Organizing Study Notes

Now, I love paper as much as the next crafter, but not when it's in piles of clutter laying around the house. That's where I've had to draw the line.

Piles of scrapbook paper are a completely different topic - something for another day.

The paper I'm talking about are bills and receipts and magazine clippings and ... you get the idea.

In an effort to tackle these paper monsters, I started a monthly filing system. I put all of the papers we receive for the month in one hanging file in the filing cabinet instead of separating them by company or organization. This works better for me personally because it's a little less daunting than taking the time to file each individual piece of paper in a different folder.

As I was working on this organizational system, I came across stack after stack of sermon and Bible study notes from church. We are given worksheets for each Wednesday night, adult Sunday school and morning sermon, so the stack grows quickly, especially when there are two of us in the house keeping notes.

Initially I was keeping all of them in a binder, but after a few months, that binder was full and I realized that wasn't going to work for very long.

Then I decided to type each set of notes into my iPad so I would have them handy. This took the better part of an hour each week, and I really didn't have a way to keep track of which one was which day or topic. I go back over them frequently, so finding specific pages is essential.

It came to me one day ... yes, it took a little while - that's how my brain works ... just take pictures of them with the camera of my iPad. I can take the photo the day I bring them home and they'll be identified on the photo by that day, making it incredibly easy to search for them. Plus, I'm saving time and energy by not inputting them by hand.

In addition, Danny and I can both get to them through our Dropbox, which is an amazing feature.

How do you organize your paperwork?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit
Read more