What it is
The Document Sweep is a once-a-quarter (or once-a-year) session where you gather every important physical and digital document you can find, scan/photograph anything physical, drop everything into one searchable folder, and stop trying to remember where things are.
It addresses a specific ADHD-shaped problem: you don't lose documents. You put them in seventeen "safe places" over five years, and now finding one specific thing takes an afternoon.
When to use it
- You can't find your tax docs, vaccination records, contracts, or birth certificate when you need them
- You have piles of paper and you flinch when you see them
- Multiple cloud storage folders all named "documents" / "important"
- You've recently spent an hour looking for one specific receipt or form
How to do it
- Pick one folder, one location. Could be a Google Drive folder, Dropbox folder, or local folder. It is now The Folder. You do not file things outside The Folder.
- Set aside a few hours, ideally with a body double. Half-day max.
- Gather every physical document you can find. Drawers, boxes, that pile on the desk. Sort into two piles: keep / shred.
- Photograph or scan each "keep" document. Phone camera + a scan app is fine. One photo per document. Name them roughly (you'll search later, you don't need a perfect taxonomy).
- Dump them all in The Folder. No subfolders if you can help it. Subfolders are how things get lost.
- Shred the originals you don't need physically. Keep birth certs, passports, etc.
- Trust search. Don't try to remember where anything is. Type a keyword into the folder's search.
An example
I had ten years of accumulated paperwork in four different boxes, three drawers, two filing cabinets, and a "miscellaneous" pile. Plus three cloud folders, all named "documents."
Spent four hours one Saturday. Scanned everything important, threw everything else out, made one folder in Google Drive called Records. No subfolders. Just a flat list of named files.
Two years later, I can find anything in 15 seconds by typing one keyword. I have stopped trying to remember locations. The search does the work.
When this fails
- You create subfolders. "Tax" / "Health" / "House" feels organised but you'll put the document in the wrong one and never find it. Flat folder, descriptive filenames, trust the search.
- You try to do it perfectly. You don't need to OCR everything or use a fancy taxonomy. Good enough beats perfect. The point is findability, not aesthetics.
- You keep filing things elsewhere afterwards. The technique only works if The Folder is the only destination from now on. Discipline matters here.
Try it this week
Block out a 2-hour starter session this weekend. Just do the digital folders. Consolidate everything into one folder, rename anything with a non-searchable name. Even partial cleanup beats the current state.