Messy Folders

I adore my messy storage boxes.  I refuse to clean them up, insisting that I do need every single torn-out magazine article.  I do.

Which is why I feel vindicated by Steven Johnson’s “keep your folders messy” ideology:

The key is to capture as many hunches as possible, and to spend as little time as possible organizing or filtering or prioritizing them. (Keeping a single, chronological file is central to the process, because it forces you to scroll through the whole list each time you want to add something new.) Just get it all down as it comes to you, and make regular visits back to re-acquaint yourself with all your past explorations. You’ll be shocked how many useful hunches you’ve forgotten.

I am a hunch gatherer.  A hunch ruminator.  I love jotting down ideas on post-it notes and only returning to them a year later to figure out what I meant.  I am a bookmarker, a screen-shot taker, a page-ripper-outer.

Drop in a box.  Drop in a box.  Drop in a box.

I think that is why I love my bullet journal so much.  When I have an idea, something I want to explore, I mark an empty square next to the idea.  About once a month, I go back and look for all the empty squares and tackle some of the ideas in blog posts or emails or research.  If I feel the idea is done, I check the box.  If the idea still needs to be explored, I leave it empty so I can find it again in the future.

Do yourself a favour this year: start a bullet journal.  Carry it with you.  Make sure you update it.

Who knows what you’ll find that you didn’t even know you were looking for.