Today, I want to tell you the background story of the Radical Paperwork Optimisation approach – and why and how I developed it.
A little case study – My first ‘Important Documents’ Folder
I created my first ‘Important Documents’ folder more than twenty years ago when we made our first overseas move.
Some people compile an ‘emergency folder’.
As the name says, these collections of most essential paperwork are usually only taken out and used in cases of emergency – like when a natural disaster forces you to run out of the house and leave everything behind, or when unwanted experiences like illness or death turn life upside down.
I never liked the name, and my folder had, from the beginning, many more functions than just serving me in an emergency. That’s why I decided to call it my ‘ID (Important Documents) Folder’.
The ID Folder’s original purpose
I created my first ID Folder many years ago to ensure that our important personal documents were safe while we were moving to our far away new home country:
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- A single folder is easy to carry in hand luggage. If the ship with the containers containing all our belongings, including the boxes filled with paperwork, were to sink, we would still have all our important information.
- At that time, everyone depended and relied much more on physical paperwork than most people do today.
- We didn’t have smartphones to store and manage personal information, such as contacts, appointments, to-dos, notes, etc., digitally.
- And not only our ID documents like passports and driver’s licenses were kept in physical form, but most of our important paperwork was also just that: ‘paper’work (information on paper).
- I had some information stored on my computer, but that was not available while we were travelling (no cloud storage at that time) or if anything happened to the computer.
Since then, we have moved overseas several more times, and my ID Folder has always been part of my hand luggage, travelling with me on the plane.
So, the ID Folder continued to be the central and safe collection point for all our important information, but it also had other functions in our everyday lives, such as:
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- Quick access to important data/contacts/info – for example, if I needed our passport numbers to fill in a form, or our tax numbers for an investment application, etc.
- Archive for original documents for which we didn’t have a separate storage location—for example, originals of birth certificates, family registers, deregistration certificates from Germany, etc.
- Collection point for copies of important documents/identification cards, where the original cannot be filed as it is needed in daily life – for example, copies of passports and driver’s licenses, credit cards, Medicare cards, etc.
- Overviews of the main data of important contracts (with more complex documentation requirements) that were filed away in separate binders or archive boxes, such as lease agreements, financial investment reports, or insurance contracts.
- Overviews of important contacts (close and extended family, friends, key colleagues, neighbours, tax advisor, real estate agency, handyman, etc.).
- Collection point for ‘secret’ information such as the information needed to access electronic devices and online accounts.
- Collection point for ‘In Case of Emergency’ information like advance directives and powers of attorney, wills, funeral guidelines, and instructions on handling personal papers (e.g., my diaries, photos, and other sentimental personal stuff).
The ID folder served me well over many years because I knew I could always find the most important information easily and quickly whenever needed.
However, the fortunate fact that the ships transporting our belongings never sank during our moves had a downside.
Because EVERYTHING always arrived safely at our new home:
Not only my ID Folder but also all these other folders, binders, archive boxes, and filing cabinets filled with paperwork.
And I kept everything.
Wherever we lived, I always had too much paperwork stored in our home.
I just kept it all because I didn’t make deliberate decisions about what was truly important and what was not. To be safe, I didn’t throw out anything (or nearly nothing).
This is no longer the case – because I introduced the Radical Paperwork Optimisation concept in our household some years ago, and
I radically reduced our physical and digital paperwork.
Now, we have the VIP (Very Important Paperwork) Directory, which is the collection point for our very important information (similar to the ID Folder in the past).
In addition to the Directory, we now own only a few slim binders that hold some additional paperwork.
And I know that when we decide to move overseas again in the future, I will no longer have to carry the VIP Directory with me on the plane:
Its digital duplicate ‘lives’ in the cloud and is available to me wherever I go.
What about you?
Do you have a folder or a box or an area in your home that serves as the collection point for your important paperwork and personal information?
And, in case you moved houses in the past, how did you organise the transfer of your important documents and data?
Or, in case you plan to move, maybe downsize, in the near future – how will you ensure that you take along what’s important now (and not what was only important in the past)?
The creation of an ‘information collection point’ like the VIP Directory makes not only our own lives (and moving houses) easier.
In another article, I will tell you the other reason why I am such a big fan of the VIP Directory:
It helps us to take care of our loved ones and support them in challenging times (when something serious happens to us).
What we do today (organising our important information) will significantly help our family do what they need to do (managing our personal affairs) when we can’t do it any longer.
Do you feel inspired to create your own VIP Directory?
My article series, ‘Radical Paperwork Optimisation and the VIP Directory’, provides you with all the information and tools you need to start and complete the process successfully.