alphabetAn associate of mine joked the other day about how I was so organized that I had my sock drawer alphabetized. Naturally I took the joke in the spirit of good-natured ribbing it was intended, but for many organizing systems I believe alphabetizing can do more harm than good.

Now don’t get me wrong, if you have items like old client files or CDs that are all the same type of thing, filing alphabetically makes the most sense, but more often than not, items including files are easier to find if saved by category.

The alphabet doesn’t provide helpful limitations and can be downright confusing. For example, do you save your auto insurance policy under “A” for auto, “I” for insurance, “P” for policies, “C” for car, or “F” for Ford? There’s a great old M*A*S*H episode where Hawkeye can’t find the map to the minefield because Radar had it filed under “B” for BOOM!

Filing alphabetically creates unnecessary restrictions. You may have your tax files stuffed into the back of the drawer under “T” which is not convenient this time of year. Filing by category, on the other hand, doesn’t restrict you in this way. You can move the tax category file to front and center, if it makes your life easier.

Filing alphabetically gives you a minimum of 26 tabs to look at. Many go unused, many get repeated. Either way, too many tabs may diffuse your focus and compromise findability. Findability is the whole point. If you file by category, you might be looking at 10 tabs instead of 50. Much easier to absorb.

Unless alphabetizing significantly improves your ability to find things, your organizing energies are generally better spent elsewhere.

I realize there may be much I’m not fully explaining about the file-by-category option, but that will be the subject of another post.