Paper shredder-recomendation

[Blair]

Yes that's the one. Also thanks for that tip Tim Blair

[Mike Barnes]

One more piece of advice. Don't shred things immediately you think you've finished with them, because sod's law says you'll want to refer to one of them a little while later. I toss them into a plastic crate, and when the crate is nearly full I shred the lower half.

[Andy Hall]

I know people who handle their work that way.

The argument is that if nobody has pinged them for something in 3 months (or suitable timescale), it wasn't important anyway. Therefore, put a piece of paper as a date marker in the in tray and throw out the bottom month each month.

[Broadback]

Ah yes, and make sure that there is not an important piece of paper sandwich in the rubbish, sighs, he speaks from sad experience!

[Richard Conway]

I work like that to an extent. I think a lot depends on the kind of people you work with. I work with with the kind of people who will come up with ideas that they claim are of the highest priority, then when you've spent ages doing it they tell you its not really important any more and they don't actually want it - totally oblivious to the effort you've put in behind the scenes. I learnt long ago that with some people its best to wait until they mention something four or five times before taking them seriously - most of the time they mention it once and you never hear of it again.

Of course, you need a selection of excuses to hand for the odd time that someone asks how you're getting on with that thing they mentioned two weeks ago that they think you've been working on solidly but really you haven't touched.