Back in the day, way way back in the day, when email was barely a thing and I don't even know if PDF was even invented yet, we got everything in the mail. Paper documents. I used to have a sort of filing system and mostly kept these documents in binders.
Then digital documents became all the rage. We were sold on the idea that going digital would save so many trees. Maybe it even did for a time. All the banks and government agencies and what-nots convinced us to sign up to receive digital copies instead of paper ones. Maybe some of them didn't even give us a choice. I didn't mind. I was on board. Keeping paper copies was cumbersome, took up physical space. 3-hole punching everything was tedious. Keeping paper in filing cabinets was so old-fashioned.
But I'm so over it!
Digital documents still take up space. Not physical space but space on my phone, in my email Inbox, on my external hard drive, in the "cloud". In my head! 🧠
Digital documents create digital clutter, except unlike physical clutter you don't see it. You're only aware of it when you get the dreaded "you have run out of space" message. I don't know about you but this state of constantly fighting to maintain a couple of gB of space gives me chronic low-level anxiety. That can't be good for my health.
And they said that digital documents would be searchable. They're not. They lied.
Plus, Idk, I'm just better with paper documents that I can physically handle and look at. I find it easier to look at and understand and do whatever mental work I am trying to do with the information on multiple sheets of physical paper, as opposed to trying to look at multiple windows of documents open on my computer screen. I'm not sure how to explain it but maybe you understand. It's the clicking and scrolling back and forth and losing the spot you're trying to look at that does my head in. Spreading the documents out on the kitchen table armed with a pen, highlighter and sticky tabs is so much easier for me 📑
So I'm slowly going back to keeping paper files, I think. Back into binders.
