Sunday, June 10, 2012

Irony in the paperwork jungle

I just love a good ironic moment.  A unique instance of irony is as good as a pun that makes you groan out loud.  (Sample pun from this year's algebra worksheets: Why did the boy sheep fall off the cliff when chasing the girl sheep?  He didn't see the ewe turn.  Awful, right?  Delightful!)  I heard a college professor say that puns are like porn for mathematicians, so I have a justification for my love of them.

So... here I am today, working my 15-minute shift in the miscellaneous papers bin.  This is the pile that went straight to recycle

Much of the bulk there was newspapers.  Of course I had to open each one and page through wondering, "Why did I save this?  Is something valuable in here?"  Nope.  Not a clue.

So this is the way the bin looks now, after many 15-minute sessions.
15-minutes at a time = a cleaner home office!

I slid the pile aside, and discovered this

"Taming the Paper Tiger", an organizational self-help book by Barbara Hemphill.  Ah, glorious irony!  I am pretty confident in saying, without having opened the book recently, that the author certainly doesn't recommend stuffing all your miscellaneous papers into a large bin and moving them about for years.  And definitely, the book on organizing said papers doesn't belong in the mix with the mess.

I see on Amazon that the author has updated this book, breaking it into "home" and "office" versions of taming paper.  Also there is a version for the digital age.  So maybe I can get rid of this book.  After all, my local public library has many of her more recent titles.

When I am ready to tackle the paperwork jungle in other than 15-minute increments.  Maybe set up some sort of system...

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