Leisure Reading: Taming the Paper Tiger at Home
Taming the Paper Tiger at Home by Barbara Hemphill.
I came across the book at a bookstore. I did not buy it but stood there to leaf it through. Like too many similar books, the principles are the same: get rid of the “some day I may need this” thought, throw the unnecessary paper, decide upon touching a piece of paper, and develop a filing system.
What makes this book interesting is the filing system it proposes. Instead of labelling each file by its functional content (bills, tax, etc), the book suggests simply numbering the files from 1 to whatever you need. A computer program is used to list out the files, file #1 is for bills, file #2 is for letters, and so on. For each item you also need to key in some keywords. The keywords for bills are gas, electricity, etc. When you need to look for a piece of paper, just look at the list. If you forget where the item is categorized, use the computer search ability to search through the list.
The shortcoming of the traditional filing by category method is that there will be so many items do not square into a category. Over time, you forget where a particular item is categorized. The Paper Tiger system overcome such shortcoming by making use of the modern technology - computer search power.
The system also makes adding a new category very easy. Just have some empty files at hand, whenever a new category is needed. Put the item in an empty file, numbered it, and key in the computer.
The book recommends the “Paper Tiger Software” developed by the writer’s company. The software does not come with the book. A trial version can be downloaded from the writer’s website (www.thepapertiger.com). However, I think that any spread sheet will do the trick.
The filing method worth a try.
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