Just feel like being nit-picky today. These are things that are very important. Well, to me.

This might be a Peter Drucker idea, although I don’t really remember where I got it. Just sounds like him. Put a date on everything! A real date, including year. If only I could retroactively teach this to my ancestors. Amazing how many documents I find that have only a month and day for date. Or worse, no date at all. History items with no way to know when written, and often even who wrote the piece.

For at least 20 years, I’ve made it my habit to put a full date on everything. Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, that date goes at the top right. I wish all the old print photographs I have had a date on them!

How about Staples vs. Paperclips?

Not directly related to the above, except it’s just a good habit. Again, might be a Drucker thing. Staples are good, paperclips are bad. Paperclips have a bad habit of letting go of things they should hold onto, and holding onto things that weren’t intended to be together. There are probably some semi-funny quotes on that.

There’s also a right and wrong place to put a staple. Near the corner, near the edge, parallel to the edge. Diagonal is common. Why?

For another day, why do we in the US put dates in MM/DD/YYYY order? It makes no sense! YYYY/MM/DD would be ideal because it sorts so well, or DD/MM/YYYY fits because it’s least significant to most significant. Oh well.