A Thought about Organizational Systems

For me, it's more important that a system be easy to put things into than that it be easy to get things out of.

I'm willing to rummage through a fat folder of "2009 Medical Bills" to find one particular thing, as long as I'm confident that all medical bills from 2009 really are in that folder and aren't in some pile across the room. But I also know that if filing 2009 medical bills required making little piles by practitioner and labeling a new folder every time an Explanation of Benefits came in, probably the bills never got filed at all and are still in some pile across the room.

Hence: putting things into a system easily > getting things out of it in a hurry. Your mileage may vary. But if you're having trouble getting or staying organized, you might think about which side of the transaction is more important for you.