Organizing Update

More organization trauma, but I think I'll be ok.

Every spring I have to completely move out of the dorms, yes I still live in dorms, and haul my stuff over to wherever I'll be staying or my storage, yes I have a storage. This year, I brought most of it with me with the intentions of going through my papers and throwing out all the stuff I didn't really need and filing away my stuff so I'd know, definatively, where everything is.

The hard part: I have a lot of papers.

I am the type of person that keeps receipts from everything and I'll justify it by saying, "I'll go through them later and make sure it shows up the right way." Do I go through these and keep my promise by looking through my bank statements with receipts in hand? No. Of course not. I'd be crazy to do that. What I do is let them pile up. Then one day (ok, today) I go through my papers and say, "why did I keep this?" and throw away the things I'm trying to hard to justify why I'm keeping it.

I have my research projects, and print outs of this and that. I keep those. But the amount of stuff I had has dramatically decreased. I also have been making some of my stuff digital, which saves a lot of space.

I posted a comment on Academic Coachs blog about Organization Angst. As a future academic, I wonder what my stuff will be like. Then I hope that I get organized now, because it won't happen later if I don't start doing something about it. My schedule is pretty organized, because I have a palm pilot that helps me keep everything together. I syncronize it up with my Microsoft Outlook calendar, or at least what's supposed to be there, and put everything in there. To do lists galore, you wouldn't believe it.

The main thing about implementing a system for organization is that you have to be sort of dogmatic about it, you have to keep at it all the time otherwise your old habits will come back and with greater force. I find it helpful to look up what my weekly activities are on Sunday, that way I have a good idea of what lies ahead of me. I may never be "caught up" with all of the activities, assignments and other things I have to do, or want to do, but at least by keeping a good eye on what is urgent, I won't be overtly stressed during the fall semester. I had mentioned a site that I used for organizational ideas, Get Organized Now! (doesn't that sound empowering?). I receive their newsletter, once a week, it kinda reminds me to get organized (now... hehehe) and keeps me a little more on track than I'd normally be.

What do you do to keep organized? Or what is your opinion on what I've said about organization?