Here at Freedman Towers a massive clearout has been underway for some time. (Unfortunately there is a still a long way to go, but that's another matter. Clearing out means looking at each item of accumulated paperwork and doing one of four things with it:
- Throwing it in the recycling bin.
- Scanning it and keeping it.
- Scanning it and shredding it.
- Shredding it.
I thought I'd share my thoughts on why this has proven to be a very useful exercise.
Terry's office, August 24. It’s a lot tidier now! Photo by Terry Freedman.
Although the evidence was literally right in front of my eyes, I had forgotten just how prolific I was. Nearly all of those box files contain my published articles — thousands of them. At one stage I was even turning out three books a year as well. And I was working full-time. I should like to think I had so much energy because my body is a finely-honed machine, but some of the explanation lies in the fact that I was subsisting on coffee, chocolate and cheese sadnwiches — and had the girth to prove it.
Some of my books. Photo by Terry Freedman.