubs from 2008.) I got started, and then got busy working again. Sigh. But I have now forced myself to go through the stack once a month (read: once every 6 weeks). I’ve been pretty good about it since August. (We’ll see. Next Sunday is the next time I’m due to go through it.)
Good luck.
October 14, 2021 at 11:23 am
Liz, I can relate to the shredder! We live in a rural area, so we tend to burn a lot of stuff, but there are times (like during the winter) when we’re really not doing any large fires and everything piles up. We got a shredder and started the laborious process of shredding all those old tax documents in the attic that were 30 years old, pay stubs, medical benefit claim forms, etc. It felt like it took forever, but every time we sat down to talk over coffee, we’d shred more papers and eventually we got caught up. Now we shred the labels on junk mail and any store receipts as soon as they come in the door, and everything else goes in the recycling bin or is filed away. It’s not perfect, but it’s SO much better than it was.
October 17, 2021 at 10:02 pm
Lynda, I would have thought winter was the *perfect* time to be burning things 😉
October 18, 2021 at 3:32 am
Unfortunately, we have way too much snow to find a dry spot to burn things in the winter. And no fireplace in the house. Boo hoo!
October 17, 2021 at 10:01 pm
I’m glad I’m not the only one who does that. Last summer I had to go through all my files and shred things that were old because there was just no room to add anything more. My little shredder can only take 4 pages at a time so it was quite a painful experience. I promised myself I’d stay on top of it form then on, but that didn’t last long, lol.
October 16, 2021 at 5:55 am
My mom loves to say there are “pilers” and there are “filers”. I’m a bit of both. I try to keep up on shredding, too. My sons used to love to burn all their school papers at the end of the year, and I envied how they could throw anything on the fire without even looking at it! I have to make decisions about everything.
October 17, 2021 at 10:03 pm
Oh, see, I still have all the kids school books in boxes in the storeroom which also needs to be sorted through. I don’t even want to think about that so I’m now going to stick my fingers in my ears and close my eyes!