What’s happened to the idea of a paperless society? Didn’t “everybody” say computers would bring an end to paper? Guess what, paper’s still here and apparently is never going away — at least not in my lifetime.
But, you know, there’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to put your hands on a piece of paper you need. Because of disorganization and paper clutter, we’ve all spent too many hours searching for stuff and then even more precious hours waiting at the Social Security office or the Health Department or wherever it may be getting a duplicate copy. Or think about all the money you’ve wasted because you couldn’t find the receipt you needed to return something.
I’ve finally come up with a system that works for me.
1. The One Year Drawer: Years ago, I tried making separate files for everything, with the idea I would neatly file each day. Come tax time, I would whip out my files and have that miserable assignment done with quickly. Well, I did file every day, at least for the first couple of weeks in January. Now we have the One Year Drawer at our house. It’s a drawer in the kitchen where we throw everything we think might need come Uncle Sam’s favorite time of year. No, it’s not filed into categories. But it’s all there. Every last piece.
2. My personal in basket: David Allen, the personal productivity guru who wrote “Getting Things Done” gets the credit for this one. (David Allen is my hero — more on him in later posts.) I have one very large basket in my home office. Everything goes in there. The mail, the bills, clippings I want to keep, stuff I’m not sure about. Everything. The key is to actually go through your in basket at least once a week. At first, you’ll need an hour or so to do this, but as you keep it up, you’ll require less time. You don’t have to act on everything in your in basket each week, but you do have to look at everything. All the bills get paid on time that way.
3. Standing files: Our twins just graduated from high school. A yellow folder that says “school” has been on my kitchen desk since kindergarten. I have an attractive wicker file stand there. Each year, I’ve filled the folder with anything related to school, and each summer I’ve cleaned it out. This year, we’ve also had one that said “college.” (She wipes a few tears from her eyes.) All the ACT stuff, tuition deposits, orientation information has all gone in that one folder.
4. Work basket: I’m a freelance writer, and I work out of our home. Even though I have a home office complete with desk, fax, printer and all that kind of stuff, I frequently write on my laptop at the kitchen table or on the porch or sometimes propped up in bed. I have a linen basket that contains all my current writing projects. If I go out of town, all I have to do is pick up that basket, and my office can be anywhere.
There are lots more methods to handle paper, but these are four that have worked for me. What do you do to stay on top of the beast?
