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As much as I might wish for a pristine, paperless office, I know it will probably never happen -- at least not in the foreseeable future. Paper is still a medium that can hold much more information and at better resolution than a computer screen. Plus, until they make digital paper than can accept fountain pens, I'll stick with the old-fashioned dead tree variety.
Of course you can have too much of a good thing. Sooner or later, you have to show the paper tiger who's boss. I used to make pilgrimages to a small Japanese stationery store in San Francisco and would marvel at the cool binder systems they carried for organizing projects and files. Unfortunately, they were all sized for European paper (A4, B5, etc.). Good ol' American 8.5" x 11" paper made for an awkward fit, and like many Japanese imports, the binders were expensive.
Enter a company called Bindertek that began when Stephan J. Schwartz, an attorney in international law, noticed the same thing I did in Japantown: His A4-totin' European clients organized their files in nifty two-ring binders rather than folders. Schwartz began importing those binders, but in American 8.5 x 11 sizes, and the result is Bindertek.
Why are two rings such an improvement? They allow for faster access removing and inserting documents into the binder, for one thing. They also allow you to locate documents within the binder by flipping down pages from the top to scan letterheads and page headers. The two-ring mechanism opens and closes with a small lever, which is pinch proof and easy to open and close. When you finish your project, you can use Bindertek's inexpensive archive clips to hold together your documents for filing. Then, you simply reuse the binder.
The binders themselves are sturdy board with a vinyl fabric coating that comes in some 20 colors. The binders come in a standard 3-inch capacity, or a slim 2-inch capacity. I find that the slim size is fine for most projects, but the standard is useful for large, complex, multi-phase projects. The prices are US$9.50 for the slim and $12.00 for the standard size, if you buy them a la carte. Bundled starter sets offer a discount and are a great way to explore which size work best for you.
If you've got various projects that cry out for organization, Bindertek is an excellent solution. It has all the elements that make for an effective filing system: easy to get documents in and out, flexibly designed for either storage or sorting, and easy to find specific documents. And the finger holes on the spines make the binders easy to fetch from a shelf. Bindertek has allowed me to grab the tail of that paper tiger and make "nice kitty."
- Eric Diamond [6/04/01]
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