“Poor man, he suffers from files.” Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health 1945-51, father of the NHS.
There are two main types of filing system: Black Hole and Open Cast. In the former everything is piled into a filing basket. Often the pile can be a foot deep. The disadvantage is that important and urgent things disappear under the weight of new paperwork and can be forgotten. The advantages are twofold: 1) you know that everything is in there somewhere; 2) it is space efficient.
With the Open Cast system folders are spread across every available surface. An obvious disadvantage is the space required. On the plus side, as long as folders are well labelled it is possible to find everything quickly.
The less imaginative minority will adopt a third approach and utilise a filing cabinet.
I try desperately to be part of this third group but run a parallel Black Hole system.
Then there are my computer files. This system defies categorisation. But I’ll be organised one day.
Nye Bevan would have admired me!
