Make it Manageable

The Traps of “Miscellaneous”

Whenever you decide to label something as “miscellaneous”, you’re falling into a trap of sorts. Whenever you tell yourself that you “can’t find anywhere this should be filed”, you’re falling into the same trap.

The traps that come with “miscellaneous” are many. A “miscellaneous” folder on your computer or in your filing cabinet is literally going to become a junk box, of things you don’t want to think about now and can’t be bothered dealing with right now. Oh, and for the record, that is not the problem.

The problem is that, within a matter of weeks or months (days if you’re incredibly unlucky), that folder is going to be so full of stuff that you won’t be able to put more in. You’ll know that you should probably sort through that now, find places for it’s contents, but more than likely you’ll create a second miscellaneous folder, and you will inevitably repeat the process when the second folder is full.
On top of that, should you require a file within the miscellaneous folder, chances are you won’t be able to find it amongst all the other “miscellaneous” junk, and you’ll have lost the file, and then you’ll be in some major trouble.

If you can’t find a home for something, be it an object or a file, MAKE ONE. Don’t cave to the temptation of simply shoving it somewhere and “dealing with it later”, because we all know you won’t. If you DO have a “miscellaneous” folder, take the time to empty it completely, and sort through it like you would your inbox of a day, and make homes for the things that still don’t quite fit in.

Don’t fall into the trap of using a “miscellaneous” folder. It’s one of the worst mistakes a person can make.