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A lovely colleague sent me this first tip. Marie Mushing runs a networking group called People in Connection
1. Make the area a showcase
See what working with a professional organizer can do for you? Professional Organizers rub out junk. Where there was once chaos and huge piles of paper, is now a showcase. Thank you Julie! Replace the junk pile with something pretty as I did, then you won’t want to pile junk on that again. Great motivation to keep the filing done!
2. Prevent drop zones from forming
If you have an empty flat surface it sometimes calls to people, “to fill me with stuff.” To prevent that area from becoming cluttered, put a large object or two in that spot. It will make the area feel full and then you won’t drop things there. With only 2 larger objects, it is easy to pick them up and dust and clean them. If you use a number of smaller items it may make the area harder to clean.
3. Designate a paper collection spot
Assign a place to put papers that need to be read, filed, signed etc. Place a tray, lovely baskets, eye catching red container etc in a convenient location. Why red? Red is a high energy colour, it increases your heart rate, and your eye is drawn to red items. Using a red basket can help to make dealing with paperwork a high priority activity. Keeping paperwork consolidated in one spot makes it easier to find and work with. When paper is all over the office or house it becomes visual clutter, causing anxiety, the release of cortisol and you feel stress. Cut the visual clutter, collect the paper in one spot, and complete the tasks.
4. Avoid the L word – later
Piles of paper will continue to build up if you leave them for later. Later will never come. Schedule time to deal with paperwork: schedule time to read, file, and reply to paperwork that generates more work. Schedule these activities according to your level of energy at different times of the day. Scheduling reading after lunch at a low energy time of the day may not be productive but scheduling filing after lunch may be perfect because it gets you up and active. Scheduling time at the beginning of each day to concentrate on work generated by email, letters, and documents might work well when you are able to focus on single tasks. Remember not to multitask.
Schedule time for paperwork
If you’re interested in learning how colour can affect your productivity, this guide is free and you can find it here.
What tricks do you use to help you complete paperwork?
Related articles The truth about multitasking
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, coaching you virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She uses her love of teaching to reduce clutter, in your home, office, mind and time. She guides and supports you to be accountable for your time, to complete projects and to reach your goals. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
Twitter – Facebook – Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space
R – Read
A – Act
F – File
T- Toss
Paperwork, e-mail messages and electronic files can overwhelm you making you feel stressed and ineffective. Step one is to open your mail or email. Step 2 is to have a system to process it. If information has built up, look at the creation date on the document and decide if is the most recent version. If the document was replaced by a more current version toss or delete the old versions. If the document can be replicated, retrieved or is obsolete toss it, shred it or delete it.
As documents arrive, paper or electronic decide:
R – Needs to be read or referred to later
If it will be read or referred to another person, place it in a folder (electronic or paper) labelled as read. If the document is to be used by another person forward it to the correct person.
A – Needs to be processed
If the document requires:
- an action to be taken,
- a decision to be made,
- a response conveyed or
- has a deadline
place it in a folder marked Act. Financial documents should have their own folder separate from the Act folder.
F – Needs to be filed
If the documents are completed but must be retained, then they are filed. If it is an electronic document forward it to the correct folder. If it is a paper document place it in a file or basket for filing at a later date.
T – Toss – Needs to be disposed of
Documents that you:
- no longer need,
- have no financial implications,
- are out of date,
- junk mail or
- a copy can be obtained elsewhere
can be tossed, deleted, recycled or shredded.
All of your electronic communications and paperwork are now filed as:
- Read
- Act
- File or
- Tossed
and are ready to be handled at a later time. Schedule time in your agenda/calendar to read documents, complete any action needed on documents and file paperwork. This system helps you to:
- know where documents are if someone has questions,
- allows you to manage your time effectively by scheduling your paperwork at times when you will be uninterrupted and
- be able to quickly locate the papers/documents you need to complete a task.
Although much of your information is paperless there is still a substantial amount of paper to control. Have 3-5 stacking trays or a desktopper with folders. Label the folders/trays: to do, to read, to file, refer to other people, and miscellaneous forms. File the paper correctly and schedule a time to process each folder.
At the end of the day:
- Clean off your desk, leaving only papers you are going to process tomorrow in a stack on your desk.
- In your calendar record the files you need to process. Place e-mails/documents to be worked on in a folder marked with the day of the week they will be processed
- Check your to-do files (paper and electronic) for items that need to be completed the next day
- Sort all other papers and documents into their appropriate trays/ folders.
Share how you prevent emails and paperwork from drowning you.
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, coaching you virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She uses her love of teaching to reduce clutter, in your home, office, mind and time. She guides and supports you to be accountable for your time, to complete projects and to reach your goals. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
Twitter – Facebook – Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space
Many people feel the only way to file paperwork is in a filing cabinet in filing folders. I like to say some people file horizontally using files and something to hold them. While other people use files and stack them vertically. Both types of people are doing the same thing in a different direction. Are you a filer (horizontal hanging files) or are you a piler ( vertically stacking files)? Learn about 5 ways you can keep your paperwork controlled.
1. Traditional Filing Cabinets
They come in many sizes and colours. Make sure to get one with drawer sliders so you can easily reach the back of each drawer. Some come with locks others do not. They can be vertical or horizontal. Horizontal cabinets provide a space to set things on, a printer, a plant etc. You can buy a stand that has wheels to set under the filing cabinet to make it easier to relocate.
2. Binders
Binders are a good solution for visual people. You can have them on a shelf and easily see all your files. The binders can be colour coded to make it simple to find the correct binder. Use dividers, pocket dividers or sheet protectors to file papers. Set up the categories you need: household bills, bank statements, warranties etc. Some binders also have a set of accordion files attached to the binder. Here is a review of this product.
3 Rolling Crates/ File Boxes on Wheels.
Use hanging folders and file folders. The advantage to this is you can take them to whatever room you want and the top is open so you can see the files easily. With the crates, you can stack them for easy storage.
Crates make your files portable
4. Expandable Files
Use one section for each category of paperwork. For example household bills, income tax, financial documents, insurance policies, warranties, etc. They are great to have one for each member of the family to store papers relating to them, report cards/school documents, immunization/health records, passport and other documents, certificates etc. You can also colour code these files.
Some come with special hooks so you can store them in a filing cabinet or crate.
5. Magazine holders
Magazine holders come in paper and plastic. They are available in many colours and patterns. Try to buy ones with solid sides so papers will not get caught and it can be hard to slide in. Use a holder for each category of paper you need to file. You can colour code your systems making it easier to quickly access the files you need. You can turn them so the spines are facing out, and label them, to reduce the visual clutter of seeing all the papers in each box.
What is your preferred method for filing paperwork? Tell me about your system.
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, coaching you virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She uses her love of teaching to reduce clutter, in your home, office, mind and time. She guides and supports you to be accountable for your time, to complete projects and to reach your goals. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
Twitter – Facebook – Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space
