You might say that I am an information junkie.\u00a0 I love learning and there is so much out there I could learn.\u00a0 And it seems like it’s getting easier and easier to have access to a plethora of information – at your fingertips, whenever you want.\u00a0 I will hold myself back from a rant about the reliability of this information, yet with the Internet so accessible, there’s tons of information to be had.\u00a0 We might not stop and think about our collecting in this realm.<\/p>\n
Our collecting information might be fairly limited to certain topics or it might be more general.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter which one it is if you have a tendency to collect it.\u00a0 It’s relatively easy to collect information and physically less cluttered if it’s digital.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it\u2019s collecting in either form.\u00a0 We don’t see the space in the same way when it’s digital, yet this doesn’t mean it’s not getting cluttered.<\/p>\n
First, is your collecting of information getting in your way? How much time and energy are you spending on collecting this information? Are you referencing this information again? Can you find what you know<\/em> you saved when you want it again?\u00a0 Do you have guilt that you aren’t using the information you’ve collected?<\/p>\n Just like with most stuff that you can collect, if you are keeping it, you don’t want to be controlled by it.\u00a0 It’s there to serve and help you. Period. You also want to be able to easily find it.\u00a0 Since information these days is both physical and digital, it can be challenging to keep everything together. \u00a0(I’m moving strongly into the digital realm, as it’s searchable and saves paper.)\u00a0 It doesn’t matter which one suits you as long you make it work for you.<\/p>\n Sometimes this means taking a hard look at what your response is to information.\u00a0 Do you have a desire to collect it?\u00a0 If you collect it and then do something with it, then there\u2019s nothing wrong.\u00a0 If you seem to have information that you haven’t even looked at, it’s time to consider what matters in your life.\u00a0 Do you want to spend your time and energy going through and examining all that information? (Are you really going to make time and energy to do that?) More importantly, are you going to continue to collect information for this unknown future point when you will use it?<\/p>\n How much are you collecting because it “might be useful one day”? Do you lack the confidence that you could find the information when it became relevant?\u00a0 Have you thought about how fast information changes, so saving something that might<\/em> be relevant down the road might really be saving irrelevant information?<\/p>\n I struggle with these limits.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve already said, I love learning.\u00a0 When I look on my computer or at my papers, I\u2019ve been amazed by how much I\u2019ve saved.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to part with them \u2013 yet this is exactly what I\u2019ve been doing \u2013 examining what I\u2019ve kept and tossing what I can.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also made some changes in how I handle information: I\u2019m starting to scan certain things and I\u2019m re-organizing the digital information so I can access it more readily.<\/p>\n As with all organizing projects, I see it as a process.\u00a0 Your vision can change at any moment.\u00a0 Additionally, our first step really needs to be examining what we\u2019re collecting and considering what happens for us with collecting.\u00a0 Even the most organized person collects \u2013 it\u2019s what they do with the collecting that differentiates them.\u00a0 Is the information you are collecting worth your time and energy? Challenge yourself with your answer \u2013 it can open up a new way of viewing your stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We all collect something. Often collecting information can be more problematic \u2013 there are 2 kinds these days, the physical and digital, which means it can be clutter that\u2019s harder to see. Nevertheless, we approach it the same \u2013 examine what it is you\u2019re collecting and evaluate how this serves you \u2013 with your time and energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10,8,19,5,20,22,21,17],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personaldevelopment","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-hoarding","tag-household","tag-paperwork","tag-productivity","tag-school","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-hm","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}