About a year ago, I decried the fully-digital office. Well, necessity is the mother of invention. As I enter the second decade of my career, carrying paper copies of every certificate and record has become a physical burden. I used to keep everything in a binder, roughly separated by category: Navy Reserve, maritime licensing papers, employer-specific files.
That binder became two binders, and categorization between topics was lost in the shuffle. So, I finally took the time to start removing the certificates that were simply irrelevant to my career: the expired papers, a pool operator's certificate, ABC Alcohol Server training.
What remained were licenses that hang on the walls of a learned professional's office: the Professional Engineer and Merchant Mariner's Licenses; sea service letters documenting the various ships I've worked aboard; certificates I will need to present to the ship's purser; annual Navy Reserve evaluations; copies of title to my home, my car, and gold coins. This winnowing of paperwork was healthy in the way that it increased my focus on what was important for the present and the future. I could let go of the trivial, and focus on key strengths and abilities.
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