Condensing for Clarity

I’m an analog girl. Information gets lost on my computer. When a file or a document sits for a while on my desktop, it’s like I no longer “see” it. Because I take handwritten notes from articles and newsletters that I read online (I know, a bit backward…), I end up with lots of pieces of paper. I sometimes file them or rewrite them into notebooks (with no title or table of contents…). But my style of organizing doesn’t stop there.

In these paper file folders, I review the pages again and again. Sometimes I look up the website or practice the meditation or use the journal prompt to work through some obstacle. After looking at them for almost two years, I typed the information I decided was still relevant into a Word doc, and then printed it out. The printouts go into paper file folders where, at some point, I’ll read them again, decide to keep the information or not, maybe condense several pages onto one page, print it out, put it in a file folder… Am I alone in this?

I decided today that a goal for me, however long it takes, will be to reduce the amount of paper I have hanging around. I admit that I’ve held onto websites and product information so long that when I looked them up again, the companies were bought out or they no longer existed. I’ll always be an analog person adapting to a digital world. But it felt good to transfer about 20 pages to the recycle bin and handle only 3 printed pages. Progress! I have a ways to go, but I believe with condensing the information I’m holding onto, it will allow me to move forward with clarity instead of being paralyzed with too much information or too many habits to add to my day.

This is all part of me planning for 2024. Eliminating extraneous information, websites, books and authors, and at one time important words of wisdom about businesses clears my physical and mental space for writing. After much thinking about marketing and content creation, I’ve decided to continue with what I’ve been able to do. My biggest habit to add is a daily writing block of at least an hour. And yes, even that I do by hand! Haha! I feel a little lighter with those pages gone. I feel a little more clear about my 2024 intentions with a condensed to-do list. Do you prefer digital or paper when working with files or a calendar?