For completed projects however, paper volume often decreases as project notes and reference materials can be sorted and discarded. Compared to 5-10 years ago, there is more paper in offices, but it is not necessarily stored as long. In many cases, there is a method to the visual madness. As tasks or projects move from beginning to end, related paper often moves physically across the workspace. Priority items are kept close at hand.
Projects waiting for inputs from others move to the side.
Completed projects move to storage cabinets, to more distant stacks in the workspace, or to digital forms. Individuals tend to have their own ways of organizing information and don t respond well to mandates or suggestions about right ways to do this. Some organize spatially, from right to left, left to right or up to down, etc. Some conceptually map items in their space and just always know where a specific project is located. Some alphabetize in formal filing systems, while others work chronologically locating items by when they come in, or are due.