Go back and read the relevant information you put into your contact manager. Compare it with the whole document. Don’t worry, you won’t have to do this for every document for the rest of your life. But first, to learn to trust yourself, you will.
Did what you entered really seem to summarize the document? If your boss called you tomorrow, could you refer to this computer file and give her the information needed? If you can truthfully answer “yes” to those two questions, you could get rid of the paper or e-mail right now.
You see, you have filed it, at least what was important. That’s another key concept. A filing cabinet is an extension of our memories If we all had photographic memories, we wouldn’t need to keep books, tapes, or files. Since we don’t, we “file”
some sort of hanger that will prompt us to go to a paper file to find something. Chapter 9 elaborates on filing systems.
I’m going to propose a general purpose filing technique here. Your exact filing system will depend on what kind of learner you are, covered in the next chapter. The following idea will work for anyone.
Trust Yourself
Leave a Comment