overcoming bad hoarding habits tip.

[nudone]

this isn't rocket science and you'll have to forgive me if it's already been said several times before elsewhere, anyway, here goes...

yet again, i appear to have collected a pile of magazines that i've only glanced through or not even attempted to read at all. why buy them then you may ask. well, i intended to read them eventually, just like many of us collect webpage favorites that are never looked at again i suspect that collecting printed material that just gathers dust is just as common.

part of the attraction and addiction of collecting/hoarding material that is never used is that you at least experience that short burst of 'knowledge is power' sensation - that little thrill that you will be better prepared when the times comes - and so, it is difficult to stop the habit.

of course, after a while the collection grows to such a size that it's physical presence is just an annoyance and the fact that you still haven't read any of it just reminds you that you probably never will.

so, what to do?

get a sharp knife, get the magazines, pick one up and flick through it. see something that looks interesting? good - then cut it out. see something else that looks interesting? good - cut that out too.

now throw the magazine away and pick up another mag from the pile and repeat the process.

you should eventually end up with a nice set of articles that will be worth reading. the extracted pages won't take up much room and they will almost scream at you for attention - so you'll read them. if they are worth keeping then hang on to them - they won't take up much room.

there is an advantage to this hoarding method and that is you don't waste time reading the 'news' sections or other nonsense gossip pages - it's all out of date and is utterly pointless to look at now - so you'll only be reading the bits that are worth it.

[cranioscopical]

you should eventually end up with a nice set of articles that will be worth reading. the extracted pages won't take up much room and they will almost scream at you for attention - so you'll read them. if they are worth keeping then hang on to them - they won't take up much room.

And, speaking from experience, you'll never look at the stuff in the folder, either.  So, put those pages through the document feeder on your scanner and create .pdf's of them... then throw out the folder and its contents.  It's easier to look up this stuff on your machine.

[nudone]

well, i do admit i did think about scanning everything in. i haven't simply because i thought it would take too long, i.e. i could be doing something else and, of course, having them on the computer doesn't mean i'll read them either.

i shall have to ponder on it. i guess it would be better to have everything in one place - i just don't like the idea of how long it will take.

how about this instead...

it's an obvious suggestion but with all the extracted pages, you could pick out a couple of articles to take with you when you know you will be going somewhere and there will be time for you to read.

the fact that there will only be a few pages means you'll easily be able to fold them up and carry with you (stick in your back pocket). it's less cumbersome than taking the magazine (or couple of magazines) with you.

in fact, i really like that idea. portable entertainment without the need for batteries and it's allowing you to get through a backlog of stuff you haven't read.

(that must have been said several times already on lifehacker or somewhere - it's so obvious.)