It’s a hard truth. But our life is filled with data. The time we are born, the day we have graduated, the occasion we got married… every step in our life is marked with some value. The `value` might be a date, time, money, percentage, score, distance... But every bit of such value is worth to be noted. And this is how…

Write it down:

Whenever you feel that you have something to remember for a long time… Just write it down. It might be the payment you have made or the date you have heard. Note the value in a book. If you don’t have a resource to write down, at least enter it as a draft in your message box. Open a few documents in your computer or allot a few pages in your diary to note down any important values. Right from the number of your Insurance policy to the percentage you’ve scored in graduation… jot down the past and present values that could play an important role in your life.

Folder:

Keep a folder to place your bills and documents. But make sure that you are not clubbing every bill into one whole bunch. That won’t serve the purpose and might lead to much confusion.  Segregation is as important as record keeping. Power, gas, tax, rent… deserve a safe place in our almirah.  Some of them can be safely discarded after a few years to avoid over pouring of bills.

Ask for more:

Whenever you get a chance of obtaining more than one copy of a certificate, request for multiple copies. Keep them safely in different folders. This assures as a backup if one of those copy gets lost. Copies like birth certificate can be obtained in duplicate by paying a few more rupees.

Note the serial:

This is the age of digital information. So whenever you obtain a certificate or an identity card with a serial number on it. Note down the serial number! It can really prove miraculous. When you lose the original copy, a duplicate can easily be available with the help of the serial No.  Having a serial No. would also help you in many ways. You can make any changes needed in your card, you can use the number in the online transactions.

Digital format:

These days most of the documents and bills are available in e-format. Don’t neglect to save the bills in e-format. It won’t cost you much. Moreover it would be a useful gesture to scan your paper documents and save them as digital copies. This would not only help you to provide them to the authorities whenever needed through online, but would let you have a record of the valuable information relating to those documents.

.....Nirjara