CAR industry chaps have done me a massive favour, by switching to online press packs and USB stick image files.

See, I’m rubbish at throwing stuff away. Great at hoarding stuff, mind. Bad state of mind for a motoring journo – gorgeous press packs, lovely images, books, boxes, nice things, all sorts. Delivered every day. And so very keepable.

Throw in magazines, books, leaflets, partworks, this, that and everything else, and you’ve one bulging house full of stuff. Indeed, TWO houses: I’m selling my gaff, so am at my parent’s place, filling this up, too. Not good. So, inspired by Zen Habits, I’ve started – shock horror – throwing away.

You read right. Throwing away.

All was going well, until last week. Sorted stuff for the recycling dump, and left a complementary pile of must-absolute-dead-cert-keep alongside. Rubbish taken to the dump, I then, err, forgot about the life-changingly-important stuff. Went to the Tokyo Motor Show for a week. Came back today, and found it had… gone. This, too, had been chucked.

Filled with dread, as I discovered this, my life flashed before my eyes as I stumbled, staggered, swooned and succumbed to shock. For half an hour, I felt the world had plain come to an end.

Then it struck me. I hadn’t, actually, looked at that stuff for, maybe, five years. Yes, some of it was interesting, but would I really use it ever again? See, there is a Zen argument: got too much stuff? Put it in a box. If you then don’t look at it for six months, (or feel the need to in that time) throw it. No messin’. Just bin it.

I’m not quite at such an advanced stage yet, but maybe there’s a lesson there.

I kinda like keeping stuff because I think it’s knowledge and insight on file. And, thus, stored learnedness. Really, though, it’s nothing of the sort. If I’m not doing anything with it, for years on end, it’s next to useless. It’s not in my head, but instead there, waiting, redundant, useless.

Theodore Roosevelt was, apparently, a great speed-reader: he, though, devoured info, soaked it up, maybe made a few notes. He certainly didn’t keep everything. He chunked it then chucked it.

This, Ricardo here needs a new mindset. Don’t lazily keep stuff. Do something with it. Indeed, the very title of this blog tells me what to do.

In the future then, here’s a commitment. To really tell you what I learnt today. Rather than leaving it sitting in a cupboard, gathering dust.

So, if anyone has any advice on how I should adopt this new soak-up-and-chuck mindset, please share it with me; I’ll reflect on it, and do the same…

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