organization! organization?

I've been doing this blog for long enough that certain posts no longer have as much relevance as they used to. For example, in this post, I went on and on about my superior e-mail organization.

When I've spent several months in the field, working super-long hours, the whole printing out and sorting of e-mails into binders is a ridiculous idea. What actually happens in this case is that the e-mails pile up electronically until the system crashes from lack of memory. And then you do a frantic cull of everything that doesn't seem critical without printing because you either don't have a printer, your printer is actually the "complimentary business suite" at the hotel and cost $0.10 a page, or you have a printer, but it's a crappy inkjet that is almost out of ink. And three months later, you're wondering what the heck you agreed to back when you were buried with work.

I developed a project notebook-based organizing system that I was quite proud of about a year ago. It lasted until the most recent jag of fieldwork, when I only set foot in the office at the beginning or end of each workweek. Then the notebooks got buried under the piles of whatever got dropped off and wasn't critical at the time and I ended up resorting to a flurry of sticky notes - exactly what I was trying to avoid in the first place.