organize magazine articles

cut out some articles and stuffed them in a folder ha ha

but it’s a start :)

I sort of did this – I at least purged all the magazines I had squirreled away in various piles around the house. I now have only current mags (two, from this month) on the go, and a small, totally manageable box of articles to scan/read/recycle. I’ll get to those when I get to them. And if I don’t touch them in the next year, out they go regardless.

Feels great to be out from under the mag mountain!!

I see I’ve got only 12 hours left to complete this goal, and I think I’m down to about 8 magazines so it’s possible I’ll achieve it!! You know what though? It occured to me that the title is “Organize magazine articles” which isn’t really what I’ve been doing and I’m not AT ALL close to tackling that job! Nope, all I’ve been doing is tearing out the articles that inspire and interest me. I’ve thrown them all in a pile – not remotely organized!! So even though I’m going to complete this goal tomorrow, I thought I better ‘fess up that I kinda missed the mark on this one :+)

I have 38 mags to go, so I really can’t afford to shoot for any fewer than three a day for the next two weeks. I brought eleven to work today, thinking that it might be slow enough to do one or two during a break, but HA! I’ve been running non-stop since I got here!! I’ve only stopped to check in to my beloved 43T because I was starting to get grumpy and needed a fix :+) Will try to take a stab at three mags this aft or this evening.
_{what a stupid thing it is that I’ve created a sense of duty out of this task – ought to either be enjoyable or expendable – NOT a chore! duh.}

I went through eight more magazines over the past two days, which is great progress, but may not be great enough… time’s a-ticking! I have only 20 days left to complete this goal and I have at LEAST another 30 magazines to flip though. Several times over the last couple of weeks I’ve thought to myself “I should just throw the whole pile out and be done with it” but invariably I talk myself out of that option – seems I can’t stand the possibility of missing that one crucial article that will reveal to me the answers to all of life’s great mysteries :oP

Silliness aside, I must say that I’m quite excited about some of the articles I’ve pulled out lately – they all seem almost eerily timely in content relevant to where my head’s at these days – lots of stuff about ‘greening’, simplifying, breathing, quieting the mind, and sticking with a goal. Lots of good reading saved up for August!

Well, I’ve tried my 5-minute magazine blitz several times over the past few days, and while it IS efficient, I have a tough time staying within the 5-minute time limit. Takes at least 7 to 10 minutes to get through each mag – but hey, there are about a dozen mags in the bluebox this afternoon, so the plan is working to reduce the pile, and that’s the point!

I plan to try the following exercise: I will set a timer for five minutes, during which time I will flip through one magazine allowing myself to extract only up to five articles/pages. When time’s up, the magazine goes in the blue box – no extensions; too bad if I’m only half way through.
Obviously the benefit to this plan is that I can whip though a dozen mags in an hour, but on top of that, it puts real limits on just how much crap I allow myself to keep. That’ll be crucial in the second stage of this project, when I have to organizing them all for future reference.

For years I have been saving articles and recipes out of magazines and in fact, through busier periods in my life, I’ve just boxed up the whole mags themselves!!
Now, I’m overrun – I have binder upon binder of recipes that I HAVE NEVER TRIED…and do you know why I haven’t tried most of those recipes? Because there are too many to choose from!!! I get overwhelmed when I go through them, and wind up just settling on something tried’n’true!
And no, I don’t restrict myself to just recipes – I have an entire binder of health and fitness-related articles, another of all craft ideas, AND at least half a banker’s box of miscellaneous articles on things like … olives and olive groves; Gloria Steinem’s “What if women had penis envy”; and Everything you ever needed to know about composting.
Obviously, I need to exercise some discretion and purge some of this ‘data smog’, but you gotta admit – it’s a tall order!
Maybe I’ll start another day. hehe.