March 27, 2008

Paper Management 101

There's just no getting around it. Paper - in all its various colors, shapes and sizes - is a huge part of our daily lives and probably will be for a long time to come. Newspapers, magazines, flyers, letters and other correspondence, post-it notes, family-related paperwork, memos, invoices, client information, employee information, newsletters, forms - the list is endless.

In my experience as a Professional Organizer, paper is the number one organizing challenge facing most people today, but paper is just a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. The real problem is postponed decision making about what to do with the paper. Good paper management requires making those decisions in a timely way. Effective paper management also means developing a system to stop feeling guilty over yesterday's pile and do something about today's. For instance, when dealing with a backlog of unopened mail, start with today's mail, not unopened mail from months ago.

Every piece of paper in your life can be effectively managed by putting it into one of seven places:

The "To Sort" Spot should be the ONLY place papers are put until you can get to the sorting. Papers should never be put in more than one location; that's how the clutter and inability to find them starts. If your "To Sort" Spot is becoming a permanent home, you’re not sorting often enough. The expression "Handle a piece of paper only once" is impossible for most people, but it is possible and desirable to handle a piece of paper only once more after it has been placed in the "To Sort" Spot. Remember, this is just a temporary resting place. The paper should be there just long enough for you to determine what you need to do with it next.

There are only three decisions you can make about any piece of paper:
File, Act or Toss/Recyle. After you've tossed or recycled (and shredded, if necessary) whatever falls into those categories, all the papers you decide to keep will fall into one of two categories – Action or Reference.

Action papers are those papers you need to do something about. The tools you use for them are your Calendar, your "To Do" List and your Action/Current Pending Projects Files. Reference papers contain information you want or need to keep for the future. The tools you use for them are your Rolodex/Phone Book and your Reference (Active & Inactive) Files.

For your papers that need action, set aside a block of time (two to three hours), work uninterrupted for that time and stop when the time is up. It can be mentally and emotionally draining making decisions about things that need action. It's better to work in regular blocks of time than to get discouraged by the overwhelming number of items you have to deal with. Put all like things together so that you can make all phone calls at one time; write all letters at one time; answer all emails at one time; fax all at one time, etc. The sooner you take the appropriate action on your papers, the sooner they can be:

If the papers need to be filed there are three questions that need to be answered:

Filing is an unavoidable fact of life. If you don't already have a good file system, now is the time to create one that has personally meaningful categories, is totally responsive to your needs and provides you with a permanent "home" for all those homeless papers currently living on your desk, dining table, counter tops, floors, etc.

Keep in mind the distinction between Active & Inactive Files. Active Files are files you need to access regularly. Inactive Files are those you do not need to access very often, but which you must keep for record retention purposes (i.e., tax files) or want to keep for sentimental or personal reasons. If file cabinet space is limited, your Inactive Files should not be kept in your Active file space. They can be put into long-term storage files or boxes and tucked away on the top shelf of a closet or someplace else out of the way.

The primary purpose of a filing system is retrieval, NOT storage. Your filing system should be designed to help you find information, not just provide you with a place to store it. When you create your files ask yourself, “What would I look under to find this again?” and choose titles that will make sense to you later on.

Try thinking of your file system as an inverted pyramid. Start with the general and work your way to the more specific. For example, a general category called "FINANCES" can be sub-divided into the more specific "checking", "savings", "investments", "credit cards", "retirement plans", etc. A general category called "INSURANCE" can be sub-divided into the more specific "home or renter's", "auto", "medical", "dental", "disability", "long term care", "business", etc. A file system is a dynamic and ever-changing entity. If you find that any categories you have chosen become obsolete or aren't working well for you, change them or get rid of them. Once you have established categories that work for you, your file system should serve you well for a long time to come.

Remember to set aside a regular block of time each week (make a note in your Calendar) to catch up on filing. Keep the files you use as current as possible by setting aside time periodically (make a note in your Calendar) to go through them and throw out outdated material or move it to your Inactive Files. Putting a specific "Dispose After" date on each piece of paper before you file it will make purging your files a breeze.

Since paper is such a big and unavoidable part of our daily lives, being organized with your paper isn't an option, it's a necessity. The key to effective paper management is pulling the information that is important off the paper, doing what you need with that information and throwing or filing the paper away, all in a timely manner. You'll see the benefits in many ways. Life will be easier - which means happier and less stressful - and you'll have more time to do the things that you really want to do. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

 

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