I’m writing a tip on solutions getting to be more complicated than the problem they are meant to solve. For example, I once bought clips to clip together similar pairs of socks during the laundry. Dealing with the darned clip turned out to be a lot more hassle than just sorting and folding my socks in the first place.
In what areas do you have systems that you might not actually need? Here are some of mine:
- Tracking parts of my finances that aren’t tax or business-related, and that I never go back and look at. (E.g. tracking daily expenses but never actually printing a report to find out how I spend my money.)
- Sorting socks.
- Elaborate TO-DO management software.
- Labeling my bookshelves by subject but not actually filing my books that way.
- Scheduled “let’s discuss house finances” days that don’t happen.
What about for you?